[HIVE-2126] Hive's symlink text input format should be able to work with ComineHiveInputFormat

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 0.8.0
• Hadoop Flags: Reviewed
• Assignee: He Yongqiang
• Reporter: He Yongqiang
• Created: 22/Apr/11 19:06
• Updated: 16/Dec/11 23:57
• Resolved: 26/Apr/11 20:55

Description

at compile time, if a partition's file format is SymlinkTextInputFormat, will replace the symlink path with paths in the symlink file. This way, it will work with Hive's HiveCombineFileInputFormat.

The reason we are doing it at compile time is because:
1) At run time, the input path is not only used to get record reader, but also used for hive to get aliases and thus operator tree. But the CombineHiveInputFormat can have multiple paths for each split, and when switching paths, it also set the job with new input file name. So it always require a real input path name. Can not fake it.
2) if write a new input format, it will require a lot of duplication work with existing CombineHiveInputFormat.