MySQL Bugs: #32370: Documentation doesn't sa whether MERGE can work with different ROW

Bug #32370	Documentation doesn't sa whether MERGE can work with different ROW_FORMAT tables
Submitted:	14 Nov 2007 10:54	Modified:	15 Nov 2007 7:40
Reporter:	Grigory Rubtsov	Email Updates:
Status:	Closed	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server: Documentation	Severity:	S3 (Non-critical)
Version:	5.1.22-rc	OS:	Any
Assigned to:	MC Brown	CPU Architecture:	Any

Description:

Merge documentation
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/merge-storage-engine.html
says "You cannot merge MyISAM  tables in which the columns are listed in a different order, do not have exactly the same columns, or have the indexes in different order. However, any or all of the MyISAM tables can be compressed with myisampack.". 

But it's not clear whether MERGE can be used to MERGE ROW_FORMAT=FIXED and ROW_FORMAT=DYNAMIC tables. Actually in 5.0 it worked and was covered at authorized classes as one feature of MERGE. Another feature is documeted - "However, any or all of the MyISAM tables can be compressed with myisampack", actually that implies different row-format.

At 5.1 both do not work, please see bugs:
a. http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=32079
b. http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=32364

Documentation says that b. is a bug, but it says nothing about a. In my opinion a is also a bug (actually a and b may be the same bug) as it worked in 5.0 and is expected to work in 5.1. The point is better to be clarified in documentation.

How to repeat:
Describe whether MERGE can be used upon tables with different ROW_FORMAT

Thank you for the bug report.

I've added a note to the 5.0 manual to say that using different row formats in the underlying MyISAM tables is supported. For the 5.1 and 6.0 manuals I've added a note that this currently does not work and referred to bug #32364. The documentation will be updated again once this bug is addressed.