[Koha-bugs] [Bug 29522] Bib record not correctly updated when merging identical authorities with LinkerModule set to First Match

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.koha-community.org]

https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=29522

--- Comment #7 from Phil Ringnalda <phil at chetcolibrary.org> ---
There is a fourth scenario: when someone is intentionally updating an authority
in such a way that autolink will realize it should link to something else, in
order to avoid an actual old->new merge.

authorities/merge.pl is optimized for merges where you are merging authid 10 to
authid 1, but you are keeping the 100 tag from 10, or you are keeping the
008+040$f from 10 to give 1 a different $2 in the linked bib records, so that
there's a reason to update the headings in bibs linked to the kept authority
record. Whether or not the merge will make any difference to linked bibs, it
calls ModAuthority on 1, triggering a 1->1 merge by doing so, and then merges
10->1.

That makes merging Thrillers (Ficition) with 1 linked bib to Thrillers
(Fiction) with 13534 linked bibs a bad idea (unless you have MergeLimit over
13534), since deferred merges aren't particularly robust. Even below
MergeLimit, it's a waste of time and electrons to update every linked bib when
you haven't made any changes that will update anything. So all day every day, I
change "Patterson, James" to "Patterson, James, 1947-" in an authority record,
expecting the attached bib to realize it should relink to the existing
authority. My extensive use of something isn't necessarily a reason not to
break it, but removing relinks for updating a single authority would be a huge
workflow frustration for me.

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