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It's different for every site, db backend, etc.

If it's just 1 column, and it doesn't store much data, then probably no. If it's a bunch of columns and it's taking up lots of disk, they they probably migrate what they need to a new table and drop the old one. Altering tables is usually not a good idea. In mysql it can stop replication and can mean hours or days of downtime depending on the situation and amount of data.




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