Bug 329173 – dev-db/mysql-5.1.46 - mysql cli utilities fail to start after updating config files - unknown variable 'character-set-server=utf8'

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED INVALID

[Description Jorge Manuel B. S. Vicetto (RETIRED) 2010-07-20 22:07:31 UTC]

After merging mysql-5.1.46 for the second time in this box and updating the config files with dispatch-conf, the cli utilities started to fail to start because of the following error:

$ mysql -u root -p
mysql: unknown variable 'character-set-server=utf8'

The server starts correctly and client apps, such as amarok, can connect to the server and work as expected, but the cli tools, such as mysql, mysqladmin, mysqldump, mysqlcheck and mysqlshow die.

I didn't hit this issue in the 2010-04-29 update. Only in the 2010-07-15. I've just merged mysql again to test and there's no update for /etc/mysql/my.cnf.

Relevant mysql merge history:

Sat Mar 27 15:13:28 2010 >>> dev-db/mysql-5.1.45-r1
Thu Apr 29 14:10:42 2010 >>> dev-db/mysql-5.1.46
Thu Jul 15 01:30:57 2010 >>> dev-db/mysql-5.1.46
Tue Jul 20 21:59:49 2010 >>> dev-db/mysql-5.1.46

Relevant dispatch-conf backups for my.cnf:

$ ls -la /etc/config-archive/etc/mysql/my.cnf*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4204 Abr 29 14:10 /etc/config-archive/etc/mysql/my.cnf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4240 Mar 19 01:29 /etc/config-archive/etc/mysql/my.cnf.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4250 Abr 12  2009 /etc/config-archive/etc/mysql/my.cnf.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4240 Mar 29  2009 /etc/config-archive/etc/mysql/my.cnf.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4217 Jun  6  2008 /etc/config-archive/etc/mysql/my.cnf.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4198 Jul 15 01:30 /etc/config-archive/etc/mysql/my.cnf.dist

Diff between the April 29th and July 15th config files:

$ diff -u /etc/config-archive/etc/mysql/my.cnf /etc/config-archive/etc/mysql/my.cnf.dist 
--- /etc/config-archive/etc/mysql/my.cnf        2010-04-29 14:10:16.000000000 +0000
+++ /etc/config-archive/etc/mysql/my.cnf.dist   2010-07-15 01:30:36.000000000 +0000
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # /etc/mysql/my.cnf: The global mysql configuration file.
-# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/dev-db/mysql/files/my.cnf-5.1,v 1.2 2010/03/24 18:26:09 robbat2 Exp $
+# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/dev-db/mysql/files/my.cnf-4.1,v 1.4 2008/11/14 02:16:25 robbat2 Exp $
 
 # The following options will be passed to all MySQL clients
 [client]
@@ -9,27 +9,27 @@
 
 [mysql]
 character-sets-dir=/usr/share/mysql/charsets
-default-character-set=utf8
+character-set-server=utf8
 
 [mysqladmin]
 character-sets-dir=/usr/share/mysql/charsets
-default-character-set=utf8
+character-set-server=utf8
 
 [mysqlcheck]
 character-sets-dir=/usr/share/mysql/charsets
-default-character-set=utf8
+character-set-server=utf8
 
 [mysqldump]
 character-sets-dir=/usr/share/mysql/charsets
-default-character-set=utf8
+character-set-server=utf8
 
 [mysqlimport]
 character-sets-dir=/usr/share/mysql/charsets
-default-character-set=utf8
+character-set-server=utf8
 
 [mysqlshow]
 character-sets-dir=/usr/share/mysql/charsets
-default-character-set=utf8
+character-set-server=utf8
 
 [myisamchk]
 character-sets-dir=/usr/share/mysql/charsets

[Comment 1 Robin Johnson 2010-08-08 23:58:08 UTC]

Only [mysqld] should have character-set-server, all the rest should be default-character-set.

Looks like you had a bad merge/edit somehow (and got the , as even the my.cnf installed for 4.1 had the correct version since 18/Nov/2008.

[Comment 2 Robin Johnson 2010-08-23 06:33:47 UTC]

jmbsvicetto:
I found the source of this. The overlay had the 4.1 cnf in the 5.1 cnf file.