MySQL Bugs: #36371: innodb_log_arch_dir still in documentation, despite being invalid since 5.1.21

Bug #36371	innodb_log_arch_dir still in documentation, despite being invalid since 5.1.21
Submitted:	28 Apr 2008 10:50	Modified:	28 Apr 2008 16:52
Reporter:	Anders Karlsson	Email Updates:
Status:	Closed	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server: Documentation	Severity:	S3 (Non-critical)
Version:	5.1.21	OS:	Any
Assigned to:	Paul DuBois	CPU Architecture:	Any

Description:
The variable innodb_log_arch_dir has been unsused since 4.0.6 or so, and has been deprecated since 5.0.24 according to the version docs (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysqld-version-reference/en/mysqld-version-reference-optvar.html).

According to bug 24934 this has been fixed in the docs, as Heikki requested all references to this variable to be removed, but it is still in the documentation.

As of MySQL 5.1.21, if this variable is used, MySQL will not start with error: [ERROR] /opt/mysql/5.1.23/bin/mysqld:
unknown variable 'innodb_log_arch_dir=<setting>'

This affects customers as a variable, which was deprecated but valid up to 5.1.20 was silently removed, which means upgrades will fail, with no mentioning in the docs of this incompatible change.

How to repeat:
Set the innodb_log_arch_dir variable in MySQL 5.1.21 or up, and the MySQL daemon will no longer start.

Suggested fix:
Update the documentaion as appropriate:
MySQL 5.1 reference and MySQL 5.1 with Maria reference:
- Remove from Section 7.5.2 (included with example ot mysqld help output)
- Add mention of variable being removed to Sections 13.5.3, 5.1.1 and 5.1.3
- Add mentioning of incompatible change or at least change to change log for MySQL 5.1.21

MySQL 5.0 Referece:
- Add metion of variable being deprecated to Section 13.2.4, 5.1.1 and 5.1.3
- Add mention of variable being deprecated to change log for MySQL 5.0.24 (according to http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysqld-version-reference/en/mysqld-version-reference-optvar.html)

MySQL Server Version Reference (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysqld-version-reference/en/mysqld-version-reference-optvar.html):
- Either add link to the "Yes" for MySQL 5.1 so that the docs shows that this variable is no longer available, or set the 5.1 status for this variable to "No".

The alternative to all of the above is to reintroduce this variable, in the same way as in 5.0 with it being deprecated and silently ignored. As it has been ineffective for so long though, the documentation, that says nothing on this variable at all except that it exists in 5.0 and 5.1, needs to be updated anyway.

Thank you for the bug report.

Added 5.0.24 changelog entry pointing out the deprecation.
Added 5.1.21 changelog entry pointing out the incompatible change.
Added entry for innodb_log_arch_dir in the InnoDB option/variable sections:
- 5.0: stated that variable is unused, deprecated as of 5.0.24, will be removed in 5.1
- 5.1: stated that variable is deprecated, has been removed in 5.1.21.

These changes should (I think) cause the links in the variable reference section to update.

This issue is set to status closed but in fact, my.cnf samples supplied with the mysql installation still contain this entry (altough commented out). It is confusing to whoever doesn't know this parameter was removed for so long.

It might be a good idea to change the my.cnf samples encapsulated with the binary installation (.tar.gz) package.

cheers
Darren

Regarding innodb_log_arch_dir still being present in sample .cnf files, that is a separate issue from the Documentation bug addressed by the present bug report. See Bug#38249.

Thank you for this report, I had the same problem yesterday evening with MySQL 5.1.30 (compiled from source) on Mac OS X 10.5.6.