Sets a persistent variable during the 7.x-8.x upgrade path.
Use this during the 7.x-8.x upgrade path instead of variable_set().
string $name: The name of the variable to set.
mixed $value: The value to set. This can be any PHP data type; these functions take care of serialization as necessary.
function update_variable_set($name, $value) {
db_merge('variable')
->key(array(
'name' => $name,
))
->fields(array(
'value' => serialize($value),
))
->execute();
}