CREATE TABLE t1 (pk int auto_increment primary key) ENGINE=innodb; show create table t1; Table Create Table t1 CREATE TABLE `t1` ( `pk` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, PRIMARY KEY (`pk`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 reset master; begin; insert into t1 values (1),(2); *** the following UPDATE query wont generate any updates for the binlog *** update t1 set pk = 3 where pk < 3; ERROR 23000: Duplicate entry '3' for key 'PRIMARY' commit; *** Results of the test: the binlog must have only Write_rows events not any Update_rows *** show binlog events from <binlog_start>; Log_name Pos Event_type Server_id End_log_pos Info master-bin.000001 # Query # # use `test`; BEGIN master-bin.000001 # Table_map # # table_id: # (test.t1) master-bin.000001 # Write_rows # # table_id: # flags: STMT_END_F master-bin.000001 # Xid # # COMMIT /* XID */ drop table t1;