Why can a user modify server version in config file?

#1

It affects the result of SELECT VERSION(); while I do believe the version info should be immutable of a released binary.

#2

Wow, this is mind blowing…

#3

Some audit software uses the version to determine which critical bugs contained in the release (treat TiDB as MySQL). Users use this feature to avoid some audit software misinformation.
@tison @dragonly

#4

dirty but seems necessary

#5

Thanks for your information @lonng!

I’d like to investigate a bit on this issue. Then when do we want to use the version as a MySQL compatible version? Does MySQL define a version string spec?

Generally speaking TiDB is not fully 5.7 compatible. If the version string is for display only and we actually don’t depend on it, why not define a TiDB version string that avoid this misinformation?

UPDATED: Well, since there is audit tools validate the version, there must be some of them validate whether the version string is a valid MySQL version…

#6

In current situation the function is necessary, but we may think of a pluggable function replacement instead of in-place hacking…I’m not quite sure whether or not it is deserved, though.

And as far as we support such approach now, we may live with it at least for a long time…

#7

Yes, we are not fully compatible with MySQL at the code level. But some ORM/drivers will detect the server version to tweak some internal variables. We are compatible with the MySQL version to avoid some ORM or driver issues.