For general development tips, including info on developing Spark using an IDE, see ["Useful Developer Tools"](https://spark.apache.org/developer-tools.html).
## Interactive Scala Shell
The easiest way to start using Spark is through the Scala shell:
./bin/spark-shell
Try the following command, which should return 1,000,000,000:
scala> spark.range(1000 * 1000 * 1000).count()
## Interactive Python Shell
Alternatively, if you prefer Python, you can use the Python shell:
./bin/pyspark
And run the following command, which should also return 1,000,000,000:
>>> spark.range(1000 * 1000 * 1000).count()
## Example Programs
Spark also comes with several sample programs in the `examples` directory.
To run one of them, use `./bin/run-example <class> [params]`. For example:
./bin/run-example SparkPi
will run the Pi example locally.
You can set the MASTER environment variable when running examples to submit
examples to a cluster. This can be a mesos:// or spark:// URL,
"yarn" to run on YARN, and "local" to run
locally with one thread, or "local[N]" to run locally with N threads. You
can also use an abbreviated class name if the class is in the `examples`
Many of the example programs print usage help if no params are given.
## Running Tests
Testing first requires [building Spark](#building-spark). Once Spark is built, tests
can be run using:
./dev/run-tests
Please see the guidance on how to
[run tests for a module, or individual tests](https://spark.apache.org/developer-tools.html#individual-tests).
There is also a Kubernetes integration test, see resource-managers/kubernetes/integration-tests/README.md
## A Note About Hadoop Versions
Spark uses the Hadoop core library to talk to HDFS and other Hadoop-supported
storage systems. Because the protocols have changed in different versions of
Hadoop, you must build Spark against the same version that your cluster runs.
Please refer to the build documentation at
["Specifying the Hadoop Version and Enabling YARN"](https://spark.apache.org/docs/latest/building-spark.html#specifying-the-hadoop-version-and-enabling-yarn)
for detailed guidance on building for a particular distribution of Hadoop, including
building for particular Hive and Hive Thriftserver distributions.
## Configuration
Please refer to the [Configuration Guide](https://spark.apache.org/docs/latest/configuration.html)
in the online documentation for an overview on how to configure Spark.
## Contributing
Please review the [Contribution to Spark guide](https://spark.apache.org/contributing.html)
for information on how to get started contributing to the project.
