table.timestamps() should set ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP for updated_ts

Expected: When creating the updated_ts column in table.timestamps(), its DDL should be:

timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

Actual: The ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP part is missing - the updated_ts column is never autoupdated.

The syntax I’m describing works for MySQL, I’m not sure how compatible across database engines it is.

[codeclown]

Instead of relying on bookshelf you can create the datetime-fields manually (mysql):

table.dateTime('created_at').notNullable().defaultTo(knex.raw('CURRENT_TIMESTAMP'))
table.dateTime('updated_at').defaultTo(knex.raw('NULL ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP'))

Or if you prefer updated_at to default to creation time as well:

table.dateTime('created_at').notNullable().defaultTo(knex.raw('CURRENT_TIMESTAMP'))
table.dateTime('updated_at').notNullable().defaultTo(knex.raw('CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP'))

[ericbiewener]

I think timestamps() needs to either provide this auto-update functionality or the docs need to explicitly state that it does not. I simply assumed that functionality was a critical reason for why the timestamps() method exists at all.