[debian-mysql] Bug#920608: Bug#920608: mariadb-server-10.3: unknown variable 'innodb-large-prefix=on'

[Marko Mäkelä]

I think that upstream has already addressed this issue by introducing
the loose_ prefix for options in MySQL 4.0.2 (and in all MariaDB
versions). If configuration files used that prefix for all options,
there would be no issue when upgrading. Would it be thinkable to add
the loose_ prefix to unknown options in configuration files? Or to
ship a new version of the default configuration file, commenting out
the old (now redundant) settings? Then those users who modified the
configuration files would be alerted about the problem when upgrading
the package.

The parameters innodb_large_prefix and innodb_file_format were
deprecated in MySQL 5.7 and MariaDB 10.2, and removed in MySQL 8.0 and
MariaDB 10.3. Unfortunately, MariaDB 10.2 was not packaged in Debian,
so the fact that 10.2 would have issued deprecation warnings on
startup would not help Debian users.

How long should obscure parameters be preserved? Forever? What about
old syntax? The following worked in MySQL 5.0, but no longer in MySQL
5.1 or MariaDB:
create table t(a int) type=innodb;

Marko