Creating and using the cqlshrc file

The cqlshrc file passes default configuration information to cqlsh.

The cqlshrc file can pass default configuration information to cqlsh. Use the cqlshrc file to configure SSL encryption instead of overriding the SSL_CERTFILE environmental variables repeatedly. To help you create this file, Apache Cassandra™ includes a cqlshrc.sample file. Copy this file to the hidden .cassandra directory in your user home folder and rename it to cqlshrc.

Options for cqlshrc

You configure the cqlshrc file by setting these options in the following sections:

[authentication] options

Note: Cassandra internal authentication must be configured before users can use the authentication options. For more information, see Using cqlsh with SSL encryption.

username: Authenticate as user.
password: Authenticate using password.
keyspace: Use the given keyspace. Equivalent to issuing a USE keyspace command immediately after starting cqlsh.

[ui] options

color: Always use color output.
datetimeformat: Configure the format of timestamps using Python strftime syntax and reading them with COPY.
float_precision: Sets the number of digits displayed after the decimal point.
Note: Increasing this to large numbers can result in unusual values.
completekey: Set the key for automatic completion of a cqlsh shell entry. Default is the tab key.

[cql] option

version: Sets which version of CQL to use. This should rarely be used.

[connection] option (Cassandra 2.1.1+)

hostname: The host for the cqlsh connection.
port: The connection port. Default: 9042 (native protocol).
timeout: Configures timeout in seconds for opening new connections.
request_timeout: Configures the request timeout in seconds for executing queries. Set to the number of seconds of inactivity.

[csv] option (Cassandra 2.1.5+)

field_size_limit: Configures the cqlsh field size. Set to a particular field size. For instance, field_size_limit (1000000000).

[tracing] option

max_trace_wait: The maximum number of seconds to wait for a trace to complete.

[ssl] options

certfile: The path to the cassandra certificate. See Using cqlsh with SSL encryption in the Cassandra documentation.
validate: Optional. Default: true.
userkey: Must be provided when require_client_auth=true in cassandra.yaml.
usercert: Must be provided when require_client_auth=true in cassandra.yaml.

[certfiles] options

Overrides default certfiles in [ssl] section.

Common COPY TO and COPY FROM options

Also see the Common COPY options for TO and FROM table.

nullval: The string placeholder for null values.
header: For COPY TO, controls whether the first line in the CSV output file contains the column names.; For COPY FROM, specifies whether the first line in the CSV file contains column names.
decimalsep: Set a separator for decimal values.
thousandssep: Set a separator for thousands digit groups. Default: empty string.
boolstyle: Set a representation for boolean values for True and False. The values are case insensitive. Example: yes,no or 1,0.
numprocesses: Set the number of worker processes. Maximum value is 16.
maxattempts: Set the maximum number of attempts for errors.
reportfrequency: Set the frequency with which status is displayed, in seconds.
ratefile: Specify a file for printing output statistics.

COPY TO options

Also see the COPY TO table.

maxrequests: Set the maximum number of requests each worker process can work on in parallel.
pagesize: Set the page size for fetching results.
pagetimeout: Set the page timeout for fetching results.
begintoken: Set the minimum token string for exporting data.
endtoken: Set the maximum token string for exporting data.
: Set the maximum size of the output file, measured in number of lines. If a value is set, the output file will be split into segment when the value is exceeded. "-1" sets no maximum.
encoding: Set the COPY TO command to output unicode strings.

COPY FROM options

Also see the COPY FROM table.

ingestrate: Set an approximate ingest rate in rows per second. Must be set to a greater value than chunk size.

maxrows: Set the maximum number of rows. "-1" sets no maximum.

skiprows: The number of rows to skip.

skipcols: Set a comma-separated list of column names to skip.

maxparseerrors: Set the maximum global number of parsing errors. "-1" sets no maximum.

maxinserterrors: Set the maximum global number of insert errors. "-1" sets no maximum.

errfile: Set a file to store all rows that are not imported. If no value is set, the information is stored in import_ks_table.err where <ks> is the keyspace and <table> is the table name.

maxbatchsize: Set the maximum size of an import batch.

minbatchsize: Set the minimum size of an import batch.

chunksize: Set the size of chunks passed to worker processes.

COPY options

Also see the COPY table.

chunksize: Set the size of chunks passed to worker processes.
ingestrate: Set an approximate ingest rate in rows per second. Must be set to a greater value than chunk size.
pagetimeout: Set the page timeout for fetching results.