[debian-mysql] Bug#438970: UTF8 default charcterset for mysql-server package

[Johan Ramm-Ericson]

Package: mysql-server
Version: 5.0.32-7etch1

The default character set for the mysql-server package is currently
latin1. See the server status notice after installing the package:

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
mysql> status;
--------------
mysql  Ver 14.12 Distrib 5.0.38, for pc-linux-gnu (i486) using readline 5.2

Connection id:          1
Current database:
Current user:           root at localhost
SSL:                    Not in use
Current pager:          stdout
Using outfile:          ''
Using delimiter:        ;
Server version:         5.0.32-Debian_7etch1-log Debian etch distribution
Protocol version:       10
Connection:             Localhost via UNIX socket
Server characterset:    latin1
Db     characterset:    latin1
Client characterset:    latin1
Conn.  characterset:    latin1
UNIX socket:            /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
Uptime:                 32 sec

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

This behaviour can cause problems in any number of scenarios. I personally
noticed it when I was changing forum software on an Ubuntu forum. Since
the two forum applications had different ways of handling character sets I
had to convert the forum database from latin1 to utf8 for the forum
application to correctly pick up the characters. Of course, I was quite
frustrated with the inability of the forum packages to deal with the
character sets correctly but I also realised that the problem may have
been non-existent if the database originally had been utf8.

The suggested solution is to always compile the mysql package with utf8 as
default character set. (./configure --with-charset=utf8)

I am using Ubuntu 7.04, 2.6.20-16-generic kernel and libc6 2.5-0ubuntu14.

The reason I am reporting this with Debian bugs and not with Ubuntu bugs /
Launchpad is because I noticed it was - as I believe - as incorrect in the
Debian package as it is in the Ubuntu package. I also have a suspicion
that the Ubuntu package is supplied directly from the Debian package
without modification - I may, of course, be wrong about that.

Thanks and Best Regards,
Johan Ramm-Ericson