Hi Vince, External tables shouldn't issue copy or move commands to your data files. You should define the base table location to '/logs', and issue alter table commands to add partitions for each date.
Example: CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE logs ( Data STRING ) PARTITIONED BY (cal_date STRING) ROW FORMAT DELIMITED FIELDS TERMINATED BY '\t' LINES TERMINATED BY '\n' LOCATION '/logs'; ALTER TABLE logs ADD IF NOT EXISTS PARTITION (cal_date = '2011-09-01') LOCATION 'log-2011-09-01'; Matt Tucker Associate eBusiness Analyst Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online Ph: 407-566-2545 Tie: 8-296-2545 From: Vince Hoang [mailto:vho...@cafepress.com] Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2011 3:47 PM To: user@hive.apache.org Subject: Partitioning EXTERNAL TABLE without copying or moving files Hi, I am running Hive 0.7.0 with Hadoop 0.20.2. I have one HDFS folder full of web server logs dated back several months. Is possible to partition an EXTERNAL TABLE without copying/moving files or altering the layout of the directory? For example, in HDFS, I have: > /logs/log-2011-09-01 > /logs/log-2011-09-02 > ... > /logs/log-2011-12-01 I'd like to know if it's possible to partition the EXTERNAL TABLE by date without having to create subdirectories: > /logs/2011-09-01/log-2011-09-01 > /logs/2011-09-02/log-2011-09-02 > ... > /logs/2011-12-01/log-2011-12-01 Is it possible? Thanks, Vince The contents of this message, together with any attachments, are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed and may contain information that is confidential and exempt from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message, or any attachment, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the original sender immediately by telephone or by return E-mail and delete this message, along with any attachments, from your computer. Thank you.
