Details
-
Improvement
-
Status: Closed
-
Minor
-
Resolution: Invalid
-
1.4.0
-
None
Description
When a newcomer (like me), goes through the docs, there are several places where examples encourage to read the input data using the env.readTextFile() method.
This method variant does not take a second argument - character set (see https://ci.apache.org/projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.4/api/java/org/apache/flink/streaming/api/environment/StreamExecutionEnvironment.html#readTextFile-java.lang.String-). This versoin relies (according to Javadoc) on " The file will be read with the system's default character set. "
This behavior is also default in Java, like in the java.util.String.getBytes() method, where not supplying the charset mean - use the system locale or the one which JVM was started with (see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64038/setting-java-locale-settings). There are two ways to set locale prior to JVM start (-D arguments or set LC_ALL variable).
Given this is something a new Flink user may not know about, nor he wants to spend hours trying to find the environment-related bug (it works on localhost, but in production the locale is different), I would kindly suggest a change in documentation: lets migrate examples to use the two-argument version of readTextFile(filePath, charsetName).
I am open to criticism and suggestions. The listing of readTextFile I was able to grep in docs is:
./dev/datastream_api.md:- `readTextFile(path)` - Reads text files, i.e. files that respect the `TextInputFormat` specification, line-by-line and returns them as Strings. ./dev/datastream_api.md:- `readTextFile(path)` - Reads text files, i.e. files that respect the `TextInputFormat` specification, line-by-line and returns them as Strings. ./dev/libs/storm_compatibility.md:DataStream<String> text = env.readTextFile(localFilePath); ./dev/cluster_execution.md: DataSet<String> data = env.readTextFile("hdfs://path/to/file"); ./dev/batch/index.md:- `readTextFile(path)` / `TextInputFormat` - Reads files line wise and returns them as Strings. ./dev/batch/index.md:- `readTextFileWithValue(path)` / `TextValueInputFormat` - Reads files line wise and returns them as ./dev/batch/index.md:DataSet<String> localLines = env.readTextFile("file:///path/to/my/textfile"); ./dev/batch/index.md:DataSet<String> hdfsLines = env.readTextFile("hdfs://nnHost:nnPort/path/to/my/textfile"); ./dev/batch/index.md:DataSet<String> logs = env.readTextFile("file:///path/with.nested/files") ./dev/batch/index.md:- `readTextFile(path)` / `TextInputFormat` - Reads files line wise and returns them as Strings. ./dev/batch/index.md:- `readTextFileWithValue(path)` / `TextValueInputFormat` - Reads files line wise and returns them as ./dev/batch/index.md:val localLines = env.readTextFile("file:///path/to/my/textfile") ./dev/batch/index.md:val hdfsLines = env.readTextFile("hdfs://nnHost:nnPort/path/to/my/textfile") ./dev/batch/index.md:env.readTextFile("file:///path/with.nested/files").withParameters(parameters) ./dev/batch/index.md:DataSet<String> lines = env.readTextFile(pathToTextFile); ./dev/batch/index.md:val lines = env.readTextFile(pathToTextFile) ./dev/batch/examples.md:DataSet<String> text = env.readTextFile("/path/to/file"); ./dev/batch/examples.md:val text = env.readTextFile("/path/to/file") ./dev/api_concepts.md:DataStream<String> text = env.readTextFile("file:///path/to/file"); ./dev/api_concepts.md:val text: DataStream[String] = env.readTextFile("file:///path/to/file") ./dev/local_execution.md: DataSet<String> data = env.readTextFile("file:///path/to/file"); ./ops/deployment/aws.md:env.readTextFile("s3://<bucket>/<endpoint>");
