It's not completely clear to me how this will impact backwards compatibility: if I create a table with STRICT will versions of SQLite prior to the one that ships the feature still be able to open that database file and read from and write to that table?
If they can, and they insert an invalid row, what will happen when a modern version of SQLite attempts to read from the table?
Generated column support was added with SQLite version 3.31.0 (2020-01-22). If an earlier version of SQLite attempts to read a database file that contains a generated column in its schema, then that earlier version will perceive the generated column syntax as an error and will report that the database schema is corrupt.
To clarify: SQLite version 3.31.0 can read and write any database created by any prior version of SQLite going back to SQLite 3.0.0 (2004-06-18). And, earlier versions of SQLite, prior to 3.31.0, can read and write databases created by SQLite version 3.31.0 and later as long as the database schema does not contain features, such as generated columns, that are not understood by the earlier version. Problems only arise if you create a new database that contains generated columns, using SQLite version 3.31.0 or later, and then try to read or write that database file using an earlier version of SQLite that does not understand generated columns.
End of quote.
I can't find it easily in documentation, but I've read somewhere that SQLite stores schema in database as text - and reasoning behind this was that it allows SQLite devs change internal representation of schema without worrying about backwards compatibility too much.
If they can, and they insert an invalid row, what will happen when a modern version of SQLite attempts to read from the table?