[ic] mysql having problems reconnecting on catalog reconfig

[Mike Heins]

Quoting Mike Heins (mike at perusion.com):
> Quoting Mike Heins (mike at perusion.com):
> > Quoting Peter (peter at pajamian.dhs.org):
> > > I'm having problems with IC 5.7 (latest GIT HEAD), perl 5.12.4 and
> > > mysql.  When a catalog reconfig is done none of the sql tables would
> > > load back up all giving errors like this in catalog.cfg:
> > > 
> > > table 'variants' failed: table variants connect failed -- unknown error.
> > > Driver 'mysql' installed?
> > > 
> > > I traced the problem down to DBI.pm and found that if I change line 372
> > > from:
> > > 
> > > $db = DBI->connect( @call ) unless $bad;
> > > 
> > > ...to:
> > > 
> > > $db = DBI->connect( @call );
> > > 
> > > ...then everything now works again.  It would seem that for some reason
> > > the ached connection goes bad, but it all comes back to life if I allow
> > > an attempt to go through to reconnect.
> > > 
> > > I then checked the git logs to find out the history behind that line of
> > > code and traced it back to this commit:
> > > 
> > > https://github.com/interchange/interchange/commit/17a12070#L0R372
> > > 
> > > I'm not sure I really understand what the problem was that was fixed
> > > back in 2001 by this commit, but perhaps someone (Mike?) could shed some
> > > light on it?  It seems to make sense to me to try to connect again if
> > > the connection goes bad, so why are we not doing that now?  Is there any
> > > other light that can be shed on this problem?
> > 
> > It's a part of the alternate DSN stuff, where you can fall back to a
> > different database server if one is down.
> > 
> > But the bigger question is -- why did your connect fail originally,
> > so that you have a connection marked as bad?
> 
> Going forward, perhaps it makes sense to reset %DBI_connect_bad
> on a catalog reconfig.

Trying to set a record for consecutive replies to my own message,
you can test what is going on by posting an alternate DSN which
describes the same database resource. If it doesn't fail, and
connects to the new source, you know that resetting %DBI_connect_bad
will work.

-- 
Mike Heins
Perusion -- Expert Interchange Consulting    http://www.perusion.com/
phone +1.765.328.4479  <mike at perusion.com>

I used to think the whole world stank. Then I found out I had poop
on my mustache. -- Anonymous