Server System Variables Default Value utf8mb4 System Variable character_set_connection Scope Global, Session Dynamic Yes SET_VAR  Hint Applies No Type String Default Value utf8mb4 System Variable character_set_database Scope Global, Session Dynamic Yes SET_VAR  Hint Applies No Type String Default Value utf8mb4 778 • character_set_database • character_set_connection • mysqld  was started with the  --skip-character-set-client-handshake  option, which causes it to ignore client character set configuration. This reproduces MySQL 4.0 behavior and is useful should you wish to upgrade the server without upgrading all the clients. •The client requests a character set not known to the server. For example, a Japanese-enabled client requests  sjis  when connecting to a server not configured with  sjis  support. •The client is from a version of MySQL older than MySQL 4.1, and thus does not request a character set. The character set for statements that arrive from the client. The session value of this variable is set using the character set requested by the client when the client connects to the server. (Many clients support a  --default-character-set  option to enable this character set to be specified explicitly. See also Section 10.4, “Connection Character Sets and Collations” .) The global value of the variable is used to set the session value in cases when the client-requested value is unknown or not available, or the server is configured to ignore client requests: Some character sets cannot be used as the client character set. Attempting to use them as the character_set_client  value produces an error. See Impermissible Client Character Sets. The character set used for literals specified without a character set introducer and for number-to-string conversion. For information about introducers, see Section 10.3.8, “Character Set Introducers” .