Replace hql w/ a hbase-friendly jirb or jython shell
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Key: HBASE-487
URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HBASE-487
Project: Hadoop HBase
Issue Type: Wish
Reporter: stack
Priority: Minor
The hbase shell is a useful admin and debugging tool but it has a couple of
downsides. To extend, a fragile parser definition needs tinkering-with and new
java classes must be added. The current test suite for hql is lacking coverage
and the current code could do with a rewrite having evolved piecemeal. Another
downside is that the presence of an HQL interpreter gives the mis-impression
that hbase is like a SQL database.
This 'wish' issue suggests that we jettison HQL and instead offer users a jirb
or jython command line. We'd ship with some scripts and jruby/jython classes
that we'd source on startup to do things like import base client classes -- so
folks wouldn't have to remember all the packages stuff sat in -- and added a
pretty-print for scanners and getters outputting text, xhtml or binary. They
would also make it easy to do HQL-things in jruby/python script.
Advantages: Already-written parser with no need of extension probing deeper
into hbase: i.e. better for debugging than HQL could ever be. Easy extension
adding scripts/modules rather than java code. Less likely hbase could be
confused for a SQL db.
Downsides: Probably more verbose. Requires ruby or python knowledge ("Everyone
knows some sql"). Big? (jruby lib is 24M).
I was going to write security as downside but HQL suffers this at the moment
too -- though it has been possible to sort the updates from the selects in the
UI to prevent modification of the db from the UI, something that would be hard
to do in a jruby/jython parser.
What do others think?
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