private HiveConf getConf(HiveConf conf) {
    // if it is a db level path check for custom configurations.
    HiveConf clonedConf = new HiveConf(conf);
    if (work.getTableName().startsWith("dbPath:")) {
      for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : conf.getPropsWithPrefix(CUSTOM_PATH_CONFIG_PREFIX).entrySet()) {
        clonedConf.set(entry.getKey().replaceFirst(CUSTOM_PATH_CONFIG_PREFIX, ""), entry.getValue());
      }
    }
    return clonedConf;
  }
DirCopyTask, mainly to be used to copy External table data.
ql/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/ql/exec/repl/DirCopyTask.java