mysql 5.6 foreign key constraint error; didn't occur in 5.5

Question

Tables involved:

phppos_permissions_actions:

mysql> show create table phppos_permissions_actions;
+----------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Table                      | Create Table                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
+----------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| phppos_permissions_actions | CREATE TABLE `phppos_permissions_actions` (
  `module_id` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `person_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `action_id` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`module_id`,`person_id`,`action_id`),
  KEY `phppos_permissions_actions_ibfk_2` (`person_id`),
  KEY `phppos_permissions_actions_ibfk_3` (`action_id`),
  CONSTRAINT `phppos_permissions_actions_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`module_id`) REFERENCES `phppos_modules` (`module_id`),
  CONSTRAINT `phppos_permissions_actions_ibfk_2` FOREIGN KEY (`person_id`) REFERENCES `phppos_employees` (`person_id`),
  CONSTRAINT `phppos_permissions_actions_ibfk_3` FOREIGN KEY (`action_id`) REFERENCES `phppos_modules_actions` (`action_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci |
+----------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

phppos_modules

mysql> show create table phppos_modules;
+----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Table          | Create Table                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
+----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| phppos_modules | CREATE TABLE `phppos_modules` (
  `name_lang_key` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `desc_lang_key` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `sort` int(10) NOT NULL,
  `module_id` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`module_id`),
  UNIQUE KEY `desc_lang_key` (`desc_lang_key`),
  UNIQUE KEY `name_lang_key` (`name_lang_key`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci |
+----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Query:

ALTER TABLE `phppos_permissions_actions` CHANGE `module_id` `module_id` VARCHAR(100) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL, CHANGE `action_id` `action_id` VARCHAR(100) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL

Error:

#1832 - Cannot change column 'module_id': used in a foreign key constraint 'phppos_permissions_actions_ibfk_1'

(in mysql 5.5 there was no error)

The only way I can get it to work is by doing:

SET foreign_key_checks = 0;

What changed in 5.6? Is this a bug?

Answer 1

This is apparently an improvement in MySQL 5.6, though the implementation seems a little too strict.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/alter-table.html says:

As of 5.6.7, the server prohibits changes to foreign key columns with the potential to cause loss of referential integrity. A workaround is to use ALTER TABLE ... DROP FOREIGN KEY before changing the column definition and ALTER TABLE ... ADD FOREIGN KEY afterward.

The release notes say this is related to http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=46599

That's fine, however...

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/create-table-foreign-keys.html says:

Corresponding columns in the foreign key and the referenced key must have similar data types. The size and sign of integer types must be the same. The length of string types need not be the same. For nonbinary (character) string columns, the character set and collation must be the same.

---

Re your comment:

It's not really a contradiction. You can still create foreign keys in MySQL 5.6 with different string lengths.

create table foo ( p varchar(20) primary key );
create table bar ( f varchar(10), foreign key (f) references foo (p) );

You can modify columns as long as there's no chance of truncating data.

alter table bar modify column f varchar(20); /* increasing string length */
Query OK

But you can't modify columns if it might lose data.

alter table bar modify column f varchar(5); /* decreasing string length */
ERROR 1832 (HY000): Cannot change column 'f': 
used in a foreign key constraint 'bar_ibfk_1'

And as you discovered, you can disable foreign key checks either with foreign_check_checks=0 or else by dropping the constraint with ALTER TABLE and then recreate the constraint after you modify your column.