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h1. What is Apache Hive
The {tm}[Apache Hive|http://hive.apache.org]{tm} data warehouse software facilitates querying and managing large datasets residing in distributed storage.  Built on top of {tm}[Apache Hadoop|http://hadoop.apache.org]{tm}, it provides
 * toolsTools to enable easy data extract/transform/load (ETL)
 * aA mechanism to impose structure on a variety of data formats
 * accessAccess to files stored either directly in {tm}Apache HDFS{tm} or in other data storage systems such as {tm}Apache HBase{tm}
 * queryQuery execution via MapReduce

Hive defines a simple SQL-like query language, called QL, that enables users familiar with SQL to query the data. At the same time, this language also allows programmers who are familiar with the MapReduce framework to be able to plug in their custom mappers and reducers to perform more sophisticated analysis that may not be supported by the built-in capabilities of the language.  QL can also be extended with custom scalar functions (UDF's), aggregations (UDAF's), and table functions (UDTF's).

Hive does not mandate read or written data be in the "Hive format"---there is no such thing. Hive works equally well on Thrift, control delimited, or your specialized data formats.  Please see [File Format|DeveloperGuide#File_Formats] and [SerDe|http://www.slideshare.net/ragho/hive-user-meeting-august-2009-facebook] in the [Developer Guide|DeveloperGuide] for details.

Hive is not designed for OLTP workloads and does not offer real-time queries or row-level updates. It is best used for batch jobs over large sets of append-only data (like web logs). What Hive values most are scalability (scale out with more machines added dynamically to the Hadoop cluster), extensibility (with MapReduce framework and UDF/UDAF/UDTF), fault-tolerance, and loose-coupling with its input formats.

h1. General information about Hive
 * [Getting Started|GettingStarted]
 * [Presentations and Papers about Hive|Presentations]
 * [A List of Sites and Applications Powered by Hive|PoweredBy]
 * [FAQ|User FAQ]
 * [hive-users mailing list|http://hive.apache.org/mailing_lists.html#Users]
 * Hive IRC Channel: {{#hive}} on irc.freenode.net
 * [About this wiki|AboutThisWiki]

h1. User Documentation
 * [Hive Tutorial|Tutorial]
 * [HiveQL Language Manual (Queries, DML, DDL, and CLI)|LanguageManual]
 * [Hive Plug-in Interfaces - User-Defined Functions and SerDes|HivePlugins]
 * [Guide to Hive Operators and Functions|LanguageManual UDF]
 ** [Functions for Statistics and Data Mining|StatisticsAndDataMining]
 * [Hive Web Interface|HiveWebInterface]
 * [Hive Client (JDBC, ODBC, Thrift, etc)|HiveClient]
 * [Hive Change Log|HiveChangeLog]
 
h1. Administrator Documentation:
 * [Installing Hive|AdminManual Installation]
 * [Configuring Hive|AdminManual Configuration]
 * [Setting up Metastore|AdminManual MetastoreAdmin]
 * [Setting up Hive Web Interface|HiveWebInterface]
 * [Setting up Hive Server (JDBC, ODBC, Thrift, etc)|AdminManual SettingUpHiveServer]
 * [Hive on Amazon Web Services|HiveAws]
 * [Hive on Amazon ElasticMapReduce|HiveAmazonElasticMapReduce]

h1. Resources for Contributors
 * [Hive Developer FAQ|HiveDeveloperFAQ]
 * [How to Contribute|HowToContribute]
 * [Hive Contributors Meetings|Development ContributorsMeetings]
 * [Hive Developer Guide|DeveloperGuide]
 * [Plugin Developer Kit|PluginDeveloperKit]
 * [Unit Test Parallel Execution]
 * [Hive Performance|Performance]
 * [Hive Architecture Overview|Design]
 * [Hive Design Docs|DesignDocs]
 * [Roadmap/call to Add More Features|Roadmap]
 * [Full-text search over all Hive resources|http://search-hadoop.com/Hive]
 * [Becoming A Committer|BecomingACommitter]
 * [How to Commit|HowToCommit]
 * [How to Release|HowToRelease]
 * [Build status on Jenkins (formerly Hudson)|HudsonBuild]
 * [Project Bylaws|Bylaws]

For more information, please see the official [Hive website|http://hive.apache.org].

_Apache Hive, Apache Hadoop, Apache HBase, Apache HDFS, Apache, the Apache feather logo, and the Apache Hive project logo are trademarks of The Apache Software Foundation._