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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/AVRO-160?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=12768766#action_12768766
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Philip Zeyliger commented on AVRO-160:
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bq. Note that the only change permitted to a schema as a file is written is to, 
if it is a union, to add new branches at the end of that union. If it is not a 
union, no changes may be made. So it is still the case that the final schema in 
a file can read every entry in the file and thus may be used to randomly access 
the file.

For some reason, I thought you could go from 

 { "type": "record", "name": "foo", "namespace": "foo", "fields": [{ "name": 
"x", "type": "string" }] } 

to 

  { "type": "record", "name": "foo", "namespace": "foo", "fields": [{ "name": 
"x", "type": "string" }, {"name": "y", "type": ["null", "string"] ] }

(That is, adding an optional extra field within some record, not just modifying 
the top-level.)

Is that not the case?

> file format should be friendly to streaming
> -------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: AVRO-160
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/AVRO-160
>             Project: Avro
>          Issue Type: Improvement
>          Components: spec
>            Reporter: Doug Cutting
>
> It should be possible to stream through an Avro data file without seeking to 
> the end.
> Currently the interpretation is that schemas written to the file apply to all 
> entries before them.  If this were changed so that they instead apply to all 
> entries that follow, and the initial schema is written at the start of the 
> file, then streaming could be supported.
> Note that the only change permitted to a schema as a file is written is to, 
> if it is a union, to add new branches at the end of that union.  If it is not 
> a union, no changes may be made.  So it is still the case that the final 
> schema in a file can read every entry in the file and thus may be used to 
> randomly access the file.

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