We need to alter the variables ft_min_word_len and ft_max_word_len They currently appear to be set at 7 and 11 and I have no idea how they got changed from their default values. This is version 3.23 and adding these lines broke the mysql server: ft_min_word_len = 3; ft_max_word_len = 32; The error returned was that the site could not connect to the mysql server. Why are we working with such an old version? They are using version 7.09 or something of Redhat. I can't really find any docs on this except one which said the variables were introduced in version 4.0 of mysql... But if this is the case, how the heack to we set the min and max fulltext search length? Help appreciated.

Sounds like you have bigger problems.

You don't really want to be developing new stuff targetting such an archaeological version of MySQL.

I think you should consider upgrading your hosting platform.

On MySQL 4 I have successfully changed the fulltext word length by editing my.cnf and restarting the server - beware that you have to rebuild the fulltext index for it to be updated though - use REPAIR TABLE for that.

Mark

Oh, trust me, I know.

The whole situation was rediculous. I had designed for mysql 4.0 and up, but the client's uncle runs this terrible hosting company which is running archaic versions of things with terrible support.

I hate arguing with a client or with a client's family so I left it at: "their technicians are as lazy as they are incompetant" and I think he's going to switch hosting companies now because the existing one will not update their OS because it's "too much of a hassle" which I find "stupid"

Anyway, hope my frustration didn't shine through too much... Just sick of dealing with old systems and re-writing perfectly valid mysql code to conform to an outdated version.

Thank you for your reply.

I told them to change their .cnf file, however, adding those variables borked the site. I also told them to restart the server, but I don't know if they did or not and honestly I'm sick of telling the hosting company how to fix their own problems. Maybe the rebuild of the indexes didn't work, we could try again.

To be clear, the client is fine to work with, it's just a hassle dealing with the stupid hosting company. I'm just glad I convinced him to switch.