Tim Marklew wrote:
> LDC - could you comment on how potentially dangerous this function is in
> terms of slowing down the site for others? If a query results in a big
> table, this can slow down the server. Is there an upper limit for how
> long a query can take, or the size of a table, before it would time
> out? If so, how big is the limit?
Brion Vibber wrote:
Umm, not that I know of....
On that note; currently the MySQL server is running at 99.5% CPU.
Whatever it's doing, it's slowing the wiki to a trickle; I can't even
get a connection through.....
The IP address on this query looks suspiciously like yours, Tim! Exactly
what query did you run?
It looks like it was me that brought the server to a standstill yesterday.
I would like to apologise to everyone who was inconvenienced.
This at least unequivocally answers the question about how dangerous direct
database queries can be - it is quite possible for a sysop to bring
Wikipedia to a complete standstill by accidentally entering an inappropriate
database query.
That said, the direct database queries can be really useful when done right.
I suggest that anyone who wants to experiment with them asks Lee Daniel
Crocker for sysop access on the Wikipedia test site
(
http://www.piclab.com/newwiki/wiki.phtml?title=Main_Page). That way you
can test that things work as they should before trying them out on the main
Wikipedia site.
Again, sorry to everyone for any hassle caused.
Tim (Enchanter)
_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device:
http://mobile.msn.com