random seeks during write in HDFS

[Hassen Riahi]

Hi,

We are trying to execute a mapper making a random access during  
writing files. It seems that HDFS supports only random seek during  
read and not during write (neither the file modification). Is it  
right? we are using hadoop-0.20. If it is the case, is there any plan  
to support it in the future?

The limitation described above makes the mapper failing to write  
files. Is there any suggestions to bypass this limitation? such as  
write files in a temp area and copying them then to HDFS?

Thanks for the help,
Hassen