Bad default charset for db/convert-charset

[fleaz]

Hey,

the default charset for the db/convert-charset console command currently is utf8, which is not optimal imho because it's just an alias for a different charset. Currently it points to utf8mb3 (which itself is deprecated but that's another topic), but according to the MySQL docs, it will be shifted in the future to point to utf8mb4 and therefore their official docs explicitly discourage one from using the alias and rather specify the actual charset you want.

Maybe that's something consider changing before the alias switches its value and produces unwanted results :D

[brandonkelly]

The command uses the charset database connection setting by default. All of your points are still valid though, but for the default setting value. Probably something we should change to be explicitly utf8mb3 or utf8mb4 in Craft 5.

[angrybrad]

Yup, I'd say utf8mb4 for Craft 5. Looks like 5.7 supports it, too.

[ItagMichael]

Just curious why this is better as a default change for Craft 5 but not Craft 4 - just too big of a change?

[brandonkelly]

@ItagMichael It will require people to run db/convert-charset to ensure all tables are using the same utf8mb5 charset. Otherwise you’ll get performance issues for any queries that touch multiple tables with different charsets.