I think the patch just updates the doc as of now, not changing any code to affect the existing usage.
Sorting depends on the underlying implementations. Linux *ls *implementation returns alphanumerically sorted array by default ( Current implementation might have assumed from here to sort by default, just guessing ...) . But have some other options to sort on different attributes. Java's *File.listFiles() *javadoc specifies as follows: *There is no guarantee that the name strings in the resulting array will appear in any specific order; they are not, in particular, guaranteed to appear in alphabetical order. * So the current change is inline with Java's FileSystem API atleast. So IMO, its fine to commit the javadoc update. -Vinay On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 3:51 PM, Steve Loughran <ste...@hortonworks.com> wrote: > > HADOOP-12009 (https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HADOOP-12009) patches > the FS javadoc and contract tests to say "the order you get things back > from a listStatus() isn't guaranteed to be alphanumerically sorted" > > That's one of those assumptions which we all have, but which, when you > think about it, doesn't have to be guaranteed. > > I'm going to commit the patch with the updated docs. Before I do that, > does anyone have any objection -that is, is there some fundamental > constraint which requires it to come back sorted? Such as the FS APIs and > other apps which do expect that sorting, and which are going to break if > the rules change? If so, they may need to be looked at. > > -Steve >
