cqlsh COPY command fails with "Shell instance has no attribute 'display_timestamp_format'"

Summary

This article provides a solution for failed cqlsh COPY command as a result of a custom time format feature enhancement.

Symptoms

An attempt to copy a table in cqlsh fails as the following example illustrates:

cqlsh> COPY music.songs (title, year, artist) TO 'songs.csv' ;
Shell instance has no attribute 'display_timestamp_format'

Cause

The issue is related to the new TIME_FORMAT option for the COPY command introduced by CASSANDRA-8970.

The feature was originally implemented in Cassandra 2.2 and 3.0, then backported to Cassandra 2.1 with a defect which ended up affecting the Cassandra versions which shipped with DataStax Enterprise 4.7.4 and 4.8.1.

Workaround

The defect was fixed by CASSANDRA-10633 which was shipped in DSE versions 4.7.6 and 4.8.3.

In order to copy the data without upgrading DSE, follow these steps:

Step 1 - Download the DSE tarball version 4.7.6 or 4.8.3 (or newer) on your workstation. For example, dse-4.8.3-bin.tar.gz.

Step 2 - Unpack the tarball.

Step 3 - On the workstation or server where you are running the COPY command, move the existing copy of the cqlsh file to a temporary location.

Step 4 - Copy the file bin/cqlsh from your workstation to the machine where you are running the COPY command.

NOTE - It is only necessary to update the workstation or server where you intend to run the COPY command.

Step 5 - Run the COPY command in cqlsh as before.

Solution

As stated above, the fix was incorporated in the latest versions of DataStax Enterprise so upgrade as appropriate.

See also

DSE doc - cqlsh COPY

Cassandra JIRA -  CASSANDRA-8970 Allow custom time_format on cqlsh COPY TO

Cassandra JIRA -  CASSANDRA-10633 cqlsh copy uses wrong variable name for time_format