How do I unload a Vertica table to a flat file?

You don't need to use a copy command to export data to a text file. You can export the data using vsql such as \o /tmp/export_data.txt select * from table; \o now the data is exported in export_data.txt or directly from Linux you can do # vsql -c "select * from table;" > /tmp/export_data.txt. Check the documentation for details in how to change delimiter, replace nulls, etc. Hope this helps, Eugenia

Thank you!! That really helps!!

Can you say more about your usecase for export to a flat file?

In our experience the only reliable way to get data out of Vertica in CSV or similar is to use a client (ODBC/JDBC) tool. VSQL works for most situations except when you have line breaks in your data etc. Produces data that can't be re-loaded.