Cloudera Docs

Handling Data Files

You must know how to recursively load the data files, for transactional tables, that are not stored directly within the partition directories, but instead are stored within subdirectories corresponding to writeIds, compactions, etc.

In CDP 7.x, Impala includes files within subdirectories. If you must restore to the old behavior and recursively load file lists within partition directories, you can use the Safety Valve to add the property --recursively_list_partitions in Impala service as shown in this task. This change can be done either per table or globally.

To make the changes globally:
  1. In Cloudera Manager > Clusters select the Impala service. Click Configuration, and search for Impala Command Line Argument Advanced Configuration Snippet (Safety Valve).
  2. In Impala Command Line Argument Advanced Configuration Snippet (Safety Valve) add the value --recursively_list_partitions=false.
  3. Save the changes and restart the Impala service.
To make the changes on individual tables:
  1. In CLI, enteralter table tablename set tblproperties('impala.disable.recursive.listing'='true'); refresh tablename;