For googlematics January 25 07 - Actually using no VARCHAR or BLOB types results in a fixed row size

googlematics
January 25 07
Actually using no VARCHAR or BLOB types results in a fixed row size. Otherwise CHAR and VARCHAR are the same. Se the below for a more exact definition.
You can check the format used for a table with isamchk -d.
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MySQL has three different table formats:
1. Fixed length tables;
o The default format.
o All non packed columns are space filled
o Very quick.
o Easy to cash
o Easy to reconstruct if crashed (Of course this only theoretical :-) because records are on fixed positions.
o Don't have to be reorganized unless a huge number of records are deleted.
2. Dynamic tables
o Is used if there exists any VARCHAR or BLOB columns in table.
o All strings are dynamic (except if length < 3).
o Each record is preceded with a bitmap for which columns are not empty (this isn't the same as null columns).
o Each string is saved with a length byte + string. If string is zero length or a number is zero it takes no extra place (just the zero length bit for each column).
o Each record is uses exactly the needed record space. If a record gets larger it's split into as many pieces as needed.
o Takes little disk space.
o <http://greateventsupport.com/flash/distorting/draggable-window.html>
o If records are changed a lot, isamchk -r should be run now and then to reorganize the table. This is to get a better layout. Use isamchk -ei table_name for some statistics.
o Not as easy to reconstruct because a record may be in many pieces and a link may be missing.
o The expected row length for dynamic sized records is: 3 + (number_of_columns + 7) / 8 + (number of char columns) + packed_size_of_number_columns + length_of_strings + (null_columns + 7) / 8. There will be a penalty of 6 bytes for each link. A dynamic record will be linked whenever a update causes a enlargement of the record. Each new link will be at least 20 bytes, so the next enlargement will probably go in the same link. If not there will be another link. You may check how many links there are with isamchk -ed. All links may be removed with isamchk -r.
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3. Compressed tables (this is only with UNIREG/pack_isam)
o Read only tables.
o Takes very little disk space. Minimizes disk usage.
o Each record is compressed separately (very little access overhead)
o Can handle fixed or dynamic length records (but no BLOB:s).
o Can be uncompressed with isamchk

PHP's "root directory" on the server. Only used if non-empty. If PHP is configured with safe mode,
no files outside this directory are served.
engineboolean
This directive is really only useful in the Apache module version of PHP. It is used by sites that
would like to turn PHP parsing on and off on a per-directory or per-virtual server basis. By putting
php3_engine off in the appropriate places in the httpd.conf file, PHP can be enabled or
disabled.
error_logstring
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Name of file where script errors should be logged. If the special value syslog is used, the errors
are sent to the system logger instead. On UNIX, this means syslog(3) and on Windows NT it means
the event log. The system logger is not supported on Windows 95.
error_reportinginteger
Set the error reporting level. The parameter is an integer representing a bit field. Add the values of
the error reporting levels you want.
Table 3-1. Error Reporting Levels
bit value enabled reporting
1 normal errors
2 normal warnings
4 parser errors
8 non-critical style-related warnings
The default value for this directive is 7 (normal errors, normal warnings and parser errors are shown).
open_basedirstring
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Limit the files that can be opened by PHP to the specified directory-tree.
When a script tries to open a file with, for example, fopen or gzopen, the location of the file is
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checked. When the file is outside the specified directory-tree, PHP will refuse to open it. All
symbolic links are resolved, so it's not possible to avoid this restriction with a symlink