The File System (FS) shell includes various shell-like commands that directly interact with the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) as well as other file systems that Hadoop supports, such as Local FS, HFTP FS, S3 FS, and others. The FS shell is invoked by:
bin/hadoop fs <args>
All FS shell commands take path URIs as arguments. The URI format is scheme://authority/path. For HDFS the scheme is hdfs, and for the Local FS the scheme is file. The scheme and authority are optional. If not specified, the default scheme specified in the configuration is used. An HDFS file or directory such as /parent/child can be specified as hdfs://namenodehost/parent/child or simply as /parent/child (given that your configuration is set to point to hdfs://namenodehost).
Most of the commands in FS shell behave like corresponding Unix commands. Differences are described with each of the commands. Error information is sent to stderr and the output is sent to stdout.
Usage: hdfs dfs -appendToFile <localsrc> ... <dst>
Append single src, or multiple srcs from local file system to the destination file system. Also reads input from stdin and appends to destination file system.
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and 1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -cat URI [URI ...]
Copies source paths to stdout.
Example:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -chgrp [-R] GROUP URI [URI ...]
Change group association of files. The user must be the owner of files, or else a super-user. Additional information is in the Permissions Guide.
Options
Usage: hdfs dfs -chmod [-R] <MODE[,MODE]... | OCTALMODE> URI [URI ...]
Change the permissions of files. With -R, make the change recursively through the directory structure. The user must be the owner of the file, or else a super-user. Additional information is in the Permissions Guide.
Options
Usage: hdfs dfs -chown [-R] [OWNER][:[GROUP]] URI [URI ]
Change the owner of files. The user must be a super-user. Additional information is in the Permissions Guide.
Options
Usage: hdfs dfs -copyFromLocal <localsrc> URI
Similar to put command, except that the source is restricted to a local file reference.
Options:
Usage: hdfs dfs -copyToLocal [-ignorecrc] [-crc] URI <localdst>
Similar to get command, except that the destination is restricted to a local file reference.
Usage: hdfs dfs -count [-q] [-h] <paths>
Count the number of directories, files and bytes under the paths that match the specified file pattern. The output columns with -count are: DIR_COUNT, FILE_COUNT, CONTENT_SIZE FILE_NAME
The output columns with -count -q are: QUOTA, REMAINING_QUATA, SPACE_QUOTA, REMAINING_SPACE_QUOTA, DIR_COUNT, FILE_COUNT, CONTENT_SIZE, FILE_NAME
The -h option shows sizes in human readable format.
Example:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -cp [-f] [-p | -p[topax]] URI [URI ...] <dest>
Copy files from source to destination. This command allows multiple sources as well in which case the destination must be a directory.
'raw.*' namespace extended attributes are preserved if (1) the source and destination filesystems support them (HDFS only), and (2) all source and destination pathnames are in the /.reserved/raw hierarchy. Determination of whether raw.* namespace xattrs are preserved is independent of the -p (preserve) flag.
Options:
Example:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -du [-s] [-h] URI [URI ...]
Displays sizes of files and directories contained in the given directory or the length of a file in case its just a file.
Options:
Example:
Exit Code: Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -dus <args>
Displays a summary of file lengths.
Note: This command is deprecated. Instead use hdfs dfs -du -s.
Usage: hdfs dfs -expunge
Empty the Trash. Refer to the HDFS Architecture Guide for more information on the Trash feature.
Usage: hdfs dfs -get [-ignorecrc] [-crc] <src> <localdst>
Copy files to the local file system. Files that fail the CRC check may be copied with the -ignorecrc option. Files and CRCs may be copied using the -crc option.
Example:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -getfacl [-R] <path>
Displays the Access Control Lists (ACLs) of files and directories. If a directory has a default ACL, then getfacl also displays the default ACL.
Options:
Examples:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and non-zero on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -getfattr [-R] -n name | -d [-e en] <path>
Displays the extended attribute names and values (if any) for a file or directory.
Options:
Examples:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and non-zero on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -getmerge <src> <localdst> [addnl]
Takes a source directory and a destination file as input and concatenates files in src into the destination local file. Optionally addnl can be set to enable adding a newline character at the end of each file.
Usage: hdfs dfs -ls [-R] <args>
Options:
For a file returns stat on the file with the following format:
permissions number_of_replicas userid groupid filesize modification_date modification_time filename
For a directory it returns list of its direct children as in Unix. A directory is listed as:
permissions userid groupid modification_date modification_time dirname
Example:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -lsr <args>
Recursive version of ls.
Note: This command is deprecated. Instead use hdfs dfs -ls -R
Usage: hdfs dfs -mkdir [-p] <paths>
Takes path uri's as argument and creates directories.
Options:
Example:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -moveFromLocal <localsrc> <dst>
Similar to put command, except that the source localsrc is deleted after it's copied.
Usage: hdfs dfs -moveToLocal [-crc] <src> <dst>
Displays a "Not implemented yet" message.
Usage: hdfs dfs -mv URI [URI ...] <dest>
Moves files from source to destination. This command allows multiple sources as well in which case the destination needs to be a directory. Moving files across file systems is not permitted.
Example:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -put <localsrc> ... <dst>
Copy single src, or multiple srcs from local file system to the destination file system. Also reads input from stdin and writes to destination file system.
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -rm [-f] [-r|-R] [-skipTrash] URI [URI ...]
Delete files specified as args.
Options:
Example:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -rmr [-skipTrash] URI [URI ...]
Recursive version of delete.
Note: This command is deprecated. Instead use hdfs dfs -rm -r
Usage: hdfs dfs -setfacl [-R] [-b|-k -m|-x <acl_spec> <path>]|[--set <acl_spec> <path>]
Sets Access Control Lists (ACLs) of files and directories.
Options:
Examples:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and non-zero on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -setfattr -n name [-v value] | -x name <path>
Sets an extended attribute name and value for a file or directory.
Options:
Examples:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and non-zero on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -setrep [-R] [-w] <numReplicas> <path>
Changes the replication factor of a file. If path is a directory then the command recursively changes the replication factor of all files under the directory tree rooted at path.
Options:
Example:
Exit Code:
Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -stat URI [URI ...]
Returns the stat information on the path.
Example:
Exit Code: Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -tail [-f] URI
Displays last kilobyte of the file to stdout.
Options:
Example:
Exit Code: Returns 0 on success and -1 on error.
Usage: hdfs dfs -test -[ezd] URI
Options:
Example: