diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/orc/package.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/orc/package.scala
index 869c8a5b8f1db..ad0f65442b914 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/orc/package.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/orc/package.scala
@@ -17,34 +17,58 @@
 
 package org.apache.spark.sql.hive
 
+import org.apache.spark.annotation.Experimental
 import org.apache.spark.sql.{DataFrame, SaveMode}
 
 package object orc {
+  /**
+   * ::Experimental::
+   *
+   * Extra ORC file loading functionality on [[HiveContext]] through implicit conversion.
+   *
+   * @since 1.4.0
+   */
+  @Experimental
   implicit class OrcContext(sqlContext: HiveContext) {
+    /**
+     * ::Experimental::
+     *
+     * Loads specified Parquet files, returning the result as a [[DataFrame]].
+     *
+     * @since 1.4.0
+     */
+    @Experimental
     @scala.annotation.varargs
-    def orcFile(path: String, paths: String*): DataFrame = {
-      val pathArray: Array[String] = {
-        if (paths.isEmpty) {
-          Array(path)
-        } else {
-         paths.toArray ++ Array(path)
-        }
-      }
-
-      val orcRelation = OrcRelation(pathArray, Map.empty)(sqlContext)
+    def orcFile(paths: String*): DataFrame = {
+      val orcRelation = OrcRelation(paths.toArray, Map.empty)(sqlContext)
       sqlContext.baseRelationToDataFrame(orcRelation)
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * ::Experimental::
+   *
+   * Extra ORC file writing functionality on [[DataFrame]] through implicit conversion
+   *
+   * @since 1.4.0
+   */
+  @Experimental
   implicit class OrcDataFrame(dataFrame: DataFrame) {
+    /**
+     * ::Experimental::
+     *
+     * Saves the contents of this [[DataFrame]] as an ORC file, preserving the schema.  Files that
+     * are written out using this method can be read back in as a [[DataFrame]] using
+     * [[OrcContext.orcFile()]].
+     *
+     * @since 1.4.0
+     */
+    @Experimental
     def saveAsOrcFile(path: String, mode: SaveMode = SaveMode.Overwrite): Unit = {
       dataFrame.save(path, source = classOf[DefaultSource].getCanonicalName, mode)
     }
   }
 
-  // Flags for orc copression, predicates pushdown, etc.
-  val orcDefaultCompressVar = "hive.exec.orc.default.compress"
-
   // This constant duplicates `OrcInputFormat.SARG_PUSHDOWN`, which is unfortunately not public.
-  val SARG_PUSHDOWN = "sarg.pushdown"
+  private[orc] val SARG_PUSHDOWN = "sarg.pushdown"
 }
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/orc/OrcQuerySuite.scala b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/orc/OrcQuerySuite.scala
index 3d52c31eca9f7..abc4c92d91da8 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/orc/OrcQuerySuite.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/orc/OrcQuerySuite.scala
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ package org.apache.spark.sql.hive.orc
 
 import java.io.File
 
+import org.apache.hadoop.hive.conf.HiveConf.ConfVars
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.orc.CompressionKind
 import org.apache.spark.sql._
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions.Row
@@ -216,7 +217,8 @@ class OrcQuerySuite extends QueryTest with FunSuiteLike with BeforeAndAfterAll {
 
     // Following codec is supported in hive-0.13.1, ignore it now
     ignore("Other Compression options for writing to an Orcfile - 0.13.1 and above") {
-      TestHive.sparkContext.hadoopConfiguration.set(orcDefaultCompressVar, "SNAPPY")
+      val conf = TestHive.sparkContext.hadoopConfiguration
+      conf.set(ConfVars.HIVE_ORC_DEFAULT_COMPRESS.name(), "SNAPPY")
       var tempDir = getTempFilePath("orcTest").getCanonicalPath
       val rdd = sparkContext.parallelize(1 to 100)
         .map(i => TestRDDEntry(i, s"val_$i"))
@@ -225,14 +227,14 @@ class OrcQuerySuite extends QueryTest with FunSuiteLike with BeforeAndAfterAll {
       assert(actualCodec == CompressionKind.SNAPPY)
       Utils.deleteRecursively(new File(tempDir))
 
-      TestHive.sparkContext.hadoopConfiguration.set(orcDefaultCompressVar, "NONE")
+      conf.set(ConfVars.HIVE_ORC_DEFAULT_COMPRESS.name(), "NONE")
       tempDir = getTempFilePath("orcTest").getCanonicalPath
       rdd.toDF().saveAsOrcFile(tempDir)
       actualCodec = OrcFileOperator.getFileReader(tempDir).getCompression
       assert(actualCodec == CompressionKind.NONE)
       Utils.deleteRecursively(new File(tempDir))
 
-      TestHive.sparkContext.hadoopConfiguration.set(orcDefaultCompressVar, "LZO")
+      conf.set(ConfVars.HIVE_ORC_DEFAULT_COMPRESS.name(), "LZO")
       tempDir = getTempFilePath("orcTest").getCanonicalPath
       rdd.toDF().saveAsOrcFile(tempDir)
       actualCodec = OrcFileOperator.getFileReader(tempDir).getCompression