Both documentation[1] and prior JIRAs[2] suggest that TRUNCATE on EXTERNAL tables is NOT supported and must error out except when it is FORCED [3]. It is NOT the behavior I see in 4.1, so I open JIRA [4].
Thank you, Vlad [1] https://hive.apache.org/docs/latest/languagemanual-ddl_27362034/ - truncate-table<https://hive.apache.org/docs/latest/languagemanual-ddl_27362034/#truncate-table> [2] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HIVE-16324 [3] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HIVE-4367 [4] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HIVE-29054 On 7/1/25, 5:23 AM, "Stamatis Zampetakis" <zabe...@gmail.com <mailto:zabe...@gmail.com>> wrote: CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you can confirm the sender and know the content is safe. Hi Vlad, I am pretty sure that Hive 4.x does not support TRUNCATE for most kinds of EXTERNAL tables. For instance, I don't think we handle JDBC, HBase, Kudu, and other similar kinds of EXTERNAL tables. I see some tickets [1] and code that implies that we handle some cases but I assume that support remains very limited. Unfortunately, the respective documentation [2] does not seem to be up to date. If anyone has a better idea of the current state of things it would be nice to update the documentation page as well. Best, Stamatis [1] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HIVE-4367 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HIVE-4367> [2] https://hive.apache.org/docs/latest/languagemanual-ddl_27362034/#truncate-table <https://hive.apache.org/docs/latest/languagemanual-ddl_27362034/#truncate-table> On Mon, Jun 30, 2025 at 5:02 PM Rozov, Vlad <vro...@amazon.com.inva <mailto:vro...@amazon.com.inva>lid> wrote: > > Hi All, > > Does Hive 4.x support truncate on EXTERNAL tables? I can’t find any JIRA that > enables that functionality except for > https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HIVE-16324 > <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HIVE-16324> that suggests that Hive > 3.x does not support such truncate. If yes, can you point me to the JIRA/PR > that enables it? > > Thank you, > > Vlad > >
