Set the character set before making a connection

Ideally the character set should be set with the connection, and so this is
exactly what's being done now.

And now the character set code is attempted to be generalised.

plugins/SphinxSearch/scripts/gen_config.php

@@ -39,11 +39,11 @@ END_OF_TRIM_HELP;
 require_once INSTALLDIR . '/scripts/commandline.inc';
 require dirname(__FILE__) . '/sphinx-utils.php';
 
-
+$base = $base ?? '/usr/local';
 $timestamp = date('r');
-print <<<END
+echo <<<END
 #
-# Sphinx configuration for StatusNet
+# Sphinx configuration for GNU social
 # Generated {$timestamp}
 #
 
@@ -109,8 +109,9 @@ function sphinx_template($sn, $table, $query, $query_info)
 {
     $base = sphinx_base();
     $dbtype = common_config('db', 'type');
+    $charset = common_database_charset();
 
-    print <<<END
+    echo <<<END
 
 #
 # {$sn->sitename}
@@ -122,7 +123,7 @@ source {$sn->dbname}_src_{$table}
     sql_user                = {$sn->dbuser}
     sql_pass                = {$sn->dbpass}
     sql_db                  = {$sn->dbname}
-    sql_query_pre           = SET NAMES utf8;
+    sql_query_pre           = SET NAMES '{$charset}';
     sql_query               = {$query}
     sql_query_info          = {$query_info}
     sql_attr_timestamp      = created_ts