Configuring a cqlshrc file

A cqlshrc file contains CQL shell session settings that are used when the CQL shell starts.

cassandra.yaml

The location of the cassandra.yaml file depends on the type of installation:
Package installations /etc/dse/cassandra/cassandra.yaml
Tarball installations installation_location/resources/cassandra/conf/cassandra.yaml

A cqlshrc file contains CQL shell session settings that are used when the CQL shell starts. If you place a cqlshrc file in the ~/.cassandra directory on a local computer, that file is used by default. You can also specify the directory that the cqlshrc file is in using the --cqlshrc option. Place only one cqlshrc file in a directory.

Do not confuse the cqlshrc file with the --cqlshrc option. The first is a file containing CQL session settings, the second is an option that specifies the directory where the cqlshrc file is located.

Note: Command line options always override the settings in a cqlshrc file.

You can configure these settings in the cqlshrc file:

Synopsis

cqlsh CQLSHRC="~/directory_name"
Note: Tilde (~) expands to the user's home directory. You can also specify the absolute path, for example /Users/jdoe/cqlshprofiles/west.
Table 1. Legend
Syntax conventions Description
UPPERCASE Literal keyword.
Lowercase Not literal.
Italics Variable value. Replace with a user-defined value.
[] Optional. Square brackets ( [] ) surround optional command arguments. Do not type the square brackets.
( ) Group. Parentheses ( ( ) ) identify a group to choose from. Do not type the parentheses.
| Or. A vertical bar ( | ) separates alternative elements. Type any one of the elements. Do not type the vertical bar.
... Repeatable. An ellipsis ( ... ) indicates that you can repeat the syntax element as often as required.
'Literal string' Single quotation ( ' ) marks must surround literal strings in CQL statements. Use single quotation marks to preserve upper case.
{ key : value } Map collection. Braces ( { } ) enclose map collections or key value pairs. A colon separates the key and the value.
<datatype1,datatype2> Set, list, map, or tuple. Angle brackets ( < > ) enclose data types in a set, list, map, or tuple. Separate the data types with a comma.
cql_statement; End CQL statement. A semicolon ( ; ) terminates all CQL statements.
[--] Separate the command line options from the command arguments with two hyphens ( -- ). This syntax is useful when arguments might be mistaken for command line options.
' <schema> ... </schema> ' Search CQL only: Single quotation marks ( ' ) surround an entire XML schema declaration.
@xml_entity='xml_entity_type' Search CQL only: Identify the entity and literal value to overwrite the XML element in the schema and solrConfig files.

Using a sample cqlshrc file

A sample file is installed with DataStax Enterprise cqlshrc sample files. These files contain all the available settings. Some settings are commented out using a single semicolon.

DataStax Enterprise has these sample cqlshrc files:
  • cqlshrc.sample: Contains all available settings.
  • cqlshrc.sample.kerberos: Contains settings related to Kerberos authentication for the CQL shell connection.
  • cqlshrc.sample.ssl: Contains settings related to using SSL for the CQL shell for the connection.
  • cqlshrc.sample.kerberos_ssl: Contains settings related to using SSL and Kerberos authentication for the CQL shell connection.
The location of these files depend on the type of installation:
  • Package installations: /etc/dse/cassandra
  • Tarball installations: install_location/resources/cassandra/conf

Make changes as appropriate for your environment.

To use the sample file:
  1. Copy the cqlshrc.sample file to the ~/.cassandra/ directory.
  2. Rename the file to cqlshrc. The file is typically located in ~/.cassandra/cqlshrc.
    Note: If cqlsh finds the .cqlshrc file located in the home directory, cqlsh moves the file to ~/.cassandra/cqlshrc upon its next invocation and shows a message that the file moved.
  3. Remove the semicolon to uncomment an option (options must be in brackets) and the corresponding settings. This example uncomments [copy] and header = false to import all CSV without a header row:
    ;; Options that are common to both COPY TO and COPY FROM
    [copy]
    
    ;; The string placeholder for null values
    ; nullval = null
    
    ;; For COPY TO, controls whether the first line in the CSV output file will
    ;; contain the column names.  For COPY FROM, specifies whether the first
    ;; line in the CSV file contains column names.
    header = false
  4. Restart the CQL shell.

Automatically logging in and selecting a keyspace

Set up credentials to automatically log in when the CQL shell starts and choose an optional keyspace.

Note: Only set a user name and password for hosts that use internal authentication. See Encrypting with SSL.
[authentication]
username
Account name.
password
Password.
keyspace
Optional. Uses the specified keyspace. Equivalent to issuing a USE keyspace command immediately after starting cqlsh. Does not require internal authentication.

Disabling logging

Disables saving history to disk for current execution when CQL shell starts.

[history]
disabled
If set to TRUE, cqlsh logging is disabled. Default: FALSE

Changing the CQL shell display

The following options apply to the cqlsh console display settings and COPY TO date parsing settings.

[ui]
color
Shows query results with color.
on - use color
off - no color
datetimeformat
Configure the format of timestamps using Python strftime syntax.
timezone
Display timestamps in Etc/UTC format.
float_precision, double_precision
Sets the number of digits displayed after the decimal point for single and double precision numbers.
Note: Increasing these options to large numbers might produce unusual results when the values are displayed.
completekey
Set the key for automatic completion of a cqlsh shell entry. Default: Tab key.
encoding
Encoding for characters. Default: UTF8.

Forcing the CQL version

Use the specified version of CQL only.

[cql]
version
Only use the specified version of CQL.

Connecting to a CQL host

Specify the host and connection details for the CQL shell session.

[connection]
hostname
The host for the cqlsh connection.
port
The connection port. Default: 9042 (native protocol).
ssl
Always connect using SSL. Default: false.
timeout
Timeout in seconds when opening new connections.
request_timeout
Request timeout in seconds for executing queries. Sets the number of seconds of inactivity.
factory
For SSL, set to cqlshlib.ssl.ssl_transport_factory.

Limiting the field size

[csv]
field_size_limit
Set to a particular field size, for example field_size_limit = 1000000000.

DSE and Native protocols

[protocol]
version
Specify default native protocol version, which is mutually exclusive from dse_version.

Default: 4

dse_version
Specify default DataStax Enterprise protocol version.

Default: 2

Setting tracing timeout

Specify the wait time for tracing.

[tracing]
max_trace_wait
Maximum number of seconds to wait for a trace to complete.

Configuring SSL

Specify connection SSL settings.

Note: For more information, see Connecting to SSL-enabled nodes using cqlsh.
[ssl]
certfile
Path to the DataStax Enterprise certificate. See Connecting to SSL-enabled nodes using cqlsh.
validate
Optional validation. Default: true.
userkey
User key must be provided when require_client_auth=true in cassandra.yaml.
usercert
User certificate must be provided when require_client_auth=true in cassandra.yaml.

Overriding SSL local settings

Overrides the default certfiles in the [ssl] section. Create an entry for each remote host.

[certfiles]
remote_host=path_to_cert
Specify the IP address or remote host name and path to the certificate file on your local computer.

Setting common COPY TO and COPY FROM options

Settings common to both the COPY TO and COPY FROM commands.
[copy]
          option_name = value
table_name
Table for the copy operation.
column_list
List of columns in the table. All fields are included when no column names are specified. To omit columns, specify a column list with only the columns to include.
file_name, file2_name
CSV file name.
BOOLSTYLE
Boolean indicators for true and false. The values are case-insensitive. For example: yes,no and YES,NO are the same.

Default: True,False

CONFIGFILE
Directory that contains the cqlshrc configuration file.
Note: Command line options always override the cqlshrc file.
DATETIMEFORMAT
Time format for reading or writing CSV time data. The timestamp uses the strftime format. If not set, the default value is set to the datetimeformat value in the cqlshrc file.

Default: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S%z

DECIMALSEP
Decimal value separator.

Default: . (period)

DELIMITER
Field separator.

Default: , (comma)

ESCAPE
Single character that escapes literal uses of the QUOTE character.

Default: \ (backslash)

HEADER
  • true - first row contains headers (column names).
  • false - first row does not have headers.

Default: false

MAXATTEMPTS
Maximum number of attempts for errors.

Default: 5

NULL
Value used when no value is in the field.

Default: <empty>

NUMPROCESSES
Number of worker processes. Maximum value is 16.

Default: -1

QUOTE
Encloses field values.

Default: " (double quotation mark)

REPORTFREQUENCY
Frequency with which status is displayed in seconds.

Default: 0.25

RATEFILE
Print output statistics to this file.
SKIPCOLS
Name of column to skip.
SKIPROWS
Number of rows starting from the first row of data to skip.
THOUSANDSSEP
Separator for thousands digit groups.

Default: None

Setting COPY TO specific options

BEGINTOKEN
Minimum token string for exporting data.
DOUBLEPRECISION
Number of digits to display after the decimal point for CQL double precision values.

Default: 12

ENCODING
Output string type.

Default: UTF8

ENDTOKEN
Maximum token string for exporting data.
ERRFILE
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.
FLOATPRECISION
Number of digits to display after the decimal point for CQL float (single precision) values.

Default: 5

MAXOUTPUTSIZE
Maximum size of the output file, measured in number of lines. When set, the output file is split into segment when the value is exceeded. Use -1 for no maximum.

Default: -1

MAXREQUESTS
Maximum number of requests each worker can process in parallel.

Default: 6

PAGESIZE
Page size for fetching results.

Default: 1000

PAGETIMEOUT
Page timeout for fetching results.

Default: 10

TTL
Time to live in seconds. By default, data will not expire.

Default: 3600

Setting COPY FROM specific options

CHUNKSIZE
Chunk size passed to worker processes.

Default: 1000

INGESTRATE
Approximate ingest rate in rows per second. Must be greater than the chunk size.

Default: 100000

MAXBATCHSIZE
Maximum size of an import batch.

Default: 20

MAXINSERTERRORS
Maximum global number of insert errors. Use -1 for no maximum.

Default: -1

MAXPARSEERRORS
Maximum global number of parsing errors. Use -1 for no maximum.

Default: -1

MAXROWS
Maximum number of rows. Use -1 for no maximum.

Default: -1

MINBATCHSIZE
Minimum size of an import batch.

Default: 2

Setting table specific COPY TO and COPY FROM options

Use these options to configure table-specific settings. Create a new entry for each table. For example, to set the chunk size for cyclist names and rank:
[copy:cycling.cyclist_names]
chunksize = 1000
[copy:cycling.rank_by_year_and_name]
chunksize = 10000
[copy:keyspace_name.table_name]
chunksize
Chunk size passed to worker processes. Default value: 1000
[copy-from:keyspace_name.table_name]
ingestrate
Approximate ingest rate in rows per second. Must be greater than the chunk size.
[copy-to:keyspace_name.table_name]
pagetimeout
Page timeout for fetching results.