phacility/phabricator · error · Exception

Unsupported character set "%s".

Error message

Unsupported character set "%s".

What it means

During the schema-adjustment phase of `bin/storage upgrade`, an adjustment for a column carries a charset other than binary, utf8 or utf8mb4 — the only values this switch can render into `ALTER ... CHARACTER SET`. The exception means the code that computes expected schema and the code that applies adjustments disagree, which in practice indicates local modifications or a mixed-version tree.

Source

Thrown at src/infrastructure/storage/management/workflow/PhabricatorStorageManagementWorkflow.php:371

                if ($auto) {
                  $parts[] = qsprintf(
                    $conn,
                    'AUTO_INCREMENT');
                }

                if ($adjust['charset']) {
                  switch ($adjust['charset']) {
                    case 'binary':
                      $charset_value = qsprintf($conn, 'binary');
                      break;
                    case 'utf8':
                      $charset_value = qsprintf($conn, 'utf8');
                      break;
                    case 'utf8mb4':
                      $charset_value = qsprintf($conn, 'utf8mb4');
                      break;
                    default:
                      throw new Exception(
                        pht(
                          'Unsupported character set "%s".',
                          $adjust['charset']));
                  }

                  switch ($adjust['collation']) {
                    case 'binary':
                      $collation_value = qsprintf($conn, 'binary');
                      break;
                    case 'utf8_general_ci':
                      $collation_value = qsprintf($conn, 'utf8_general_ci');
                      break;
                    case 'utf8mb4_bin':
                      $collation_value = qsprintf($conn, 'utf8mb4_bin');
                      break;
                    case 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci':
                      $collation_value = qsprintf($conn, 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci');
                      break;

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

1. Restore one coherent code version: verify `git status`, redeploy cleanly, restart PHP so opcache reloads.
2. Remove local schema-spec changes that introduce charsets outside binary/utf8/utf8mb4, or update the specs to use supported values.
3. If you maintain a fork that genuinely needs the charset, extend the switch in PhabricatorStorageManagementWorkflow in the same change as the spec.

try {
  // bin/storage upgrade including the adjust phase
} catch (Exception $ex) {
  // adjustment invariant broke; do not retry until code versions are coherent
  fwrite(STDERR, $ex->getMessage()."\n");
  exit(1);
}

When it happens

Trigger: An adjustment record with an unrecognized charset reaches the switch: a fork extending schema specs with a new charset without extending this switch, or storage-management code and schema-spec code from different Phabricator versions (for example stale opcache after a partial deploy).

Common situations: Running bin/storage from one version of the tree against patched or half-updated code; forks adding charset handling; opcache serving an old workflow file after a pull.

Related errors

• Unsupported collation set "%s".
• Unknown schema adjustment kind "%s"!
• Almanac service, device, property, network and namespace nam
• Specify the dumpfile to read with "--input", or use "--live"
• Specify namespace to rename from with %s.

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5e05fbe9d715bf88. Report an issue: GitHub.