WordPress and MySQL’s strict mode
I really don’t like running my database in “I Love Garbage” mode, so I set the following SQL_MODE:
STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO, NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER,NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO, NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION,NO_ZERO_DATE, NO_ZERO_IN_DATE,ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY
Guess what WordPress does with that? It doesn’t install. If you set the SQL_MODE to empty and install WordPress, then restore the SQL_MODE, WordPress will run, but if you try to create a post you’ll see an error page that says “You are not allowed to edit this post.”
This problem was reported to WordPress at least 7 years ago. Lessons learned:
- There is a huge amount of software that was built to work with MySQL 3.23′s irritating habit of inserting different data than you told it to, with nothing but a warning most people will never see.
- That software will break in unlovely ways when you try to make MySQL behave more correctly.
- Those who gripe about MySQL’s bugs (as I sometimes do) should remember that MySQL is probably better quality than most of the software that is built to use it. This is probably a universal truth — the Linux kernel is probably better quality than most software that runs in Linux, for example.
- MySQL’s bugs often get fixed faster than aforementioned software’s bugs, too.
A philosophical post for Friday evening, but you do make a good and succinct point!
Henrik Ingo
15 Mar 13 at 4:28 pm
Yup, these problems are pretty ancient.
http://rpbouman.blogspot.nl/2007/04/so-wordpress-does-not-like-mysql-sql.html
http://rpbouman.blogspot.nl/2007/04/guess-whatwordpress-does-not-like.html
Roland Bouman
15 Mar 13 at 6:57 pm
Code quality of WordPress was not something to be proud of, at least in early releases – and security history of the tool is here to prove it.
I still remember the shock reading a comment whereby “all quotes are transformed into inverted quotes because quotes can not be saved into a database”…
If you are looking for something which runs on mysql strictest mode, you should probably shop for a sw which can run on 2 or 3 different databases – that forces developers to be careful and learn proper SQL syntax. Otoh it also forces them to throw away most of the goodies that modern databases offer ;-)
Last words of advice: it’s easy when you work so long and passionately with a product, to see only the warts it has and complain a lot. It is then refreshing to sometimes look around and find out that elsewhere it is actually worse!
gggeek
18 Mar 13 at 11:19 am