[jira] [Created] (ARROW-474) Create an Arrow streaming file fomat

["Nong Li (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

Nong Li created ARROW-474:
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             Summary: Create an Arrow streaming file fomat
                 Key: ARROW-474
                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ARROW-474
             Project: Apache Arrow
          Issue Type: Improvement
            Reporter: Nong Li


It would be helpful to have a file/container layout that allows for streaming consumer and producers of arrow data.

As a motivating example, a reader could have this API:
Iterator<Record> read(java.io.InputStream source). 
Similar a writer can have:
void write(RecordBatch, java.io.OutputStream dest)

The streams can be from a variety of sources: it be files, over the network, shared memory, pipe, etc. The layout would make it possible to implement
both APIs without requiring intermediate buffering. 

Speaking with Julien, this involves creating a simple container format similar to ARROW-264 but suitable for streaming consumer and producers. The layout in ARROW-264 has the schema at the end so can't be used in a streaming way. This format would likely be a rearranging of the current File layout pieces, something similar to:

MAGIC, schema, totalBatches, (RecordBatchHeader, RecordBatchBody)*, MAGIC (or some end marker)

totalBatches is optional for streaming producers that don't know.



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