Bug #86289 Will the Data Dictionary allow for RENAME DATABASE?
Submitted: 11 May 2017 21:15 Modified: 11 May 2017 22:20
Reporter: Rick James Email Updates:
Status: Not a Bug Impact on me:
None 
Category:MySQL Server: DML Severity:S3 (Non-critical)
Version:8.0 OS:Any
Assigned to: CPU Architecture:Any
Tags: data dictionary, DDL, rename database

[11 May 2017 21:15] Rick James 
Description:
5.1 added, then removed, RENAME DATABASE.  Perhaps 8.0's Data Dictionary provides a way to overcome the problem encountered?

How to repeat:
RENAME DATABASE a TO b;  -- syntax error

Suggested fix:
Rethink the implementation.
[11 May 2017 21:19] Rick James 
"This statement was added in MySQL 5.1.7 but was found to be dangerous and was removed in MySQL 5.1.23. It was intended to enable upgrading pre-5.1 databases to use the encoding implemented in 5.1 for mapping database names to database directory names (see Section 9.2.3, “Mapping of Identifiers to File Names”). However, use of this statement could result in loss of database contents, which is why it was removed. Do not use RENAME DATABASE in earlier versions in which it is present."  -- somewhere in 5.1 doc.
[11 May 2017 22:20] MySQL Verification Team 
Thank you for the bug report. How you noticed yourself isn't a bug (https://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=37074). You could however to file it as a feature request. Thanks.