Time for action – browsing default properties

Fortunately, the XML documents are not the only way of looking at the default values; there are also more readable HTML versions, which we'll now take a quick look at.

These files are not included in the Hadoop binary-only distribution; if you are using that, you can also find these files on the Hadoop website.

1. Point your browser at the docs/core-default.html file within your Hadoop distribution directory and browse its contents. It should look like the next screenshot:

   

2. Now, similarly, browse these other files:

   • Hadoop/docs/hdfs-default.html

   • Hadoop/docs/mapred-default.html

What just happened?

As you can see, each property has a name, default value, and a brief description. You will also see there are indeed a very large number of properties. Do not expect to understand all of these now, but do spend a little time browsing to get a flavor for the type of customization allowed by Hadoop.

Additional property elements

When we have previously set properties...