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Case Insensitive Table And Column Names In MySQL

While you should always uphold the case-sensitive tablenames, it can be troublesome when migrating from a host that had this option enabled (table & column names become case insensitive), to a host that doesn't have this option -- so you suddenly find yourself "stuck" with case sensitive table and column names. For instance when migrating from a Windows environment, to a Linux environment.

Table 'database.TableName' doesn't exist (because the table "tablename" exists, without capitals)

To solve this, edit your /etc/my.cnf file and add the following line:

set-variable = lower_case_table_names=1

Restart your MySQLd.

service mysqld restart
or
/etc/init.d/mysqld restart

There are some serious consequences to this change, which are best explained on this page; MySQL case insensitive table and column names. And if you're thinking of using this in combination with Plesk's Control Panel; don't. You'll break Plesk's functionality, and receive continuous notices that the server's SMTP server is down, even though it's not. This is because Plesk performs its checks using a case sensitive database, and those checks fail once you revert to a case insensitive system.

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7 Responses

  1. tried this and mysql wouldn’t start.
    log says :
    Unknown suffix ‘;’ used for variable ‘lower_case_table_names’ (value ’1;’)
    090604 9:11:55 [ERROR] /usr/libexec/mysqld: Error while setting value ’1;’ to ‘lower_case_table_names’

    looks like the ‘;’ shouldn’t be there….
    set-variable = lower_case_table_names=1;

  2. @Swede; thanks for noticing, I’ve updated the post!

  3. I get nothing when I insert the following line into /etc/mysql/my.cnf:
    set-variable = lower_case_table_names=1

    So I tried:
    set-variable = lower_case_table_names=1;

    and I also get nothing.

    I tried putting it in a different location such as /etc/my.cnf – to no avail. Any ideas?

  4. @Craig: did you restart MySQL after the change?
    Are you certain that ‘s the my.cnf that is actually used? That last one (with semi-colon), should give a syntax error when you restart MySQL.

    What version of MySQL are you running?

  5. I edit my.cnf only

    lower_case_table_names=1

    in section [mysqld]

    then restart mysql, It work find.

  6. Thanks a lots. it worked for me :)



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