Copying files from HDFS to Local

We can copy files from HDFS to local file system either by using copyToLocal or get command.

• hdfs dfs -copyToLocal or hdfs dfs -get – to copy files or directories from HDFS to local filesystem.
• It will read all the blocks using index in sequence and construct the file in local file system.
• If the target file or directory already exists in the local file system, get will fail saying already exists

Syntax of the command is:
hdfs dfs -get <hdfs path> <local path>
hdfs dfs -copyToLocal <hdfs path> <local path>

hdfs dfs -get /user/`whoami`/retail_db /home/`whoami`

hdfs dfs -copyToLocal /user/`whoami`/retail_db /home/`whoami`