Difference between --warehouse-dir and --target-dir commands in sqoop

Question

I could not understand the difference between the following commands in sqoop. It would be better if someone could explain with small examples.

 --warehouse-dir and --target-dir 

Thanks

Answer 1

As I got in case of import:

--warehouse-dir : It create a directory which works as database directory (sqoop_db_movies) and table name (as given in import command) directory automatically created with imported files with in warehouse dir(database directory).

Example: sqoop import --options-file /home/cloudera/sqoop/conn --table movies --warehouse-dir /sqoop_db_movies -m 1

Output as:

/sqoop_db_movies/movies

/sqoop_db_movies/movies/_SUCCESS

/sqoop_db_movies/movies/part-m-00000

--target-dir: It create a directory which work as table name (sqoop_table_movies) with imported files.

Example: sqoop import --options-file /home/cloudera/sqoop/conn --table movies --target-dir /sqoop_table_movies -m 1

Output as:

/sqoop_table_movies/_SUCCESS

/sqoop_table_movies/part-m-00000

Answer 2

Below parameter points to default hive table location.It can be used for dev purpose, where you just want to perform some tests on internal tables.

--warehouse-dir

Below parameter points to some hdfs location, where you can mount external hive tables.This is useful in production environment, where you want every data to be available to some external dir and external table.

--target-dir