YOURLS_NOSTATS + shunt_update_clicks still allows full-table SELECT from yourls_log (slow query)

[ivanfolkamedia]

Hello everyone,
Even with stats disabled, I’m seeing a very expensive read from yourls_log in MySQL slow logs. The query appears to fetch all rows from the log table, causing multi-second stalls under load.

From mysqldumpslow:

I would like to completely disable any queries to yourls_log (reads and writes) when stats are turned off.
Count: 1 Time=19.20s (19s) Lock=0.00s (0s) Rows_sent=4383285.0 (4383285), Rows_examined=4383285.0 (4383285), Rows_affected=19.2 (19), root[root]@localhost SELECT /*!N SQL_NO_CACHE */ click_id, click_time, shorturl, referrer, user_agent, ip_address, country_codeFROMyourls_log
What I did

1. Enabled the YOURLS_NOSTATS constant:

// Disable stats writes/reads (expectation) // Español: desactivar estadísticas if ( ! defined( 'YOURLS_NOSTATS' ) ) { define( 'YOURLS_NOSTATS', true ); }

2. Added a tiny plugin to shunt click updates:

`/**

• Plugin Name: Disable YOURLS click stats (shunt)
• Description: Prevents stats updates
  */

// Español: forzar a que no se actualicen clics
yourls_add_filter( 'shunt_update_clicks', function () {
return true;
} );
`

Despite this, the slow query above keeps showing up.

Expected behavior

When YOURLS_NOSTATS is set (and/or shunt_update_clicks returns true), YOURLS should not query yourls_log at all—or at least should avoid full scans without WHERE/LIMIT.

Actual behavior

A SELECT against yourls_log is executed, returning millions of rows and showing up in mysqldumpslow.

Questions

• Is there a supported way to fully disable any reads from yourls_log (not just writes) when stats are disabled?
• Is there an additional constant or filter I should use to shunt log reads? (Something like a global query shunt or a specific “log read” shunt?)

If not currently possible, would you consider a PR to:
Make YOURLS_NOSTATS also short-circuit all queries to yourls_log, or introduce a new flag (e.g. YOURLS_DISABLE_LOG_QUERIES) / filter to bypass any yourls_log reads?

Environment
YOURLS version: 1.10.1
PHP version: 8.3
MySQL version: mariadb 10.11.14
Traffic level / log table size: ~4.3M rows returned by the observed query

Additional context
I’m not calling stats endpoints; this shows up during normal operation.

Thanks in advance for any guidance or pointers on how to shut off these log queries entirely.

[ozh]

Indeed, valid point. This typically something that should not need a plugin to fix.

The idea behing YOURLS_NOSTATS was to disable detailed stat logging, into the yourls_log table. So I think having YOURLS_NOSTATS set to true should not change the behavior of yourls_update_clicks() - at least for behavior consistency. If something wants to completely disable any logging, a plugin like yours here will do the job.

This said I don't see where we're querying yourls_log when YOURLS_NOSTATS is true. I opened an issue : #3986
PR completely welcome on that matter ! I don't think we need another constant for this (I don't think we need any other constant for anything)

[ivanfolkamedia]

Thanks for the clarification and for opening #3986 — much appreciated. I’m happy to test any patch if needed. Thanks again!

Do you think the opened issue could have a fix soon?

[ozh]

No idea, and anyway, as said above : I don't see where we're querying yourls_log when YOURLS_NOSTATS is true.

[matt-h]

I also took a look into this and I'm not seeing any queries in the code for the yourls_log table that would produce any queries like the one mentioned from the logs.

Do you have any plugins installed? I could be coming from a plugin.