MySQL does not support recursive functions? why? since when?

Question

I've written a stored FUNCTION that calls itself, recursively.

However when I run it in a query I get this shameless error:

Error: 1424 SQLSTATE: HY000 (ER_SP_NO_RECURSION)

Message: Recursive stored functions and triggers are not allowed.

"Not allowed"?
Right. Why don't we just disable WHILE loops also, while we're at it?

Can I enable recursive functions in any way?
I found a bug report, but are there any workarounds?
I'm running MySQL 5.1.41 on Windows XP (XAMPP Server).

Answer 1

MySQL 5.1 supports recursive stored procedures, but not recursive functions. Quoting the docs:

Stored functions cannot be recursive.

Recursion in stored procedures is permitted but disabled by default. To enable recursion, set the max_sp_recursion_depth server system variable to a value greater than zero. Stored procedure recursion increases the demand on thread stack space. If you increase the value of max_sp_recursion_depth, it may be necessary to increase thread stack size by increasing the value of thread_stack at server startup.