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If a table is to be used in ACID writes (insert, update, delete) then the table property TRANSACTIONAL must property "transactional" must be set on that table, starting with Hive 0.14.0.  Without this value, inserts will be done in the old style; updates and deletes will be prohibited.  However, this does not apply to Hive 0.13.0.

If a table owner does not wish the system to automatically determine when to compact, then the table property "NO_AUTO_COMPACTION" can be set.  This will prevent all automatic compactions.  Manual compactions can still be done with Alter Table/Partition Compact statements.

Table properties are set with the TBLPROPERTIES clause when a table is created or altered, as described in the Create Table and Alter Table Properties sections of Hive Data Definition Language.  Currently the "transactional" and NO_AUTO_COMPACTION" table properties are case-sensitive, although that will change in a future release with HIVE-8308.