The ROW_FORMAT is removed from InnoDB tables since it makes it impossible to restore tables backed up on a server using the Barracuda InnoDB engine to servers using the Antelope InnoDB engine.
If you use tables with large indices you need to set innodb_file_format to Barracuda, innodb_file_per_table to ON, innodb_large_prefix to ON and innodb_default_row_format to DYNAMIC in your server's my.cnf file. Please note these are the default settings in MySQL 5.7 and 8. I don't have any older versions but you can explode the default settings in the MySQL documentation page I linked.
These settings mean that MySQL will be using the DYNAMIC row format for all InnoDB tables created. Also note that the first three options are mandatory to enable the DYNAMIC row format in MySQL with index sizes over 767 bytes. If you have all these settings already set on your MySQL server it makes no sense to use the COMPACT row format; that was the default format in Antelope because of limitations in the InnoDB engine itself, not because it's better. In fact, the DYNAMIC row format is the recommended and default InnoDB row format the past several years. It has tangible performance improvements on most tables.
Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos
Lead Developer and Director
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