Problem:
The problem happened because of a conceptual flaw in the server code:
a. The table level CHARSET/COLLATE clause affected all data types,
including numeric and temporal ones:
CREATE TABLE t1 (a INT) CHARACTER SET utf8 [COLLATE utf8_general_ci];
In the above example, the Column_definition_attributes
(and then the FRM record) for the column "a" erroneously inherited
"utf8" as its character set.
b. The "ALTER TABLE t1 CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET csname" statement
also erroneously affected Column_definition_attributes::charset
for numeric and temporal data types and wrote "csname" as their
character set into FRM files.
So now we have arbitrary non-relevant charset ID values for numeric
and temporal data types in all FRM files in the world :)
The code in the server and the other engines did not seem to be affected
by this flaw. Only InnoDB inplace ALTER was affected.
Solution:
Fixing the code in the way that only character string data types
(CHAR,VARCHAR,TEXT,ENUM,SET):
- inherit the table level CHARSET/COLLATE clause
- get the charset value according to "CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET csname".
Numeric and temporal data types now always get &my_charset_numeric
in Column_definition_attributes::charset and always write its ID into FRM files:
- no matter what the table level CHARSET/COLLATE clause is, and
- no matter what "CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET" says.
Details:
1. Adding helper classes to pass small parts of HA_CREATE_INFO
into Type_handler methods:
- Column_derived_attributes - to pass table level CHARSET/COLLATE,
so columns that do not have explicit CHARSET/COLLATE clauses
can derive them from the table level, e.g.
CREATE TABLE t1 (a VARCHAR(1), b CHAR(1)) CHARACTER SET utf8;
- Column_bulk_alter_attributes - to pass bulk attribute changes
generated by the ALTER related code. These bulk changes affect
multiple columns at the same time:
ALTER TABLE ... CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET csname;
Note, passing the whole HA_CREATE_INFO directly to Type_handler
would not be good: HA_CREATE_INFO is huge and would need not desired
dependencies in sql_type.h and sql_type.cc. The Type_handler API should
use smallest possible data types!
2. Type_handler::Column_definition_prepare_stage1() is now responsible
to set Column_definition::charset properly, according to the data type,
for example:
- For string data types, Column_definition_attributes::charset is set from
the table level CHARSET/COLLATE clause (if not specified explicitly in
the column definition).
- For numeric and temporal fields, Column_definition_attributes::charset is
set to &my_charset_numeric, no matter what the table level
CHARSET/COLLATE says.
- For GEOMETRY, Column_definition_attributes::charset is set to
&my_charset_bin, no matter what the table level CHARSET/COLLATE says.
Previously this code (setting `charset`) was outside of of
Column_definition_prepare_stage1(), namely in
mysql_prepare_create_table(), and was erroneously called for
all data types.
3. Adding Type_handler::Column_definition_bulk_alter(), to handle
"ALTER TABLE .. CONVERT TO". Previously this code was inside
get_sql_field_charset() and was erroneously called for all data types.
4. Removing the Schema_specification_st parameter from
Type_handler::Column_definition_redefine_stage1().
Column_definition_attributes::charset is now fully properly initialized by
Column_definition_prepare_stage1(). So we don't need access to the
table level CHARSET/COLLATE clause in Column_definition_redefine_stage1()
any more.
5. Other changes:
- Removing global function get_sql_field_charset()
- Moving the part of the former get_sql_field_charset(), which was
responsible to inherit the table level CHARSET/COLLATE clause to
new methods:
-- Column_definition_attributes::explicit_or_derived_charset() and
-- Column_definition::prepare_charset_for_string().
This code is only needed for string data types.
Previously it was erroneously called for all data types.
- Moving another part, which was responsible to apply the
"CONVERT TO" clause, to
Type_handler_general_purpose_string::Column_definition_bulk_alter().
- Replacing the call for get_sql_field_charset() in sql_partition.cc
to sql_field->explicit_or_derived_charset() - it is perfectly enough.
The old code was redundant: get_sql_field_charset() was called from
sql_partition.cc only when there were no a "CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET"
clause involved, so its purpose was only to inherit the table
level CHARSET/COLLATE clause.
- Moving the code handling the BINCMP_FLAG flag from
mysql_prepare_create_table() to
Column_definition::prepare_charset_for_string():
This code is responsible to resolve the BINARY comparison style
into the corresponding _bin collation, to do the following transparent
rewrite:
CREATE TABLE t1 (a VARCHAR(10) BINARY) CHARSET utf8; ->
CREATE TABLE t1 (a VARCHAR(10) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_bin);
This code is only needed for string data types.
Previously it was erroneously called for all data types.
6. Renaming Table_scope_and_contents_source_pod_st::table_charset
to alter_table_convert_to_charset, because the only purpose it's used for
is handlering "ALTER .. CONVERT". The new name is much more self-descriptive.