[Bug] [Spark][HiveCatalog] Creating external table with schemeless LOCATION fails with NoSuchTableException and leaves zombie table in HMS

Start in SparkCatalog.java at createTable, loadTable, and loadSparkTable, then reproduce the SQL with a schemeless LOCATION and compare local filesystem versus HDFS results. Done means the path resolves through fs.defaultFS, schema-0 is initialized on HDFS, the table registers successfully in Hive Metastore, and the failed path does not leave a zombie table.

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• I searched in the issues and found nothing similar.

Paimon version

• 1.4.1 (Bug occurs)
• 2.0.0 (Bug occurs)
• 1.3.1 (Works fine - baseline)

Compute Engine

• Spark 3.2.3 (spark-sql / Scala 2.12)
• Catalog: HiveMetastore 2.3 via org.apache.paimon.spark.SparkCatalog (or SparkGenericCatalog)
• Storage: Hadoop HDFS 3.3.6 (fs.defaultFS = hdfs://namenode:8020)

Minimal reproduce step

Environment Configuration

# spark-defaults.conf or spark-sql parameters
spark.sql.catalog.paimon_hive=org.apache.paimon.spark.SparkCatalog
spark.sql.catalog.paimon_hive.metastore=hive
spark.sql.catalog.paimon_hive.uri=thrift://hive-metastore:9083
spark.sql.catalog.paimon_hive.warehouse=hdfs://namenode:8020/warehouse
spark.sql.defaultCatalog=paimon_hive
spark.sql.extensions=org.apache.paimon.spark.extensions.PaimonSparkSessionExtensions

Step 1: Create Table with schemeless LOCATION

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS paimon_db;
USE paimon_db;

CREATE TABLE my_table_external (
  user_id BIGINT,
  item_id BIGINT,
  behavior STRING,
  dt STRING,
  hh STRING
) PARTITIONED BY (dt, hh) TBLPROPERTIES (
  'primary-key' = 'dt,hh,user_id'
) LOCATION '/data/external/my_table_external';

Step 2: Observe the Stack Trace

java.lang.RuntimeException: org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.analysis.NoSuchTableException: Table paimon_db.my_table_external not found
	at org.apache.paimon.spark.SparkCatalog.createTable(SparkCatalog.java:383)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.datasources.v2.CreateTableExec.run(CreateTableExec.scala:42)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.datasources.v2.V2CommandExec.result$lzycompute(V2CommandExec.scala:43)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.datasources.v2.V2CommandExec.result(V2CommandExec.scala:43)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.datasources.v2.V2CommandExec.executeCollect(V2CommandExec.scala:49)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.QueryExecution$$anonfun$eagerlyExecuteCommands$1.$anonfun$applyOrElse$1(QueryExecution.scala:97)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.SQLExecution$.$anonfun$withNewExecutionId$5(SQLExecution.scala:103)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.SQLExecution$.withSQLConfPropagated(SQLExecution.scala:163)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.SQLExecution$.$anonfun$withNewExecutionId$1(SQLExecution.scala:90)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession.withActive(SparkSession.scala:775)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.SQLExecution$.withNewExecutionId(SQLExecution.scala:64)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.QueryExecution$$anonfun$eagerlyExecuteCommands$1.applyOrElse(QueryExecution.scala:97)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.QueryExecution$$anonfun$eagerlyExecuteCommands$1.applyOrElse(QueryExecution.scala:93)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.trees.TreeNode.$anonfun$transformDownWithPruning$1(TreeNode.scala:481)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.trees.CurrentOrigin$.withOrigin(TreeNode.scala:82)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.trees.TreeNode.transformDownWithPruning(TreeNode.scala:481)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.logical.LogicalPlan.org$apache$spark$sql$catalyst$plans$logical$AnalysisHelper$$super$transformDownWithPruning(LogicalPlan.scala:30)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.logical.AnalysisHelper.transformDownWithPruning(AnalysisHelper.scala:267)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.logical.AnalysisHelper.transformDownWithPruning$(AnalysisHelper.scala:263)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.logical.LogicalPlan.transformDownWithPruning(LogicalPlan.scala:30)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.logical.LogicalPlan.transformDownWithPruning(LogicalPlan.scala:30)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.trees.TreeNode.transformDown(TreeNode.scala:457)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.QueryExecution.eagerlyExecuteCommands(QueryExecution.scala:93)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.QueryExecution.commandExecuted$lzycompute(QueryExecution.scala:80)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.QueryExecution.commandExecuted(QueryExecution.scala:78)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset.<init>(Dataset.scala:219)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset$.$anonfun$ofRows$2(Dataset.scala:99)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession.withActive(SparkSession.scala:775)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset$.ofRows(Dataset.scala:96)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession.$anonfun$sql$1(SparkSession.scala:618)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession.withActive(SparkSession.scala:775)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession.sql(SparkSession.scala:613)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.SQLContext.sql(SQLContext.scala:651)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.hive.thriftserver.SparkSQLDriver.run(SparkSQLDriver.scala:67)
	at org.apache.spark.sql.hive.thriftserver.SparkSQLCLIDriver.processCmd(SparkSQLCLIDriver.scala:384)
Caused by: org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.analysis.NoSuchTableException: Table paimon_db.my_table_external not found
	at org.apache.paimon.spark.SparkCatalog.loadSparkTable(SparkCatalog.java:837)
	at org.apache.paimon.spark.SparkCatalog.loadTable(SparkCatalog.java:309)
	at org.apache.paimon.spark.SparkCatalog.createTable(SparkCatalog.java:377)
	... 58 more

Step 3: Inspect Local Filesystem vs HDFS

# Check local filesystem on Spark client/driver:
ls -la /data/external/my_table_external/schema/
# Output: schema-0 exists! (WRONG TARGET)

# Check HDFS:
hdfs dfs -ls -R /data/external/my_table_external/
# Output: Empty directory! (schema-0 missing on HDFS)

What doesn't meet your expectations?

In a Hadoop cluster environment with Hive Metastore and HDFS (fs.defaultFS), executing CREATE TABLE ... LOCATION '/data/external/...' with a schemeless absolute path should:

1. Resolve the path against fs.defaultFS and initialize schema-0 on HDFS.
2. Register the table in Hive Metastore and return successfully (as it did in Paimon 1.3.1).

Anything else?

Workaround

Explicitly specify the URI scheme in LOCATION:

-- Use hdfs:/// prefix:
CREATE TABLE my_table_external (
  ...
) LOCATION 'hdfs:///data/external/my_table_external';

Adding hdfs:/// allows FileIO.get to detect the hdfs scheme and correctly instantiate HadoopFileIO.

Are you willing to submit a PR?

• I'm willing to submit a PR!