Bug #69997 Please expose skip-character-set-client-handshake as a variable
Submitted: 12 Aug 2013 15:19 Modified: 15 Aug 2013 22:48
Reporter: Peter Laursen (Basic Quality Contributor) Email Updates:
Status: Verified Impact on me:
None 
Category:MySQL Server: Options Severity:S3 (Non-critical)
Version:any. OS:Any
Assigned to: CPU Architecture:Any

[12 Aug 2013 15:19] Peter Laursen
Description:
The headline should tell. It seems that it is (still) quite common in Russia to have this option set in combination with a non-unicode cyrillic character set as the default server character set. I have now experienced this 5+ times in 1 to 1½ years.

It is extremely confusing to work with a server where this option is set and you don't know. You cannot assume that client users have access to configuration. You can SET NAMES after connection - but it is not alwyas easy to tell that that is what is requried to make a client using another character set (utf8 primarily) work properly.

Docs reference: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/server-options.html#option_mysqld_character-set-cli...

I actually thought I posted this before. But cannot find. So probably I did not!

How to repeat:
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'skip-character-set-client-handshake';
.. returns an empty set.

Suggested fix:
Or even better: remove this option! It could have made sense when 4.1 was released for emulating earlier versions' behaviour and application compability, but now I think users should know how to use charset in both server and clients!
[12 Aug 2013 15:23] Peter Laursen
I should have posted this link instead:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/server-options.html#option_mysqld_character-set-cli...
(to tell that the option is still in 5.6)
[15 Aug 2013 10:51] Peter Laursen
This reprot http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=70036 now occurred. Also related to skip-character-set-client-handshake.
[15 Aug 2013 22:48] MySQL Verification Team
Thank you for the bug report.
[23 Oct 2024 8:00] MySQL Verification Team
'character-set-client-handshake' was deprecated on MySQL 8.2.0
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/relnotes/mysql/8.2/en/news-8-2-0.html#mysqld-8-2-0-deprecation-r...

The --character-set-client-handshake server option, originally intended for use with upgrades from very old versions of MySQL, is now deprecated, and a warning is issued whenever it is used. You should expect this option to be removed in a future version of MySQL; applications depending on this option should begin migration away from it as soon as possible. (WL #13220)

'character-set-client-handshake' was removed on MySQL 8.3.0
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/relnotes/mysql/8.3/en/news-8-3-0.html#mysqld-8-3-0-deprecation-r...

The --character-set-client-handshake and --old-style-user-limits server options were formerly used for compatibility with very old versions of MySQL which are no longer supported or maintained. Since they no longer serve any useful purpose, both options have been removed. (WL #13221, WL #13229)

So this request itself has become meaningless now.