public static boolean isSchemaEvolutionEnabled(Table table, Configuration conf) {
    return AcidUtils.isTablePropertyTransactional(table.getMetadata()) ||
        HiveConf.getBoolVar(conf, ConfVars.HIVE_SCHEMA_EVOLUTION);
  }
Validate if the given table/partition is eligible for update.
ql/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/ql/ddl/table/AlterTableUtils.java