If you use hive-thrift/hive-service you can get the location of a table through the Table API (instead of Dean's horrid bash-isms)
http://hive.apache.org/docs/r0.7.0/api/org/apache/hadoop/hive/metastore/api/ThriftHiveMetastore.Client.html#get_table(java.lang.String, java.lang.String) Table t = .... t.getSd().getLocation() On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 9:41 AM, Dean Wampler <dean.wamp...@thinkbiganalytics.com> wrote: > I'll mention another bash hack that I use all the time: > > hive -e 'some_command' | grep for_what_i_want | > sed_command_to_remove_just_i_dont_want > > For example, the following command will print just the value of > hive.metastore.warehouse.dir, sending all the logging junk written to stderr > to /dev/null and stripping off the leading "hive.metastore.warehouse.dir=" > from the stdout output: > > hive -e 'set hive.metastore.warehouse.dir;' 2> /dev/null | sed -e > 's/hive.metastore.warehouse.dir=//' > > (No grep subcommand required in this case...) > > You could do something similar with DESCRIBE EXTENDED table PARTION(...) > Suppose you want a script that works for any property. Put the following in > a script file, say hive-prop.sh: > > #!/bin/sh > hive -e "set $1;" 2> /dev/null | sed -e "s/$1=//" > > Make it executable (chmod +x /path/to/hive-prop.sh), then run it this way: > > /path/to/hive-prop.sh hive.metastore.warehouse.dir > > Back to asking for for metadata for a table. The following script will > determine the location of a particular partition for an external > "mydatabase.stocks" table: > > #!/bin/sh > hive -e "describe formatted mydatabase.stocks partition(exchange='NASDAQ', > symbol='AAPL');" 2> /dev/null | grep Location | sed -e "s/Location:[ \t]*//" > > dean > > On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 4:59 PM, Parag Sarda <psa...@walmartlabs.com> wrote: >> >> Hello Hive Users, >> >> I am writing a program in java which is bundled as JAR and executed using >> hadoop jar command. I would like to access hive metadata (read partitions >> informations) in this program. I can ask user to set HIVE_CONF_DIR >> environment variable before calling my program or ask for any reasonable >> parameters to be passed. I do not want to force user to run hive megastore >> service if possible to increase reliability of program by avoiding >> external dependencies. >> >> What is the recommended way to get partitions information? Here is my >> understanding >> 1. Make sure my jar is bundled with hive-metastore[1] library. >> 2. Use HiveMetastoreClient[2] >> >> Is this correct? If yes, how to read the hive configuration[3] from >> HIVE_CONF_DIR? >> >> [1] http://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.hive/hive-metastore >> [2] >> >> http://hive.apache.org/docs/r0.7.1/api/org/apache/hadoop/hive/metastore/Hiv >> eMetaStoreClient.html >> [3] >> >> http://hive.apache.org/docs/r0.7.1/api/org/apache/hadoop/hive/conf/HiveConf >> .html >> >> Thanks in advance, >> Parag >> > > > > -- > Dean Wampler, Ph.D. > thinkbiganalytics.com > +1-312-339-1330 >
