Jonathan Neve wrote:

> That would be quite nice!
>
> Along the same lines, is there any reason why it would not be possible
> to add custom fields to a system table? Perhaps there is, I don't know
> the internals too well, just wondering... If it isn't technically
> absurd, it might be an interesting proposition, as tool vendors would
> then be able to easily attach bits of information directly to the
> meta-data without having to create a separate table duplicating a lot of
> data.
>

It was designed to do just that. The problem is that gbak never got
fixed to backup and restore extensions to system tables. And, I'm
afraid, gbak never got fixed because it's significantly non-trivial.

Now, all that said, when I had to do the whole thing all over again, I
made system tables not only non-extensible by users, but completely
non-writable by users.

Even though it may be possible, I strongly urge you not to extend the
system tables. Set up parallel but separate tables and save yourself a
great deal of grief.


--

Jim Starkey, Senior Software Architect
MySQL AB, www.mysql.com
978 526-1376