Date: 2013-07-19 13:55:00 +0200
From: @yzchang
To: Documentation maintainers <>
Version: unspecified
CC: @mlkersten

Last updated: 2019-01-18 13:39:32 +0100

Comment 18925

Date: 2013-07-19 13:55:00 +0200
From: @yzchang

Triggered by thread "Must the file be deleted after "copy binary into table from file"" on July 19, 2013:

1. The actual behavior (move) is actually different than the copy that the documentation at http://www.monetdb.org/Documentation/Cookbooks/SQLrecipes/BinaryBulkLoad suggests. We need to fix the latter.

2. The actual behavior currently differs between data types; for numerical types, the user-provided files are moved as explained above; for stings, the files are read and processed, i.e., the used-provided file remains in place as-is. We need to consider unifying this behavior, e.g., by deleting also the user provided files for strings once they have been processed/loaded.

3. In case the copy into file, e.g., due to a failing sanity check after the file is moved, that data is factually lost, i.e., the files are gone, but no data is loaded into the database; we need to either document this clearly, or make the implementation behave like a transaction.

Comment 18928

Date: 2013-07-19 14:09:17 +0200
From: @mlkersten

1. has been addressed on the website already

Comment 21008

Date: 2015-07-15 17:09:14 +0200
From: @sjoerdmullender

I think we should actually reconsider the implementation (and hence also the documentation): we should probably always copy the data, and then the data also doesn't have to be on the same disk partition as the database.

Comment 26808

Date: 2019-01-18 13:39:32 +0100
From: @sjoerdmullender

For several years now, COPY BINARY copies the data from the source files. It does not in any way modify the referenced files.
I have also updated the documentation.