[GitHub] [spark] brkyvz edited a comment on issue #25206: [SPARK-28265][SQL] Add renameTable to TableCatalog API

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brkyvz edited a comment on issue #25206: [SPARK-28265][SQL] Add renameTable to TableCatalog API
URL: https://github.com/apache/spark/pull/25206#issuecomment-517827869
 
 
   I'm in favor of being able to rename tables across namespaces. The V2SessionCatalog can reject such an operation (validate that the namespaces match), since the HiveMetaStore wouldn't allow it. 
   Thinking from a use cases standpoint, I like the example that @mccheah gave around ACLs. Also  imagine having an object store catalog. Moving an entire table from `dir1/dir2/abc` to `dir3/abc` would be a valid operation. On HDFS or Azure Data Lake Gen2, these would be very quick operations.
   Spark is not an RDBMS therefore I don't see a reason for constricting the functionality to RDBMS behavior as long as the new behavior we're allowing isn't more confusing or could cause users to shoot themselves in the foot.
   
   The kind of use cases I see are:
   ```sql
   ALTER TABLE a RENAME TO b;                      -- regular RDBMS behavior 
   ALTER TABLE dev.a RENAME TO prod.               -- fail
   ALTER TABLE hdfs.dev.a RENAME TO hdfs.prod.a;   -- ensure prod is a namespace
   ```

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