Files & Directories (KiFS)

Kinetica, via KiFS, provides support for staging files within the database for subsequent ingestion. The file structure consists of a single layer of top-level directories, with each file contained within one of those directories. File names can contain / characters to give the appearance of existing under a hierarchy of one or more sub-directories.

Directory features accessible via SQL include:

File features accessible via SQL include:

For directory permission management, see:


CREATE DIRECTORY

Creates a new KiFS directory under which files can be uploaded and used for data loading.

CREATE DIRECTORY Syntax 
1

CREATE DIRECTORY '<directory name>'
ParametersDescription
<directory name>Name of the directory to create.

For example, to create a directory, kdata:

CREATE DIRECTORY Example 
1

CREATE DIRECTORY 'kdata'

DROP DIRECTORY

Removes an existing KiFS directory.

DROP DIRECTORY Syntax 
1
2

DROP DIRECTORY [IF EXISTS] '<directory name>'
[WITH OPTIONS ('<option name>' = '<option value>'[,...])]
ParametersDescription
<directory name>Name of the directory to remove.
IF EXISTSOptional error-suppression clause; if specified, no error will be returned if the given directory does not exist.
WITH OPTIONS

Optional indicator that a comma-delimited list of option/value assignments will follow.

OptionDescription
recursive

Whether to delete all files contained within the directory:

  • false (default) - only drop the directory if empty; return an error if the directory contains files
  • true - drop the directory and all files in it

For example, to delete a directory, kbackup:

DROP DIRECTORY Example 
1

DROP DIRECTORY 'kbackup'

To delete a directory, kdata, and all files in it, suppressing the error if it doesn't exist:

DROP DIRECTORY with Files Example 
1
2

DROP DIRECTORY IF EXISTS 'kdata'
WITH OPTIONS ('recursive' = 'true')

SHOW DIRECTORY

Outputs the DDL statement required to reconstruct the given KiFS directory or all KiFS directories.

SHOW DIRECTORY Syntax 
1

SHOW DIRECTORY < '<directory name>' | * >
ParametersDescription
<directory name>Name of the existing directory for which DDL will be output. Use * instead to output DDL of all directories.

Note

The response to SHOW DIRECTORY is a single-column result set with the DDL statement as the value in the DDL column.

For example, to output the DDL for a directory, kdata:

SHOW DIRECTORY Example 
1

SHOW DIRECTORY 'kdata'

To output the DDL for all directories:

SHOW DIRECTORY (All Directories) Example 
1

SHOW DIRECTORY *

DESCRIBE DIRECTORY

Outputs detail about one or all KiFS directories.

DESCRIBE DIRECTORY Syntax 
1

DESC[RIBE] DIRECTORY < '<directory name>' | * >
ParametersDescription
<directory name>Name of the existing directory for which detail will be output. Use * instead to output detail of all directories.

Note

The response to DESCRIBE DIRECTORY is a four-column result set:

  • DIRECTORY_NAME - name of the directory
  • CREATED_BY - user ID of the user who created the directory
  • CREATION_TIME - date/time at which the directory was created
  • PERMISSION - highest level of access to the directory the command issuer has

For example, to output the detail about a directory, kdata:

DESCRIBE DIRECTORY Example 
1

DESCRIBE DIRECTORY 'kdata'

To output the detail for all directories:

DESCRIBE DIRECTORY (All Directories) Example 
1

DESCRIBE DIRECTORY *

UPLOAD FILE

Uploads file(s) local to the database client into KiFS, within the given directory.

Note

This command is only available through KiSQL or database clients configured with the Kinetica JDBC driver.

UPLOAD FILE Syntax 
1
2

UPLOAD FILE[S] <file path(s)>
INTO '<kifs path>'
ParametersDescription
<file path(s)>

Local path(s) of the file(s) to upload to KiFS, as a comma-separated list of single-quoted file paths; wildcards (*) can be used to specify a group of files.

File PathOutcome
'archive/*.csv'Upload all files under the archive directory with a csv extension
'data/q1.csv','data/q2.csv'Upload q1.csv & q2.csv that reside under the data directory
<kifs path>

Path in KiFS; this can be either the name of a directory or a directory followed by virtual subdirectories separated by / characters.

For example, uploading a file named 2021.q1.csv to:

  • 'data' - will upload it to the data directory and make it available as data/2021.q1.csv
  • 'data/sales/Q1' - will upload it to the data directory and make it available as data/sales/Q1/2021.q1.csv

Note

Only the directory specified within this path must exist for the upload to succeed. Any virtual subdirectories added to this path do not need to exist before uploading.

For example, to upload a file to directory, kdata:

UPLOAD FILE Example 
1
2

UPLOAD FILE '/tmp/data/products.csv'
INTO 'kdata'

To upload several files to a directory, kdata:

UPLOAD FILES Example 
1
2

UPLOAD FILES '/tmp/data/p*.ssv', '/tmp/data/employee.*'
INTO 'kdata'

DOWNLOAD FILE

Downloads file(s) from KiFS into a local directory.

Note

This command is only available through KiSQL or database clients configured with the Kinetica JDBC driver.

DOWNLOAD FILE Syntax 
1
2

DOWNLOAD FILE[S] <kifs file path(s)>
INTO '<local directory>'
ParametersDescription
<kifs file path(s)>

KiFS file(s) to download to the local file system, as a comma-separated list of single-quoted file paths.

File PathOutcome
'archive/products.csv'Download archive/products.csv
'data/q1.csv','data/q2.csv'Download q1.csv & q2.csv that reside under the data directory
<local directory>Local directory path into which files will be downloaded.

For example, to download a KiFS file to a local directory, /tmp/data:

DOWNLOAD FILE Example 
1
2

DOWNLOAD FILE 'kdata/products.csv'
INTO '/tmp/data'

To download several KiFS files to a local directory, /tmp/data:

DOWNLOAD FILES Example 
1
2

DOWNLOAD FILES 'kdata/products.ssv', 'kdata/employee.parquet'
INTO '/tmp/data'

DROP FILE

Deletes an existing KiFS file.

DROP FILE Syntax 
1

DROP FILE[S] [IF EXIST[S]] <kifs file path(s)>
ParametersDescription
<kifs file path(s)>KiFS file(s) to delete, as a comma-separated list of single-quoted file paths.
IF EXIST[S]Optional error-suppression clause; if specified, no error will be returned if the given file(s) do not exist.

For example, to delete a KiFS file:

DROP FILE Example 
1

DROP FILE 'kdata/products.csv'

To delete several KiFS files, suppressing the error if any don't exist:

DROP FILES Example 
1

DROP FILES IF EXIST 'kdata/products.csv', 'kdata/employee.parquet'

DESCRIBE FILE

Outputs detail about one or all KiFS files.

DESCRIBE FILE Syntax 
1

DESC[RIBE] FILE[S] <kifs path(s)>
ParametersDescription
<kifs path(s)>

Name(s) of existing directories and/or files for which detail will be output, as a comma-separated list of single-quoted paths.

PathOutcome
'archive'Output detail of all files under the KiFS directory archive.
'data/q1.csv','data/q2.csv'Output detail of q1.csv & q2.csv that reside under the data directory.

Note

The response to DESCRIBE FILE is a four-column result set:

  • FILE_NAME - name of the directory
  • SIZE - size of the file in bytes
  • CREATED_BY - user ID of the user who created the file
  • CREATION_TIME - date/time at which the file was created

For example, to output a listing of all files under the KiFS directory, kdata:

DESCRIBE FILE Example 
1

DESCRIBE FILE 'kdata'

To output a listing of specific files under the KiFS directory, kdata:

DESCRIBE FILES Example 
1

DESCRIBE FILES 'kdata/products.csv', 'kdata/employee.parquet'