[HADOOP-554] hadoop dfs command line doesn't exit with status code on error

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 0.8.0
• Assignee: Dhruba Borthakur
• Reporter: Marco Nicosia
• Created: 21/Sep/06 18:05
• Updated: 08/Jul/09 16:42
• Resolved: 24/Oct/06 21:33

Description

In DFSClient, the code looks like:

---- >8 ----

int exitCode = -1;
...
try {
if ("-put".equals(cmd) || "-copyFromLocal".equals(cmd))

{ copyFromLocal(new Path(argv[i++]), argv[i++]); ... exitCode = 0;; }

catch (IOException e )

{ System.err.println( cmd.substring(1) + ": " + e.getLocalizedMessage() ); }

finally

{ fs.close(); }

return exitCode;

---- 8< ----

Point 1: Few, if any of the functions called throw an exception. Instead they System.err.println and return.
Point 2: exitCode, regardless if there is an exception, is always 0.

At minimum, it would be best if SOME status code were returned, so that any scripts calling hadoop dfs would know to parse the output.

At best, there'd be a well-documented table of exit codes so that parsing stderr wouldn't be required.