[HIVE-3973] Misleading error message for DROP TABLE IF EXISTS when derby is in read-only mode

• Type: Bug
• Status: Open
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 0.9.0
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Marc Limotte
• Created: 01/Feb/13 16:52
• Updated: 01/Feb/13 16:52

Description

Mis-leading error message implies that hive does not respect the IF EXISTS clause for DROP TABLE.

Here's what it looks like from the hive shell:

hive> DROP TABLE IF EXISTS ashgafjhg;
FAILED: Error in semantic analysis: Table not found ashgafjhg

Doesn't matter what the table name is.

Turns out the real issue was that the Derby metastore was already in use. Other commands were throwing this error:

A read-only user or a user in a read-only database...

DROP TABLE should show the error about the read-only user, which is more helpful than the misleading error about "Table not found".