README.utf8

How to run your slashsite on UTF-8 mode
=======================================

NOTE: THIS DOCUMENT IS INCOMPLETE.  More could be required to get it working.
Caveat coder and all that.


UTF-8 slash is based on following software features:

 * Unicode support in Perl (see perlunicode(1))
 * MySQL Character Set Support
   (see http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/charset.html)

You can use UTF-8 mode only when you are using above correctly.

Required software versions
--------------------------

 * MySQL 4.1 or later
 * Perl 5.6 or later
 * Perl DBD::mysql 4.001 or later

Required software patches
-------------------------

 * Perl Cache::Memcached UTF8 flag patch
   - cache-memcached-utf8.patch

In case of creating new slash site
----------------------------------

Write your my.cnf (for DB servers) as below:

   [client]
   default-character-set = utf8

   [mysqld]
   default-character-set = utf8

Restart mysqld and check settings.

% mysql
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
:
mysql> SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set\_%';
+--------------------------+--------+
| Variable_name            | Value  |
+--------------------------+--------+
| character_set_client     | utf8   |
| character_set_connection | utf8   |
| character_set_database   | utf8   |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results    | utf8   |
| character_set_server     | utf8   |
| character_set_system     | utf8   |
+--------------------------+--------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Write your my.cnf (for web servers) as below:

   [client]
   default-character-set = utf8

Change your DBIx::Password setting to read my.cnf:

   'connect' => 'DBI:mysql:database=mysql;host=localhost;mysql_read_default_file=/your/my.cnf',

Run "install-slashsite".

In case of changing existing slash site
---------------------------------------

The precondition is configuring correct charset at all existing tables.
Because mysqld will convert charset of request and reply into cliant charset (UTF-8).
If it has configured incorrect charset, SQL will fail or incorrect data will have returned.

You can check the charset settings as below:

mysql> SHOW CREATE TABLE tablename\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
       Table: tablename
Create Table: CREATE TABLE `tablename` (
:
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8
1 row in set (0.04 sec)

"DEFAULT CHARSET" value is the configured charset for this table.  You should check
charset of the contents of this table is the same as configured.  Fix charset when
it is wrong.

Then, Write your my.cnf (for all servers) as below:

   [client]
   default-character-set = utf8

And change your DBIx::Password setting to read my.cnf:

   'connect' => 'DBI:mysql:database=mysql;host=localhost;mysql_read_default_file=/your/my.cnf',

Restart apache and slashd.