Hive table for a single file: CREATE/ALTER TABLE differences

[Dmitry Tolpeko]

​
​I accidentally noticed​​ one feature:
(it is well know
​n​
that in CREATE TABLE you must specify a directory for the table LOCATION
otherwise you get: "Can't make directory for path 's3n://dir/file' since it
is a file.")

But at the same time, ALTER TABLE SET LOCATION 's3n://dir/file' works fine.
​ SELECT also reads data from the single file only. ​

I see this in Hive 1.0.0-amzn-4.

Is this just a bug and
​will
 be fixed
​ some day​
(or maybe already fixed) or it is for some reason, and will stay?

Thanks,
Dmitry