[HDFS-609] Create a file with the append flag does not work in HDFS

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Blocker
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 0.21.0, 0.22.0
• Fix Version/s: 0.21.0
• Hadoop Flags: Reviewed
• Assignee: Thomas White
• Reporter: Hairong Kuang
• Created: 10/Sep/09 00:47
• Updated: 24/Aug/10 20:49
• Resolved: 22/Jun/10 04:16

Description

HADOOP-5438 introduced a create API with flags. There are a couple of issues when the flag is set to be APPEND.
1. The APPEND flag does not work in HDFS. Append is not as simple as changing a FileINode to be a FileINodeUnderConstruction. It also need to reopen the last block for applend if last block is not full and handle crc when the last crc chunk is not full.
2. The API is not well thought. It has parameters like replication factor and blockSize. Those parameters do not make any sense if APPEND flag is set. But they give an application user a wrong impression that append could change a file's block size and replication factor.

Issue Links

• is blocked by: HADOOP-6826 Revert FileSystem create method that takes CreateFlags
• relates to: HADOOP-5438 Merge FileSystem.create and FileSystem.append