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)
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