spark-sql is a convenient tool to run the Hive Metastore service in local mode and execute queries from the command line.
Note that the spark-sql cannot talk to the Thrift JDBC server.
Configuration of Hive is done by placing your hive-site.xml, core-site.xml and hdfs-site.xml files in ${SPARK_HOME}/conf/.

$ ${SPARK_HOME}/bin/spark-sql --help Usage: ./bin/spark-sql [options] [cli option]

• Generic options: --name NAME A name of your application. --master MASTER_URL local, spark://host:port, mesos://host:port, yarn, or k8s://https://host:port. (Default: local[*]) --deploy-mode DEPLOY_MODE Whether to launch the driver program locally ("client") or on one of the worker machines inside the cluster ("cluster"). (Default: client) --conf PROP=VALUE Arbitrary Spark configuration property. --properties-file FILE Path to a file from which to load extra properties. If not specified, this will look for conf/spark-defaults.conf. --class CLASS_NAME Your application’s main class (for Java / Scala apps). --jars JARS Comma-separated list of jars to include on the driver and executor classpaths. --packages Comma-separated list of maven coordinates of jars to include on the driver and executor classpaths. Will search the local maven repo, then maven central and any additional remote repositories given by --repositories. The format for the coordinates should be groupId:artifactId:version. --exclude-packages Comma-separated list of groupId:artifactId, to exclude while resolving the dependencies provided in --packages to avoid dependency conflicts. --repositories Comma-separated list of additional remote repositories to search for the maven coordinates given with --packages. --py-files PY_FILES Comma-separated list of .zip, .egg, or .py files to place on the PYTHONPATH for Python apps. --files FILES Comma-separated list of files to be placed in the working directory of each executor. File paths of these files in executors can be accessed via SparkFiles.get(fileName). --driver-memory MEM Memory for driver (e.g. 1000M, 2G) (Default: 1024M). --driver-java-options Extra Java options to pass to the driver. --driver-library-path Extra library path entries to pass to the driver. --driver-class-path Extra class path entries to pass to the driver. Note that jars added with --jars are automatically included in the classpath. --executor-memory MEM Memory per executor (e.g. 1000M, 2G). (Default: 1G) --proxy-user NAME User to impersonate when submitting the application. This argument does not work with --principal / --keytab. --help, -h Show this help message and exit. --verbose, -v Print additional debug output. --version, Print the version of current Spark.
  
• Cluster deploy mode only: --driver-cores NUM Number of cores used by the driver, only in cluster mode. (Default: 1)
  
• Spark standalone or Mesos with cluster deploy mode only: --supervise If given, restarts the driver on failure. --kill SUBMISSION_ID If given, kills the driver specified. --status SUBMISSION_ID If given, requests the status of the driver specified.
  
• Spark standalone and Mesos only: --total-executor-cores NUM Total cores for all executors.
  
• Spark standalone and YARN only: --executor-cores NUM Number of cores per executor. (Default: 1 in YARN mode, or all available cores on the worker in standalone mode)
  
• YARN only: --queue QUEUE_NAME The YARN queue to submit to. (Default: "default") --num-executors NUM Number of executors to launch. If dynamic allocation is enabled, the initial number of executors will be at least NUM. (Default: 2) --archives ARCHIVES Comma separated list of archives to be extracted into the working directory of each executor. --principal PRINCIPAL Principal to be used to login to KDC, while running on secure HDFS. --keytab KEYTAB The full path to the file that contains the keytab for the principal specified above. This keytab will be copied to the node running the Application Master via the Secure Distributed Cache, for renewing the login tickets and the delegation tokens periodically.
  
• CLI options: --hiveconf <property=value> Use value for given property --hivevar <key=value> Variable subsitution to apply to hive commands. e.g. --hivevar A=B --database <databasename> Specify the database to use -d,--define <key=value> Variable subsitution to apply to hive commands. e.g. -d A=B or --define A=B -e <quoted-query-string> SQL from command line -f <filename> SQL from files -i <filename> Initialization SQL file -S,--silent Silent mode in interactive shell -v,--verbose Verbose mode (echo executed SQL to the console) -H,--help Print help information

$ spark-sql --hiveconf "hive.metastore.uris=thrift://localhost:9083" --hiveconf "hive.exec.scratchdir=/tmp/a-folder-that-the-current-user-has-permission-to-write-in" Using Spark’s default log4j profile: org/apache/spark/log4j-defaults.properties Spark master: local[*], Application Id: local-1561208451788 INFO SparkSQLCLIDriver: Spark master: local[*], Application Id: local-1561208451788 spark-sql>
To exit spark-sql type exit;

Please note the usage of the hive configuration --hiveconf "hive.exec.scratchdir=/tmp/a-folder-that-the-current-user-has-permission-to-write-in"
By default, the configuration "hive.exec.scratchdir" has the value to "/tmp/hive"
If you don't initialize this configuration, you might get this error when starting spark-sql: java.lang.RuntimeException: The root scratch dir: /tmp/hive on HDFS should be writable. Current permissions are: rwxrwxr-x

You can use one the following commands: DROP ALTER CREATE TABLE INSERT DELETE TRUNCATE SELECT FROM ADD DESC WITH VALUES COMMIT ROLLBACK REVOKE GRANT DESCRIBE EXPLAIN SHOW USE MAP SET RESET START REDUCE REFRESH CLEAR CACHE UNCACHE DFS ANALYZE LIST LOCK UNLOCK MSCK EXPORT IMPORT LOAD
Query: show databases spark-sql> show databases; default test1 test_db Time taken: 1.17 seconds, Fetched 3 row(s)