[debian-mysql] Bug#868445: Bug#868445: Bug#868445: mysql-server: Would like a way to suppress spurious ERROR 1547

[Lars Tangvald]

Hi,

I'll look into this (wouldn't normally take long since there aren't that many changes in 5.5, but most of us are on vacation) and get back to you.

That said, if this is not a regression/bug, then it _is_ likely to be a change made precisely for security reasons.
What exactly do you use the timestamp data for? There may be a better way of handling it than putting it as an extra column (e.g. getting data from information_schema, using triggers, etc).

--
Lars
----- robie.basak at ubuntu.com wrote:

> Hi David,
> 
> Thank you for your report.
> 
> On Sat, Jul 15, 2017 at 08:58:21AM -0400, David Lee Lambert wrote:
> > Some time ago, on my main Debian MySQL server, I added an extra
> > column to the "mysql.user" table of type "timestamp", for auditing
> > purposes.  It didn't cause any trouble at the time, but now when
> > I try to issue a GRANT statement I get the error
> > 
> > ERROR 1547 (HY000): Column count of mysql.user is wrong. Expected
> 42, found 43. The table is probably corrupted
> > 
> > Dropping the extra column gets me past the error, but I wish I
> could
> > keep that information. In fact, since the error showed up after
> "security"
> > updates on the Debian Stable branch, I consider it a REGRESSION.
> 
> I don't think it's reasonable to consider this a regression. A stable
> update (whether security or not) by definition must change some
> behaviour. In general, I think it's reasonable for such updates to
> assume that users haven't messed with internal data structures.
> Otherwise, how would a security update that must modify an internal
> data
> structure work?
> 
> In this particular case, it does appear unnecessary that there is an
> additional check here, but I won't conclude that without knowing
> exactly
> why it was done.
> 
> I'm happy to ask upstream on their view on this, and the reasoning
> for
> this change, and see if they think the error can be reduced to a
> warning
> in this case.
> 
> Robie
> 
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