Chapter 1 General Information
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Chapter 1 General Information

Table of Contents

1.1 About This Manual
1.2 Typographical and Syntax Conventions
1.3 Overview of the MySQL Database Management System
1.3.1 What is MySQL?
1.3.2 The Main Features of MySQL
1.3.3 History of MySQL
1.4 What Is New in MySQL 5.7
1.5 Server and Status Variables and Options Added, Deprecated, or Removed in MySQL 5.7
1.6 MySQL Information Sources
1.6.1 MySQL Websites
1.6.2 MySQL Community Support at the MySQL Forums
1.6.3 MySQL Enterprise
1.7 How to Report Bugs or Problems
1.8 MySQL Standards Compliance
1.8.1 MySQL Extensions to Standard SQL
1.8.2 MySQL Differences from Standard SQL
1.8.3 How MySQL Deals with Constraints
1.9 Credits
1.9.1 Contributors to MySQL
1.9.2 Documenters and translators
1.9.3 Packages that support MySQL
1.9.4 Tools that were used to create MySQL
1.9.5 Supporters of MySQL

The MySQL™ software delivers a very fast, multithreaded, multi-user, and robust SQL (Structured Query Language) database server. MySQL Server is intended for mission-critical, heavy-load production systems as well as for embedding into mass-deployed software. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. MySQL is a trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates, and shall not be used by Customer without Oracle's express written authorization. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

The MySQL software is Dual Licensed. Users can choose to use the MySQL software as an Open Source product under the terms of the GNU General Public License (http://www.fsf.org/licenses/) or can purchase a standard commercial license from Oracle. See http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/ for more information on our licensing policies.

The following list describes some sections of particular interest in this manual:

Important

To report problems or bugs, please use the instructions at Section 1.7, “How to Report Bugs or Problems”. If you find a security bug in MySQL Server, please let us know immediately by sending an email message to . Exception: Support customers should report all problems, including security bugs, to Oracle Support.

1.1 About This Manual

This is the Reference Manual for the MySQL Database System, version 5.7, through release 5.7.30. Differences between minor versions of MySQL 5.7 are noted in the present text with reference to release numbers (5.7.x).

This manual is not intended for use with older versions of the MySQL software due to the many functional and other differences between MySQL 5.7 and previous versions. If you are using an earlier release of the MySQL software, please refer to the appropriate manual. For example, MySQL 5.6 Reference Manual covers the 5.6 series of MySQL software releases.

If you are using MySQL 8.0, please refer to the MySQL 8.0 Reference Manual.

Because this manual serves as a reference, it does not provide general instruction on SQL or relational database concepts. It also does not teach you how to use your operating system or command-line interpreter.

The MySQL Database Software is under constant development, and the Reference Manual is updated frequently as well. The most recent version of the manual is available online in searchable form at https://dev.mysql.com/doc/. Other formats also are available there, including HTML, PDF, and EPUB versions.

The Reference Manual source files are written in DocBook XML format. The HTML version and other formats are produced automatically, primarily using the DocBook XSL stylesheets. For information about DocBook, see http://docbook.org/

The source code for MySQL itself contains internal documentation written using Doxygen. The generated Doxygen content is available https://dev.mysql.com/doc/index-other.html. It is also possible to generate this content locally from a MySQL source distribution using the instructions at Generating MySQL Doxygen Documentation Content.

If you have questions about using MySQL, join the MySQL Community Slack, or ask in our forums; see Section 1.6.2, “MySQL Community Support at the MySQL Forums”. If you have suggestions concerning additions or corrections to the manual itself, please send them to the http://www.mysql.com/company/contact/.

This manual was originally written by David Axmark and Michael “Monty” Widenius. It is maintained by the MySQL Documentation Team, consisting of Chris Cole, Paul DuBois, Margaret Fisher, Edward Gilmore, Stefan Hinz, David Moss, Philip Olson, Daniel Price, Daniel So, and Jon Stephens.

1.2 Typographical and Syntax Conventions

This manual uses certain typographical conventions:

  • Text in this style is used for SQL statements; database, table, and column names; program listings and source code; and environment variables. Example: “To reload the grant tables, use the FLUSH PRIVILEGES statement.”

  • Text in this style indicates input that you type in examples.

  • Text in this style indicates the names of executable programs and scripts, examples being mysql (the MySQL command-line client program) and mysqld (the MySQL server executable).

  • Text in this style is used for variable input for which you should substitute a value of your own choosing.

  • Text in this style is used for emphasis.

  • Text in this style is used in table headings and to convey especially strong emphasis.

  • Text in this style is used to indicate a program option that affects how the program is executed, or that supplies information that is needed for the program to function in a certain way. Example: “The --host option (short form -h) tells the mysql client program the hostname or IP address of the MySQL server that it should connect to”.

  • File names and directory names are written like this: “The global my.cnf file is located in the /etc directory.”

  • Character sequences are written like this: “To specify a wildcard, use the ‘%’ character.”

When commands are shown that are meant to be executed from within a particular program, the prompt shown preceding the command indicates which command to use. For example, shell> indicates a command that you execute from your login shell, root-shell> is similar but should be executed as root, and mysql> indicates a statement that you execute from the mysql client program: 

shell> type a shell command here
root-shell> type a shell command as root here
mysql> type a mysql statement here

In some areas different systems may be distinguished from each other to show that commands should be executed in two different environments. For example, while working with replication the commands might be prefixed with master and slave: 

master> type a mysql command on the replication master here
slave> type a mysql command on the replication slave here

The “shell” is your command interpreter. On Unix, this is typically a program such as sh, csh, or bash. On Windows, the equivalent program is command.com or cmd.exe, typically run in a console window.

When you enter a command or statement shown in an example, do not type the prompt shown in the example.

Database, table, and column names must often be substituted into statements. To indicate that such substitution is necessary, this manual uses db_name, tbl_name, and col_name. For example, you might see a statement like this: 

mysql> SELECT col_name FROM db_name.tbl_name;

This means that if you were to enter a similar statement, you would supply your own database, table, and column names, perhaps like this: 

mysql> SELECT author_name FROM biblio_db.author_list;

SQL keywords are not case-sensitive and may be written in any lettercase. This manual uses uppercase.

In syntax descriptions, square brackets (“[” and “]”) indicate optional words or clauses. For example, in the following statement, IF EXISTS is optional: 

DROP TABLE [IF EXISTS] tbl_name

When a syntax element consists of a number of alternatives, the alternatives are separated by vertical bars (“|”). When one member from a set of choices may be chosen, the alternatives are listed within square brackets (“[” and “]”): 

TRIM([[BOTH | LEADING | TRAILING] [remstr] FROM] str)

When one member from a set of choices must be chosen, the alternatives are listed within braces (“{” and “}”): 

{DESCRIBE | DESC} tbl_name [col_name | wild]

An ellipsis (...) indicates the omission of a section of a statement, typically to provide a shorter version of more complex syntax. For example, SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE is shorthand for the form of SELECT statement that has an INTO OUTFILE clause following other parts of the statement.

An ellipsis can also indicate that the preceding syntax element of a statement may be repeated. In the following example, multiple reset_option values may be given, with each of those after the first preceded by commas: 

RESET reset_option [,reset_option] ...

Commands for setting shell variables are shown using Bourne shell syntax. For example, the sequence to set the CC environment variable and run the configure command looks like this in Bourne shell syntax: 

shell> CC=gcc ./configure

If you are using csh or tcsh, you must issue commands somewhat differently: 

shell> setenv CC gcc
shell> ./configure

1.3 Overview of the MySQL Database Management System

1.3.1 What is MySQL?
1.3.2 The Main Features of MySQL
1.3.3 History of MySQL

1.3.1 What is MySQL?

MySQL, the most popular Open Source SQL database management system, is developed, distributed, and supported by Oracle Corporation.

The MySQL website (http://www.mysql.com/) provides the latest information about MySQL software.

  • MySQL is a database management system.

    A database is a structured collection of data. It may be anything from a simple shopping list to a picture gallery or the vast amounts of information in a corporate network. To add, access, and process data stored in a computer database, you need a database management system such as MySQL Server. Since computers are very good at handling large amounts of data, database management systems play a central role in computing, as standalone utilities, or as parts of other applications.

  • MySQL databases are relational.

    A relational database stores data in separate tables rather than putting all the data in one big storeroom. The database structures are organized into physical files optimized for speed. The logical model, with objects such as databases, tables, views, rows, and columns, offers a flexible programming environment. You set up rules governing the relationships between different data fields, such as one-to-one, one-to-many, unique, required or optional, and “pointers” between different tables. The database enforces these rules, so that with a well-designed database, your application never sees inconsistent, duplicate, orphan, out-of-date, or missing data.

    The SQL part of “MySQL” stands for “Structured Query Language”. SQL is the most common standardized language used to access databases. Depending on your programming environment, you might enter SQL directly (for example, to generate reports), embed SQL statements into code written in another language, or use a language-specific API that hides the SQL syntax.

    SQL is defined by the ANSI/ISO SQL Standard. The SQL standard has been evolving since 1986 and several versions exist. In this manual, “SQL-92” refers to the standard released in 1992, “SQL:1999” refers to the standard released in 1999, and “SQL:2003” refers to the current version of the standard. We use the phrase “the SQL standard” to mean the current version of the SQL Standard at any time.

  • MySQL software is Open Source.

    Open Source means that it is possible for anyone to use and modify the software. Anybody can download the MySQL software from the Internet and use it without paying anything. If you wish, you may study the source code and change it to suit your needs. The MySQL software uses the GPL (GNU General Public License), http://www.fsf.org/licenses/, to define what you may and may not do with the software in different situations. If you feel uncomfortable with the GPL or need to embed MySQL code into a commercial application, you can buy a commercially licensed version from us. See the MySQL Licensing Overview for more information (http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/).

  • The MySQL Database Server is very fast, reliable, scalable, and easy to use.

    If that is what you are looking for, you should give it a try. MySQL Server can run comfortably on a desktop or laptop, alongside your other applications, web servers, and so on, requiring little or no attention. If you dedicate an entire machine to MySQL, you can adjust the settings to take advantage of all the memory, CPU power, and I/O capacity available. MySQL can also scale up to clusters of machines, networked together.

    MySQL Server was originally developed to handle large databases much faster than existing solutions and has been successfully used in highly demanding production environments for several years. Although under constant development, MySQL Server today offers a rich and useful set of functions. Its connectivity, speed, and security make MySQL Server highly suited for accessing databases on the Internet.

  • MySQL Server works in client/server or embedded systems.

    The MySQL Database Software is a client/server system that consists of a multithreaded SQL server that supports different back ends, several different client programs and libraries, administrative tools, and a wide range of application programming interfaces (APIs).

    We also provide MySQL Server as an embedded multithreaded library that you can link into your application to get a smaller, faster, easier-to-manage standalone product.

  • A large amount of contributed MySQL software is available.

    MySQL Server has a practical set of features developed in close cooperation with our users. It is very likely that your favorite application or language supports the MySQL Database Server.

The official way to pronounce “MySQL” is “My Ess Que Ell” (not “my sequel”), but we do not mind if you pronounce it as “my sequel” or in some other localized way.

1.3.2 The Main Features of MySQL

This section describes some of the important characteristics of the MySQL Database Software. In most respects, the roadmap applies to all versions of MySQL. For information about features as they are introduced into MySQL on a series-specific basis, see the “In a Nutshell” section of the appropriate Manual:

Internals and Portability

  • Written in C and C++.

  • Tested with a broad range of different compilers.

  • Works on many different platforms. See https://www.mysql.com/support/supportedplatforms/database.html.

  • For portability, uses CMake in MySQL 5.5 and up. Previous series use GNU Automake, Autoconf, and Libtool.

  • Tested with Purify (a commercial memory leakage detector) as well as with Valgrind, a GPL tool (http://developer.kde.org/~sewardj/).

  • Uses multi-layered server design with independent modules.

  • Designed to be fully multithreaded using kernel threads, to easily use multiple CPUs if they are available.

  • Provides transactional and nontransactional storage engines.

  • Uses very fast B-tree disk tables (MyISAM) with index compression.

  • Designed to make it relatively easy to add other storage engines. This is useful if you want to provide an SQL interface for an in-house database.

  • Uses a very fast thread-based memory allocation system.

  • Executes very fast joins using an optimized nested-loop join.

  • Implements in-memory hash tables, which are used as temporary tables.

  • Implements SQL functions using a highly optimized class library that should be as fast as possible. Usually there is no memory allocation at all after query initialization.

  • Provides the server as a separate program for use in a client/server networked environment, and as a library that can be embedded (linked) into standalone applications. Such applications can be used in isolation or in environments where no network is available.

Data Types

Statements and Functions

  • Full operator and function support in the SELECT list and WHERE clause of queries. For example: 

    mysql> SELECT CONCAT(first_name, ' ', last_name)
    -> FROM citizen
    -> WHERE income/dependents > 10000 AND age > 30;

  • Full support for SQL GROUP BY and ORDER BY clauses. Support for group functions (COUNT(), AVG(), STD(), SUM(), MAX(), MIN(), and GROUP_CONCAT()).

  • Support for LEFT OUTER JOIN and RIGHT OUTER JOIN with both standard SQL and ODBC syntax.

  • Support for aliases on tables and columns as required by standard SQL.

  • Support for DELETE, INSERT, REPLACE, and UPDATE to return the number of rows that were changed (affected), or to return the number of rows matched instead by setting a flag when connecting to the server.

  • Support for MySQL-specific SHOW statements that retrieve information about databases, storage engines, tables, and indexes. Support for the INFORMATION_SCHEMA database, implemented according to standard SQL.

  • An EXPLAIN statement to show how the optimizer resolves a query.

  • Independence of function names from table or column names. For example, ABS is a valid column name. The only restriction is that for a function call, no spaces are permitted between the function name and the “(” that follows it. See Section 9.3, “Keywords and Reserved Words”.

  • You can refer to tables from different databases in the same statement.

Security

  • A privilege and password system that is very flexible and secure, and that enables host-based verification.

  • Password security by encryption of all password traffic when you connect to a server.

Scalability and Limits

  • Support for large databases. We use MySQL Server with databases that contain 50 million records. We also know of users who use MySQL Server with 200,000 tables and about 5,000,000,000 rows.

  • Support for up to 64 indexes per table. Each index may consist of 1 to 16 columns or parts of columns. The maximum index width for InnoDB tables is either 767 bytes or 3072 bytes. See Section 14.23, “InnoDB Limits”. The maximum index width for MyISAM tables is 1000 bytes. See Section 15.2, “The MyISAM Storage Engine”. An index may use a prefix of a column for CHAR, VARCHAR, BLOB, or TEXT column types.

Connectivity

  • Clients can connect to MySQL Server using several protocols:

    • Clients can connect using TCP/IP sockets on any platform.

    • On Windows systems, clients can connect using named pipes if the server is started with the named_pipe system variable enabled. Windows servers also support shared-memory connections if started with the shared_memory system variable enabled. Clients can connect through shared memory by using the --protocol=memory option.

    • On Unix systems, clients can connect using Unix domain socket files.

  • MySQL client programs can be written in many languages. A client library written in C is available for clients written in C or C++, or for any language that provides C bindings.

  • APIs for C, C++, Eiffel, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl are available, enabling MySQL clients to be written in many languages. See Chapter 27, Connectors and APIs.

  • The Connector/ODBC (MyODBC) interface provides MySQL support for client programs that use ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) connections. For example, you can use MS Access to connect to your MySQL server. Clients can be run on Windows or Unix. Connector/ODBC source is available. All ODBC 2.5 functions are supported, as are many others. See MySQL Connector/ODBC Developer Guide.

  • The Connector/J interface provides MySQL support for Java client programs that use JDBC connections. Clients can be run on Windows or Unix. Connector/J source is available. See MySQL Connector/J 5.1 Developer Guide.

  • MySQL Connector/NET enables developers to easily create .NET applications that require secure, high-performance data connectivity with MySQL. It implements the required ADO.NET interfaces and integrates into ADO.NET aware tools. Developers can build applications using their choice of .NET languages. MySQL Connector/NET is a fully managed ADO.NET driver written in 100% pure C#. See MySQL Connector/NET Developer Guide.

Localization

  • The server can provide error messages to clients in many languages. See Section 10.12, “Setting the Error Message Language”.

  • Full support for several different character sets, including latin1 (cp1252), german, big5, ujis, several Unicode character sets, and more. For example, the Scandinavian characters “å”, “ä” and “ö” are permitted in table and column names.

  • All data is saved in the chosen character set.

  • Sorting and comparisons are done according to the default character set and collation. is possible to change this when the MySQL server is started (see Section 10.3.2, “Server Character Set and Collation”). To see an example of very advanced sorting, look at the Czech sorting code. MySQL Server supports many different character sets that can be specified at compile time and runtime.

  • The server time zone can be changed dynamically, and individual clients can specify their own time zone. See Section 5.1.12, “MySQL Server Time Zone Support”.

Clients and Tools

  • MySQL includes several client and utility programs. These include both command-line programs such as mysqldump and mysqladmin, and graphical programs such as MySQL Workbench.

  • MySQL Server has built-in support for SQL statements to check, optimize, and repair tables. These statements are available from the command line through the mysqlcheck client. MySQL also includes myisamchk, a very fast command-line utility for performing these operations on MyISAM tables. See Chapter 4, MySQL Programs.

  • MySQL programs can be invoked with the --help or -? option to obtain online assistance.

1.3.3 History of MySQL

We started out with the intention of using the mSQL database system to connect to our tables using our own fast low-level (ISAM) routines. However, after some testing, we came to the conclusion that mSQL was not fast enough or flexible enough for our needs. This resulted in a new SQL interface to our database but with almost the same API interface as mSQL. This API was designed to enable third-party code that was written for use with mSQL to be ported easily for use with MySQL.

MySQL is named after co-founder Monty Widenius's daughter, My.

The name of the MySQL Dolphin (our logo) is “Sakila,” which was chosen from a huge list of names suggested by users in our “Name the Dolphin” contest. The winning name was submitted by Ambrose Twebaze, an Open Source software developer from Swaziland, Africa. According to Ambrose, the feminine name Sakila has its roots in SiSwati, the local language of Swaziland. Sakila is also the name of a town in Arusha, Tanzania, near Ambrose's country of origin, Uganda.

1.4 What Is New in MySQL 5.7

This section summarizes what has been added to, deprecated in, and removed from MySQL 5.7. A companion section lists MySQL server options and variables that have been added, deprecated, or removed in MySQL 5.7. See Section 1.5, “Server and Status Variables and Options Added, Deprecated, or Removed in MySQL 5.7”.

Features Added in MySQL 5.7

The following features have been added to MySQL 5.7:

  • Security improvements.  These security enhancements were added:

    • In MySQL 8.0, caching_sha2_password is the default authentication plugin. To enable MySQL 5.7 clients to connect to 8.0 servers using accounts that authenticate using caching_sha2_password, the MySQL 5.7 client library and client programs support the caching_sha2_password client-side authentication plugin as of MySQL 5.7.23. This improves compatibility of MySQL 5.7 with MySQL 8.0 and higher servers. See Section 6.4.1.4, “Caching SHA-2 Pluggable Authentication”.

    • The server now requires account rows in the mysql.user system table to have a nonempty plugin column value and disables accounts with an empty value. For server upgrade instructions, see Section 2.11.3, “Changes in MySQL 5.7”. DBAs are advised to also convert accounts that use the mysql_old_password authentication plugin to use mysql_native_password instead, because support for mysql_old_password has been removed. For account upgrade instructions, see Section 6.4.1.3, “Migrating Away from Pre-4.1 Password Hashing and the mysql_old_password Plugin”.

    • MySQL now enables database administrators to establish a policy for automatic password expiration: Any user who connects to the server using an account for which the password is past its permitted lifetime must change the password. For more information, see Section 6.2.11, “Password Management”.

    • Administrators can lock and unlock accounts for better control over who can log in. For more information, see Section 6.2.15, “Account Locking”.

    • To make it easier to support secure connections, MySQL servers compiled using OpenSSL can automatically generate missing SSL and RSA certificate and key files at startup. See Section 6.3.3.1, “Creating SSL and RSA Certificates and Keys using MySQL”.

      All servers, if not configured for SSL explicitly, attempt to enable SSL automatically at startup if they find the requisite SSL files in the data directory. See Section 6.3.1, “Configuring MySQL to Use Encrypted Connections”.

      In addition, MySQL distributions include a mysql_ssl_rsa_setup utility that can be invoked manually to create SSL and RSA key and certificate files. For more information, see Section 4.4.5, “mysql_ssl_rsa_setup — Create SSL/RSA Files”.

    • MySQL deployments installed using mysqld --initialize are secure by default. The following changes have been implemented as the default deployment characteristics:

      • The installation process creates only a single root account, 'root'@'localhost', automatically generates a random password for this account, and marks the password expired. The MySQL administrator must connect as root using the random password and assign a new password. (The server writes the random password to the error log.)

      • Installation creates no anonymous-user accounts.

      • Installation creates no test database.

      For more information, see Section 2.10.1, “Initializing the Data Directory”.

    • MySQL Enterprise Edition now provides data masking and de-identification capabilities. Data masking hides sensitive information by replacing real values with substitutes. MySQL Enterprise Data Masking and De-Identification functions enable masking existing data using several methods such as obfuscation (removing identifying characteristics), generation of formatted random data, and data replacement or substitution. For more information, see Section 6.4.7, “MySQL Enterprise Data Masking and De-Identification”.

    • MySQL now sets the access control granted to clients on the named pipe to the minimum necessary for successful communication on Windows. Newer MySQL client software can open named pipe connections without any additional configuration. If older client software cannot be upgraded immediately, the new named_pipe_full_access_group system variable can be used to give a Windows group the necessary permissions to open a named pipe connection. Membership in the full-access group should be restricted and temporary.

  • SQL mode changes.  Strict SQL mode for transactional storage engines (STRICT_TRANS_TABLES) is now enabled by default.

    Implementation for the ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY SQL mode has been made more sophisticated, to no longer reject deterministic queries that previously were rejected. In consequence, this mode is now enabled by default, to prohibit only nondeterministic queries containing expressions not guaranteed to be uniquely determined within a group.

    The ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO, NO_ZERO_DATE, and NO_ZERO_IN_DATE SQL modes are now deprecated but enabled by default. The long term plan is to have them included in strict SQL mode and to remove them as explicit modes in a future MySQL release. See SQL Mode Changes in MySQL 5.7.

    The changes to the default SQL mode result in a default sql_mode system variable value with these modes enabled: ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY, STRICT_TRANS_TABLES, NO_ZERO_IN_DATE, NO_ZERO_DATE, ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO, NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER, and NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION.

  • Online ALTER TABLE.  ALTER TABLE now supports a RENAME INDEX clause that renames an index. The change is made in place without a table-copy operation. It works for all storage engines. See Section 13.1.8, “ALTER TABLE Statement”.

  • ngram and MeCab full-text parser plugins.  MySQL provides a built-in full-text ngram parser plugin that supports Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK), and an installable MeCab full-text parser plugin for Japanese.

    For more information, see Section 12.9.8, “ngram Full-Text Parser”, and Section 12.9.9, “MeCab Full-Text Parser Plugin”.

  • InnoDB enhancements.  These InnoDB enhancements were added:

    • VARCHAR column size can be increased using an in-place ALTER TABLE, as in this example: 

      ALTER TABLE t1 ALGORITHM=INPLACE, CHANGE COLUMN c1 c1 VARCHAR(255);

      This is true as long as the number of length bytes required by a VARCHAR column remains the same. For VARCHAR columns of 0 to 255 bytes in size, one length byte is required to encode the value. For VARCHAR columns of 256 bytes in size or more, two length bytes are required. As a result, in-place ALTER TABLE only supports increasing VARCHAR column size from 0 to 255 bytes, or from 256 bytes to a greater size. In-place ALTER TABLE does not support increasing the size of a VARCHAR column from less than 256 bytes to a size equal to or greater than 256 bytes. In this case, the number of required length bytes changes from 1 to 2, which is only supported by a table copy (ALGORITHM=COPY).

      Decreasing VARCHAR size using in-place ALTER TABLE is not supported. Decreasing VARCHAR size requires a table copy (ALGORITHM=COPY).

      For more information, see Section 14.13.1, “Online DDL Operations”.

    • DDL performance for InnoDB temporary tables is improved through optimization of CREATE TABLE, DROP TABLE, TRUNCATE TABLE, and ALTER TABLE statements.

    • InnoDB temporary table metadata is no longer stored to InnoDB system tables. Instead, a new table, INNODB_TEMP_TABLE_INFO, provides users with a snapshot of active temporary tables. The table contains metadata and reports on all user and system-created temporary tables that are active within a given InnoDB instance. The table is created when the first SELECT statement is run against it.

    • InnoDB now supports MySQL-supported spatial data types. Prior to this release, InnoDB would store spatial data as binary BLOB data. BLOB remains the underlying data type but spatial data types are now mapped to a new InnoDB internal data type, DATA_GEOMETRY.

    • There is now a separate tablespace for all non-compressed InnoDB temporary tables. The new tablespace is always recreated on server startup and is located in DATADIR by default. A newly added configuration file option, innodb_temp_data_file_path, allows for a user-defined temporary data file path.

    • innochecksum functionality is enhanced with several new options and extended capabilities. See Section 4.6.1, “innochecksum — Offline InnoDB File Checksum Utility”.

    • A new type of non-redo undo log for both normal and compressed temporary tables and related objects now resides in the temporary tablespace. For more information, see Section 14.6.7, “Undo Logs”.

    • InnoDB buffer pool dump and load operations are enhanced. A new system variable, innodb_buffer_pool_dump_pct, allows you to specify the percentage of most recently used pages in each buffer pool to read out and dump. When there is other I/O activity being performed by InnoDB background tasks, InnoDB attempts to limit the number of buffer pool load operations per second using the innodb_io_capacity setting.

    • Support is added to InnoDB for full-text parser plugins. For information about full-text parser plugins, see Full-Text Parser Plugins and Section 28.2.4.4, “Writing Full-Text Parser Plugins”.

    • InnoDB supports multiple page cleaner threads for flushing dirty pages from buffer pool instances. A new system variable, innodb_page_cleaners, is used to specify the number of page cleaner threads. The default value of 1 maintains the previous configuration in which there is a single page cleaner thread. This enhancement builds on work completed in MySQL 5.6, which introduced a single page cleaner thread to offload buffer pool flushing work from the InnoDB master thread.

    • Online DDL support is extended to the following operations for regular and partitioned InnoDB tables:

    • The Fusion-io Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) file system on Linux provides atomic write capability, which makes the InnoDB doublewrite buffer redundant. The InnoDB doublewrite buffer is automatically disabled for system tablespace files (ibdata files) located on Fusion-io devices that support atomic writes.

    • InnoDB supports the Transportable Tablespace feature for partitioned InnoDB tables and individual InnoDB table partitions. This enhancement eases backup procedures for partitioned tables and enables copying of partitioned tables and individual table partitions between MySQL instances. For more information, see Section 14.6.1.3, “Importing InnoDB Tables”.

    • The innodb_buffer_pool_size parameter is dynamic, allowing you to resize the buffer pool without restarting the server. The resizing operation, which involves moving pages to a new location in memory, is performed in chunks. Chunk size is configurable using the new innodb_buffer_pool_chunk_size configuration option. You can monitor resizing progress using the new Innodb_buffer_pool_resize_status status variable. For more information, see Configuring InnoDB Buffer Pool Size Online.

    • Multithreaded page cleaner support (innodb_page_cleaners) is extended to shutdown and recovery phases.

    • InnoDB supports indexing of spatial data types using SPATIAL indexes, including use of ALTER TABLE ... ALGORITHM=INPLACE for online operations (ADD SPATIAL INDEX).

    • InnoDB performs a bulk load when creating or rebuilding indexes. This method of index creation is known as a “sorted index build”. This enhancement, which improves the efficiency of index creation, also applies to full-text indexes. A new global configuration option, innodb_fill_factor, defines the percentage of space on each page that is filled with data during a sorted index build, with the remaining space reserved for future index growth. For more information, see Section 14.6.2.3, “Sorted Index Builds”.

    • A new log record type (MLOG_FILE_NAME) is used to identify tablespaces that have been modified since the last checkpoint. This enhancement simplifies tablespace discovery during crash recovery and eliminates scans on the file system prior to redo log application. For more information about the benefits of this enhancement, see Tablespace Discovery During Crash Recovery.

      This enhancement changes the redo log format, requiring that MySQL be shut down cleanly before upgrading to or downgrading from MySQL 5.7.5.

    • You can truncate undo logs that reside in undo tablespaces. This feature is enabled using the innodb_undo_log_truncate configuration option. For more information, see Truncating Undo Tablespaces.

    • InnoDB supports native partitioning. Previously, InnoDB relied on the ha_partition handler, which creates a handler object for each partition. With native partitioning, a partitioned InnoDB table uses a single partition-aware handler object. This enhancement reduces the amount of memory required for partitioned InnoDB tables.

      As of MySQL 5.7.9, mysql_upgrade looks for and attempts to upgrade partitioned InnoDB tables that were created using the ha_partition handler. Also in MySQL 5.7.9 and later, you can upgrade such tables by name in the mysql client using ALTER TABLE ... UPGRADE PARTITIONING.

    • InnoDB supports the creation of general tablespaces using CREATE TABLESPACE syntax. 

      CREATE TABLESPACE `tablespace_name`
  ADD DATAFILE 'file_name.ibd'
  [FILE_BLOCK_SIZE = n]

      General tablespaces can be created outside of the MySQL data directory, are capable of holding multiple tables, and support tables of all row formats.

      Tables are added to a general tablespace using CREATE TABLE tbl_name ... TABLESPACE [=] tablespace_name or ALTER TABLE tbl_name TABLESPACE [=] tablespace_name syntax.

      For more information, see Section 14.6.3.3, “General Tablespaces”.

    • DYNAMIC replaces COMPACT as the implicit default row format for InnoDB tables. A new configuration option, innodb_default_row_format, specifies the default InnoDB row format. For more information, see Defining the Row Format of a Table.

    • As of MySQL 5.7.11, InnoDB supports data-at-rest encryption for file-per-table tablespaces. Encryption is enabled by specifying the ENCRYPTION option when creating or altering an InnoDB table. This feature relies on a keyring plugin for encryption key management. For more information, see Section 6.4.4, “The MySQL Keyring”, and Section 14.14, “InnoDB Data-at-Rest Encryption”.

    • As of MySQL 5.7.24, the zlib library version bundled with MySQL was raised from version 1.2.3 to version 1.2.11. MySQL implements compression with the help of the zlib library.

      If you use InnoDB compressed tables, see Section 2.11.3, “Changes in MySQL 5.7” for related upgrade implications.

  • JSON support.  Beginning with MySQL 5.7.8, MySQL supports a native JSON type. JSON values are not stored as strings, instead using an internal binary format that permits quick read access to document elements. JSON documents stored in JSON columns are automatically validated whenever they are inserted or updated, with an invalid document producing an error. JSON documents are normalized on creation, and can be compared using most comparison operators such as =, <, <=, >, >=, <>, !=, and <=>; for information about supported operators as well as precedence and other rules that MySQL follows when comparing JSON values, see Comparison and Ordering of JSON Values.

    MySQL 5.7.8 also introduces a number of functions for working with JSON values. These functions include those listed here:

    In MySQL 5.7.9 and later, you can use column->path as shorthand for JSON_EXTRACT(column, path). This works as an alias for a column wherever a column identifier can occur in an SQL statement, including WHERE, ORDER BY, and GROUP BY clauses. This includes SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE TABLE, and other SQL statements. The left hand side must be a JSON column identifier (and not an alias). The right hand side is a quoted JSON path expression which is evaluated against the JSON document returned as the column value.

    MySQL 5.7.22 adds the following JSON functions:

    • Two JSON aggregation functions JSON_ARRAYAGG() and JSON_OBJECTAGG(). JSON_ARRAYAGG() takes a column or expression as its argument, and aggregates the result as a single JSON array. The expression can evaluate to any MySQL data type; this does not have to be a JSON value. JSON_OBJECTAGG() takes two columns or expressions which it interprets as a key and a value; it returns the result as a single JSON object. For more information and examples, see Section 12.20, “Aggregate (GROUP BY) Functions”.

    • The JSON utility function JSON_PRETTY(), which outputs an existing JSON value in an easy-to-read format; each JSON object member or array value is printed on a separate line, and a child object or array is intended 2 spaces with respect to its parent.

      This function also works with a string that can be parsed as a JSON value.

      See also Section 12.17.6, “JSON Utility Functions”.

    • The JSON utility function JSON_STORAGE_SIZE(), which returns the storage space in bytes used for the binary representation of a JSON document prior to any partial update (see previous item).

      This function also accepts a valid string representation of a JSON document. For such a value, JSON_STORAGE_SIZE() returns the space used by its binary representation following its conversion to a JSON document. For a variable containing the string representation of a JSON document, JSON_STORAGE_FREE() returns zero. Either function produces an error if its (non-null) argument cannot be parsed as a valid JSON document, and NULL if the argument is NULL.

      For more information and examples, see Section 12.17.6, “JSON Utility Functions”.

    • A JSON merge function intended to conform to RFC 7396. JSON_MERGE_PATCH(), when used on 2 JSON objects, merges them into a single JSON object that has as members a union of the following sets:

      • Each member of the first object for which there is no member with the same key in the second object.

      • Each member of the second object for which there is no member having the same key in the first object, and whose value is not the JSON null literal.

      • Each member having a key that exists in both objects, and whose value in the second object is not the JSON null literal.

      As part of this work, the JSON_MERGE() function has been renamed JSON_MERGE_PRESERVE(). JSON_MERGE() continues to be recognized as an alias for JSON_MERGE_PRESERVE() in MySQL 5.7, but is now deprecated and is subject to removal in a future version of MySQL.

      For more information and examples, see Section 12.17.4, “Functions That Modify JSON Values”.

    See Section 12.17.3, “Functions That Search JSON Values”, for more information about -> and JSON_EXTRACT(). For information about JSON path support in MySQL 5.7, see Searching and Modifying JSON Values. See also Indexing a Generated Column to Provide a JSON Column Index.

  • System and status variables.  System and status variable information is now available in Performance Schema tables, in preference to use of INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables to obtain these variable. This also affects the operation of the SHOW VARIABLES and SHOW STATUS statements. The value of the show_compatibility_56 system variable affects the output produced from and privileges required for system and status variable statements and tables. For details, see the description of that variable in Section 5.1.7, “Server System Variables”.

    Note

    The default for show_compatibility_56 is OFF. Applications that require 5.6 behavior should set this variable to ON until such time as they have been migrated to the new behavior for system variables and status variables. See Section 25.20, “Migrating to Performance Schema System and Status Variable Tables”

  • sys schema.  MySQL distributions now include the sys schema, which is a set of objects that help DBAs and developers interpret data collected by the Performance Schema. sys schema objects can be used for typical tuning and diagnosis use cases. For more information, see Chapter 26, MySQL sys Schema.

  • Condition handling.  MySQL now supports stacked diagnostics areas. When the diagnostics area stack is pushed, the first (current) diagnostics area becomes the second (stacked) diagnostics area and a new current diagnostics area is created as a copy of it. Within a condition handler, executed statements modify the new current diagnostics area, but GET STACKED DIAGNOSTICS can be used to inspect the stacked diagnostics area to obtain information about the condition that caused the handler to activate, independent of current conditions within the handler itself. (Previously, there was a single diagnostics area. To inspect handler-activating conditions within a handler, it was necessary to check this diagnostics area before executing any statements that could change it.) See Section 13.6.7.3, “GET DIAGNOSTICS Statement”, and Section 13.6.7.7, “The MySQL Diagnostics Area”.

  • Optimizer.  These optimizer enhancements were added:

  • Triggers.  Previously, a table could have at most one trigger for each combination of trigger event (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) and action time (BEFORE, AFTER). This limitation has been lifted and multiple triggers are permitted. For more information, see Section 23.3, “Using Triggers”.

  • Logging.  These logging enhancements were added:

    • Previously, on Unix and Unix-like systems, MySQL support for sending the server error log to syslog was implemented by having mysqld_safe capture server error output and pass it to syslog. The server now includes native syslog support, which has been extended to include Windows. For more information about sending server error output to syslog, see Section 5.4.2, “The Error Log”.

    • The mysql client now has a --syslog option that causes interactive statements to be sent to the system syslog facility. Logging is suppressed for statements that match the default “ignore” pattern list ("*IDENTIFIED*:*PASSWORD*"), as well as statements that match any patterns specified using the --histignore option. See Section 4.5.1.3, “mysql Client Logging”.

  • Generated Columns.  MySQL now supports the specification of generated columns in CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE statements. Values of a generated column are computed from an expression specified at column creation time. Generated columns can be virtual (computed “on the fly” when rows are read) or stored (computed when rows are inserted or updated). For more information, see Section 13.1.18.8, “CREATE TABLE and Generated Columns”.

  • mysql client.  Previously, Control+C in mysql interrupted the current statement if there was one, or exited mysql if not. Now Control+C interrupts the current statement if there was one, or cancels any partial input line otherwise, but does not exit.

  • Database name rewriting with mysqlbinlog.  Renaming of databases by mysqlbinlog when reading from binary logs written using the row-based format is now supported using the --rewrite-db option added in MySQL 5.7.1.

    This option uses the format --rewrite-db='dboldname->dbnewname'. You can implement multiple rewrite rules, by specifying the option multiple times.

  • HANDLER with partitioned tables.  The HANDLER statement may now be used with user-partitioned tables. Such tables may use any of the available partitioning types (see Section 22.2, “Partitioning Types”).

  • Index condition pushdown support for partitioned tables.  Queries on partitioned tables using the InnoDB or MyISAM storage engine may employ the index condition pushdown optimization that was introduced in MySQL 5.6. See Section 8.2.1.5, “Index Condition Pushdown Optimization”, for more information.

  • WITHOUT VALIDATION support for ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION.  As of MySQL 5.7.5, ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION syntax includes an optional {WITH|WITHOUT} VALIDATION clause. When WITHOUT VALIDATION is specified, ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION does not perform row-by-row validation when exchanging a populated table with the partition, permitting database administrators to assume responsibility for ensuring that rows are within the boundaries of the partition definition. WITH VALIDATION is the default behavior and need not be specified explicitly. For more information, see Section 22.3.3, “Exchanging Partitions and Subpartitions with Tables”.

  • Master dump thread improvements.  The master dump thread was refactored to reduce lock contention and improve master throughput. Previous to MySQL 5.7.2, the dump thread took a lock on the binary log whenever reading an event; in MySQL 5.7.2 and later, this lock is held only while reading the position at the end of the last successfully written event. This means both that multiple dump threads are now able to read concurrently from the binary log file, and that dump threads are now able to read while clients are writing to the binary log.

  • Character set support.  MySQL 5.7.4 includes a gb18030 character set that supports the China National Standard GB18030 character set. For more information about MySQL character set support, see Chapter 10, Character Sets, Collations, Unicode.

  • Changing the replication master without STOP SLAVE.  In MySQL 5.7.4 and later, the strict requirement to execute STOP SLAVE prior to issuing any CHANGE MASTER TO statement is removed. Instead of depending on whether the slave is stopped, the behavior of CHANGE MASTER TO now depends on the states of the slave SQL thread and slave I/O threads; which of these threads is stopped or running now determines the options that can or cannot be used with a CHANGE MASTER TO statement at a given point in time. The rules for making this determination are listed here:

    • If the SQL thread is stopped, you can execute CHANGE MASTER TO using any combination of RELAY_LOG_FILE, RELAY_LOG_POS, and MASTER_DELAY options, even if the slave I/O thread is running. No other options may be used with this statement when the I/O thread is running.

    • If the I/O thread is stopped, you can execute CHANGE MASTER TO using any of the options for this statement (in any allowed combination) except RELAY_LOG_FILE, RELAY_LOG_POS, or MASTER_DELAY, even when the SQL thread is running. These three options may not be used when the I/O thread is running.

    • Both the SQL thread and the I/O thread must be stopped before issuing CHANGE MASTER TO ... MASTER_AUTO_POSITION = 1.

    You can check the current state of the slave SQL and I/O threads using SHOW SLAVE STATUS.

    If you are using statement-based replication and temporary tables, it is possible for a CHANGE MASTER TO statement following a STOP SLAVE statement to leave behind temporary tables on the slave. As part of this set of improvements, a warning is now issued whenever CHANGE MASTER TO is issued following STOP SLAVE when statement-based replication is in use and Slave_open_temp_tables remains greater than 0.

    For more information, see Section 13.4.2.1, “CHANGE MASTER TO Statement”, and Section 16.3.7, “Switching Masters During Failover”.

  • Test suite.  The MySQL test suite now uses InnoDB as the default storage engine.

  • Multi-source replication is now possible.  MySQL Multi-Source Replication adds the ability to replicate from multiple masters to a slave. MySQL Multi-Source Replication topologies can be used to back up multiple servers to a single server, to merge table shards, and consolidate data from multiple servers to a single server. See Section 16.1.4, “MySQL Multi-Source Replication”.

    As part of MySQL Multi-Source Replication, replication channels have been added. Replication channels enable a slave to open multiple connections to replicate from, with each channel being a connection to a master. See Section 16.2.3, “Replication Channels”.

  • Group Replication Performance Schema tables.  MySQL 5.7 adds a number of new tables to the Performance Schema to provide information about replication groups and channels. These include the following tables:

    All of these tables were added in MySQL 5.7.2, except for replication_group_members and replication_group_member_stats, which were added in MySQL 5.7.6. For more information, see Section 25.12.11, “Performance Schema Replication Tables”.

  • Group Replication SQL.  The following statements were added in MySQL 5.7.6 for controlling Group Replication:

    For more information, see Section 13.4.3, “SQL Statements for Controlling Group Replication”.

Features Deprecated in MySQL 5.7

The following features are deprecated in MySQL 5.7 and may be or will be removed in a future series. Where alternatives are shown, applications should be updated to use them.

For applications that use features deprecated in MySQL 5.7 that have been removed in a higher MySQL series, statements may fail when replicated from a MySQL 5.7 master to a higher-series slave, or may have different effects on master and slave. To avoid such problems, applications that use features deprecated in 5.7 should be revised to avoid them and use alternatives when possible.

Features Removed in MySQL 5.7

The following items are obsolete and have been removed in MySQL 5.7. Where alternatives are shown, applications should be updated to use them.

For MySQL 5.6 applications that use features removed in MySQL 5.7, statements may fail when replicated from a MySQL 5.6 master to a MySQL 5.7 slave, or may have different effects on master and slave. To avoid such problems, applications that use features removed in MySQL 5.7 should be revised to avoid them and use alternatives when possible.

  • Support for passwords that use the older pre-4.1 password hashing format is removed, which involves the following changes. Applications that use any feature no longer supported must be modified.

    • The mysql_old_password authentication plugin is removed. Accounts that use this plugin are disabled at startup and the server writes an “unknown plugin” message to the error log. For instructions on upgrading accounts that use this plugin, see Section 6.4.1.3, “Migrating Away from Pre-4.1 Password Hashing and the mysql_old_password Plugin”.

    • The --secure-auth option to the server and client programs is the default, but is now a no-op. It is deprecated and will be removed in a future MySQL release.

    • The --skip-secure-auth option to the server and client programs is no longer supported and using it produces an error.

    • The secure_auth system variable permits only a value of 1; a value of 0 is no longer permitted.

    • For the old_passwords system variable, a value of 1 (produce pre-4.1 hashes) is no longer permitted.

    • The OLD_PASSWORD() function is removed.

  • In MySQL 5.6.6, the 2-digit YEAR(2) data type was deprecated. Support for YEAR(2) is now removed. Once you upgrade to MySQL 5.7.5 or higher, any remaining 2-digit YEAR(2) columns must be converted to 4-digit YEAR columns to become usable again. For conversion strategies, see Section 11.2.5, “2-Digit YEAR(2) Limitations and Migrating to 4-Digit YEAR”. For example, run mysql_upgrade after upgrading.

  • The innodb_mirrored_log_groups system variable. The only supported value was 1, so it had no purpose.

  • The storage_engine system variable. Use default_storage_engine instead.

  • The thread_concurrency system variable.

  • The timed_mutexes system variable. It does nothing and has no effect.

  • The IGNORE clause for ALTER TABLE.

  • INSERT DELAYED is no longer supported. The server recognizes but ignores the DELAYED keyword, handles the insert as a nondelayed insert, and generates an ER_WARN_LEGACY_SYNTAX_CONVERTED warning. (“INSERT DELAYED is no longer supported. The statement was converted to INSERT.”) Similarly, REPLACE DELAYED is handled as a nondelayed replace. The DELAYED keyword will be removed in a future release.

    In addition, several DELAYED-related options or features were removed:

    • The --delayed-insert option for mysqldump.

    • The COUNT_WRITE_DELAYED, SUM_TIMER_WRITE_DELAYED, MIN_TIMER_WRITE_DELAYED, AVG_TIMER_WRITE_DELAYED, and MAX_TIMER_WRITE_DELAYED columns of the Performance Schema table_lock_waits_summary_by_table table.

    • mysqlbinlog no longer writes comments mentioning INSERT DELAYED.

  • Database symlinking on Windows using for .sym files has been removed because it is redundant with native symlink support available using mklink. Any .sym file symbolic links will be ignored and should be replaced with symlinks created using mklink. See Section 8.12.3.3, “Using Symbolic Links for Databases on Windows”.

  • The unused --basedir, --datadir, and --tmpdir options for mysql_upgrade were removed.

  • Previously, program options could be specified in full or as any unambiguous prefix. For example, the --compress option could be given to mysqldump as --compr, but not as --comp because the latter is ambiguous. Option prefixes are no longer supported; only full options are accepted. This is because prefixes can cause problems when new options are implemented for programs and a prefix that is currently unambiguous might become ambiguous in the future. Some implications of this change:

    • The --key-buffer option must now be specified as --key-buffer-size.

    • The --skip-grant option must now be specified as --skip-grant-tables.

  • SHOW ENGINE INNODB MUTEX output is removed. Comparable information can be generated by creating views on Performance Schema tables.

  • The InnoDB Tablespace Monitor and InnoDB Table Monitor are removed. For the Table Monitor, equivalent information can be obtained from InnoDB INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables.

  • The specially named tables used to enable and disable the standard InnoDB Monitor and InnoDB Lock Monitor (innodb_monitor and innodb_lock_monitor) are removed and replaced by two dynamic system variables: innodb_status_output and innodb_status_output_locks. For additional information, see Section 14.18, “InnoDB Monitors”.

  • The innodb_use_sys_malloc and innodb_additional_mem_pool_size system variables, which were deprecated in MySQL 5.6.3, were removed.

  • The msql2mysql, mysql_convert_table_format, mysql_find_rows, mysql_fix_extensions, mysql_setpermission, mysql_waitpid, mysql_zap, mysqlaccess, and mysqlbug utilities.

  • The mysqlhotcopy utility. Alternatives include mysqldump and MySQL Enterprise Backup.

  • The binary-configure.sh script.

  • The INNODB_PAGE_ATOMIC_REF_COUNT CMake option is removed.

  • The innodb_create_intrinsic option is removed.

  • The innodb_optimize_point_storage option and related internal data types (DATA_POINT and DATA_VAR_POINT) are removed.

  • The innodb_log_checksum_algorithm option is removed.

1.5 Server and Status Variables and Options Added, Deprecated, or Removed in MySQL 5.7

This section lists server variables, status variables, and options that were added for the first time, have been deprecated, or have been removed in MySQL 5.7.

Options and Variables Introduced in MySQL 5.7

The following system variables, status variables, and options are new in MySQL 5.7, and have not been included in any previous release series.

Options and Variables Deprecated in MySQL 5.7

The following system variables, status variables, and options have been deprecated in MySQL 5.7.

  • Innodb_available_undo_logs: Display the total number of InnoDB rollback segments; different from innodb_rollback_segments, which displays the number of active rollback segments. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.19.

  • Qcache_free_blocks: Number of free memory blocks in the query cache. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • Qcache_free_memory: The amount of free memory for the query cache. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • Qcache_hits: Number of query cache hits. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • Qcache_inserts: Number of query cache inserts. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • Qcache_lowmem_prunes: Number of queries that were deleted from the query cache due to lack of free memory in the cache. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • Qcache_not_cached: Number of noncached queries (not cacheable, or not cached due to the query_cache_type setting). Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • Qcache_queries_in_cache: Number of queries registered in the query cache. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • Qcache_total_blocks: The total number of blocks in the query cache. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • Slave_heartbeat_period: The slave's replication heartbeat interval, in seconds. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • Slave_last_heartbeat: Shows when the latest heartbeat signal was received, in TIMESTAMP format. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • Slave_received_heartbeats: Number of heartbeats received by a replication slave since previous reset. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • Slave_retried_transactions: The total number of times since startup that the replication slave SQL thread has retried transactions. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • Slave_running: The state of this server as a replication slave (slave I/O thread status). Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • avoid_temporal_upgrade: Whether ALTER TABLE should upgrade pre-5.6.4 temporal columns. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • binlog_max_flush_queue_time: How long to read transactions before flushing to binary log. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.9.

  • bootstrap: Used by mysql installation scripts. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • des-key-file: Load keys for des_encrypt() and des_encrypt from given file. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • disable-partition-engine-check: Whether to disable the startup check for tables with nonnative partitioning. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.17.

  • group_replication_allow_local_disjoint_gtids_join: Allow the current server to join the group even if it has transactions not present in the group. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.21.

  • have_crypt: Availability of the crypt() system call. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • have_query_cache: Whether mysqld supports query cache. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • ignore-db-dir: Treat directory as nondatabase directory. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.16.

  • ignore_db_dirs: Directories treated as nondatabase directories. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.16.

  • innodb: Enable InnoDB (if this version of MySQL supports it). Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.5.

  • innodb_file_format: The format for new InnoDB tables. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.7.

  • innodb_file_format_check: Whether InnoDB performs file format compatibility checking. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.7.

  • innodb_file_format_max: The file format tag in the shared tablespace. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.7.

  • innodb_large_prefix: Enables longer keys for column prefix indexes. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.7.

  • innodb_support_xa: Enable InnoDB support for the XA two-phase commit. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.10.

  • innodb_undo_logs: Defines the number of undo logs (rollback segments) used by InnoDB; an alias for innodb_rollback_segments. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.19.

  • innodb_undo_tablespaces: Number of tablespace files that rollback segments are divided between. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.21.

  • log-warnings: Log some noncritical warnings to the log file. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.2.

  • metadata_locks_cache_size: Size of the metadata locks cache. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.4.

  • metadata_locks_hash_instances: Number of metadata lock hashes. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.4.

  • old_passwords: Selects password hashing method for PASSWORD(). Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • partition: Enable (or disable) partitioning support. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.16.

  • query_cache_limit: Do not cache results that are bigger than this. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • query_cache_min_res_unit: Minimal size of unit in which space for results is allocated (last unit will be trimmed after writing all result data). Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • query_cache_size: The memory allocated to store results from old queries. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • query_cache_type: Query cache type. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • query_cache_wlock_invalidate: Invalidate queries in query cache on LOCK for write. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • secure_auth: Disallow authentication for accounts that have old (pre-4.1) passwords. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.5.

  • show_compatibility_56: Compatibility for SHOW STATUS/VARIABLES. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • show_old_temporals: Whether SHOW CREATE TABLE should indicate pre-5.6.4 temporal columns. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • skip-partition: Do not enable user-defined partitioning. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.16.

  • sync_frm: Sync .frm to disk on create. Enabled by default. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.6.

  • temp-pool: Using this option will cause most temporary files created to use a small set of names, rather than a unique name for each new file. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.18.

  • tx_isolation: The default transaction isolation level. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

  • tx_read_only: Default transaction access mode. Deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20.

Options and Variables Removed in MySQL 5.7

The following system variables, status variables, and options have been removed in MySQL 5.7.

  • Com_show_slave_status_nonblocking: Count of SHOW SLAVE STATUS NONBLOCKING statements. Removed in MySQL 5.7.6.

  • Max_statement_time_exceeded: Number of statements that exceeded the execution timeout value. Removed in MySQL 5.7.8.

  • Max_statement_time_set: Number of statements for which execution timeout was set. Removed in MySQL 5.7.8.

  • Max_statement_time_set_failed: Number of statements for which execution timeout setting failed. Removed in MySQL 5.7.8.

  • binlogging_impossible_mode: Deprecated and later removed. Use binlog_error_action instead. Removed in MySQL 5.7.6.

  • default-authentication-plugin: The default authentication plugin. Removed in MySQL 5.7.2.

  • executed_gtids_compression_period: Renamed to gtid_executed_compression_period. Removed in MySQL 5.7.6.

  • innodb_additional_mem_pool_size: Size of a memory pool InnoDB uses to store data dictionary information and other internal data structures. Removed in MySQL 5.7.4.

  • innodb_log_checksum_algorithm: Specifies how to generate and verify the checksum stored in each redo log disk block. Removed in MySQL 5.7.9.

  • innodb_optimize_point_storage: Enable this option to store POINT data as fixed-length data rather than a variable-length data. Removed in MySQL 5.7.6.

  • innodb_use_sys_malloc: Whether InnoDB uses the OS or its own memory allocator. Removed in MySQL 5.7.4.

  • log-slow-admin-statements: Log slow OPTIMIZE, ANALYZE, ALTER and other administrative statements to the slow query log if it is open. Removed in MySQL 5.7.1.

  • log-slow-slave-statements: Cause slow statements as executed by the slave to be written to the slow query log. Removed in MySQL 5.7.1.

  • log_backward_compatible_user_definitions: Whether to log CREATE/ALTER USER, GRANT in backward-compatible fashion. Removed in MySQL 5.7.9.

  • max_statement_time: Statement execution timeout value. Removed in MySQL 5.7.8.

  • simplified_binlog_gtid_recovery: Renamed to binlog_gtid_simple_recovery. Removed in MySQL 5.7.6.

  • storage_engine: The default storage engine. Removed in MySQL 5.7.5.

  • thread_concurrency: Permits the application to give the threads system a hint for the desired number of threads that should be run at the same time. Removed in MySQL 5.7.2.

  • timed_mutexes: Specify whether to time mutexes (only InnoDB mutexes are currently supported). Removed in MySQL 5.7.5.

1.6 MySQL Information Sources

1.6.1 MySQL Websites
1.6.2 MySQL Community Support at the MySQL Forums
1.6.3 MySQL Enterprise

This section lists sources of additional information that you may find helpful, such as MySQL websites, mailing lists, user forums, and Internet Relay Chat.

1.6.1 MySQL Websites

The primary website for MySQL documentation is https://dev.mysql.com/doc/. Online and downloadable documentation formats are available for the MySQL Reference Manual, MySQL Connectors, and more.

The MySQL developers provide information about new and upcoming features as the MySQL Server Blog.

1.6.2 MySQL Community Support at the MySQL Forums

The forums at http://forums.mysql.com are an important community resource. Many forums are available, grouped into these general categories:

  • Migration

  • MySQL Usage

  • MySQL Connectors

  • Programming Languages

  • Tools

  • 3rd-Party Applications

  • Storage Engines

  • MySQL Technology

  • SQL Standards

  • Business

1.6.3 MySQL Enterprise

Oracle offers technical support in the form of MySQL Enterprise. For organizations that rely on the MySQL DBMS for business-critical production applications, MySQL Enterprise is a commercial subscription offering which includes:

  • MySQL Enterprise Server

  • MySQL Enterprise Monitor

  • Monthly Rapid Updates and Quarterly Service Packs

  • MySQL Knowledge Base

  • 24x7 Technical and Consultative Support

MySQL Enterprise is available in multiple tiers, giving you the flexibility to choose the level of service that best matches your needs. For more information, see MySQL Enterprise.

1.7 How to Report Bugs or Problems

Before posting a bug report about a problem, please try to verify that it is a bug and that it has not been reported already:

  • Start by searching the MySQL online manual at https://dev.mysql.com/doc/. We try to keep the manual up to date by updating it frequently with solutions to newly found problems. In addition, the release notes accompanying the manual can be particularly useful since it is quite possible that a newer version contains a solution to your problem. The release notes are available at the location just given for the manual.

  • If you get a parse error for an SQL statement, please check your syntax closely. If you cannot find something wrong with it, it is extremely likely that your current version of MySQL Server doesn't support the syntax you are using. If you are using the current version and the manual doesn't cover the syntax that you are using, MySQL Server doesn't support your statement.

    If the manual covers the syntax you are using, but you have an older version of MySQL Server, you should check the MySQL change history to see when the syntax was implemented. In this case, you have the option of upgrading to a newer version of MySQL Server.

  • For solutions to some common problems, see Section B.4, “Problems and Common Errors”.

  • Search the bugs database at http://bugs.mysql.com/ to see whether the bug has been reported and fixed.

  • You can also use http://www.mysql.com/search/ to search all the Web pages (including the manual) that are located at the MySQL website.

If you cannot find an answer in the manual, the bugs database, or the mailing list archives, check with your local MySQL expert. If you still cannot find an answer to your question, please use the following guidelines for reporting the bug.

The normal way to report bugs is to visit http://bugs.mysql.com/, which is the address for our bugs database. This database is public and can be browsed and searched by anyone. If you log in to the system, you can enter new reports.

Bugs posted in the bugs database at http://bugs.mysql.com/ that are corrected for a given release are noted in the release notes.

If you find a security bug in MySQL Server, please let us know immediately by sending an email message to . Exception: Support customers should report all problems, including security bugs, to Oracle Support at http://support.oracle.com/.

To discuss problems with other users, you can use the MySQL Community Slack.

Writing a good bug report takes patience, but doing it right the first time saves time both for us and for yourself. A good bug report, containing a full test case for the bug, makes it very likely that we will fix the bug in the next release. This section helps you write your report correctly so that you do not waste your time doing things that may not help us much or at all. Please read this section carefully and make sure that all the information described here is included in your report.

Preferably, you should test the problem using the latest production or development version of MySQL Server before posting. Anyone should be able to repeat the bug by just using mysql test < script_file on your test case or by running the shell or Perl script that you include in the bug report. Any bug that we are able to repeat has a high chance of being fixed in the next MySQL release.

It is most helpful when a good description of the problem is included in the bug report. That is, give a good example of everything you did that led to the problem and describe, in exact detail, the problem itself. The best reports are those that include a full example showing how to reproduce the bug or problem. See Section 28.5, “Debugging and Porting MySQL”.

Remember that it is possible for us to respond to a report containing too much information, but not to one containing too little. People often omit facts because they think they know the cause of a problem and assume that some details do not matter. A good principle to follow is that if you are in doubt about stating something, state it. It is faster and less troublesome to write a couple more lines in your report than to wait longer for the answer if we must ask you to provide information that was missing from the initial report.

The most common errors made in bug reports are (a) not including the version number of the MySQL distribution that you use, and (b) not fully describing the platform on which the MySQL server is installed (including the platform type and version number). These are highly relevant pieces of information, and in 99 cases out of 100, the bug report is useless without them. Very often we get questions like, “Why doesn't this work for me?” Then we find that the feature requested wasn't implemented in that MySQL version, or that a bug described in a report has been fixed in newer MySQL versions. Errors often are platform-dependent. In such cases, it is next to impossible for us to fix anything without knowing the operating system and the version number of the platform.

If you compiled MySQL from source, remember also to provide information about your compiler if it is related to the problem. Often people find bugs in compilers and think the problem is MySQL-related. Most compilers are under development all the time and become better version by version. To determine whether your problem depends on your compiler, we need to know what compiler you used. Note that every compiling problem should be regarded as a bug and reported accordingly.

If a program produces an error message, it is very important to include the message in your report. If we try to search for something from the archives, it is better that the error message reported exactly matches the one that the program produces. (Even the lettercase should be observed.) It is best to copy and paste the entire error message into your report. You should never try to reproduce the message from memory.

If you have a problem with Connector/ODBC (MyODBC), please try to generate a trace file and send it with your report. See How to Report Connector/ODBC Problems or Bugs.

If your report includes long query output lines from test cases that you run with the mysql command-line tool, you can make the output more readable by using the --vertical option or the \G statement terminator. The EXPLAIN SELECT example later in this section demonstrates the use of \G.

Please include the following information in your report:

  • The version number of the MySQL distribution you are using (for example, MySQL 5.7.10). You can find out which version you are running by executing mysqladmin version. The mysqladmin program can be found in the bin directory under your MySQL installation directory.

  • The manufacturer and model of the machine on which you experience the problem.

  • The operating system name and version. If you work with Windows, you can usually get the name and version number by double-clicking your My Computer icon and pulling down the “Help/About Windows” menu. For most Unix-like operating systems, you can get this information by executing the command uname -a.

  • Sometimes the amount of memory (real and virtual) is relevant. If in doubt, include these values.

  • The contents of the docs/INFO_BIN file from your MySQL installation. This file contains information about how MySQL was configured and compiled.

  • If you are using a source distribution of the MySQL software, include the name and version number of the compiler that you used. If you have a binary distribution, include the distribution name.

  • If the problem occurs during compilation, include the exact error messages and also a few lines of context around the offending code in the file where the error occurs.

  • If mysqld died, you should also report the statement that crashed mysqld. You can usually get this information by running mysqld with query logging enabled, and then looking in the log after mysqld crashes. See Section 28.5, “Debugging and Porting MySQL”.

  • If a database table is related to the problem, include the output from the SHOW CREATE TABLE db_name.tbl_name statement in the bug report. This is a very easy way to get the definition of any table in a database. The information helps us create a situation matching the one that you have experienced.

  • The SQL mode in effect when the problem occurred can be significant, so please report the value of the sql_mode system variable. For stored procedure, stored function, and trigger objects, the relevant sql_mode value is the one in effect when the object was created. For a stored procedure or function, the SHOW CREATE PROCEDURE or SHOW CREATE FUNCTION statement shows the relevant SQL mode, or you can query INFORMATION_SCHEMA for the information: 

    SELECT ROUTINE_SCHEMA, ROUTINE_NAME, SQL_MODE
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES;

    For triggers, you can use this statement: 

    SELECT EVENT_OBJECT_SCHEMA, EVENT_OBJECT_TABLE, TRIGGER_NAME, SQL_MODE
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TRIGGERS;

  • For performance-related bugs or problems with SELECT statements, you should always include the output of EXPLAIN SELECT ..., and at least the number of rows that the SELECT statement produces. You should also include the output from SHOW CREATE TABLE tbl_name for each table that is involved. The more information you provide about your situation, the more likely it is that someone can help you.

    The following is an example of a very good bug report. The statements are run using the mysql command-line tool. Note the use of the \G statement terminator for statements that would otherwise provide very long output lines that are difficult to read. 

    mysql> SHOW VARIABLES;
mysql> SHOW COLUMNS FROM ...\G
       <output from SHOW COLUMNS>
mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT ...\G
       <output from EXPLAIN>
mysql> FLUSH STATUS;
mysql> SELECT ...;
       <A short version of the output from SELECT,
       including the time taken to run the query>
mysql> SHOW STATUS;
       <output from SHOW STATUS>

  • If a bug or problem occurs while running mysqld, try to provide an input script that reproduces the anomaly. This script should include any necessary source files. The more closely the script can reproduce your situation, the better. If you can make a reproducible test case, you should upload it to be attached to the bug report.

    If you cannot provide a script, you should at least include the output from mysqladmin variables extended-status processlist in your report to provide some information on how your system is performing.

  • If you cannot produce a test case with only a few rows, or if the test table is too big to be included in the bug report (more than 10 rows), you should dump your tables using mysqldump and create a README file that describes your problem. Create a compressed archive of your files using tar and gzip or zip. After you initiate a bug report for our bugs database at http://bugs.mysql.com/, click the Files tab in the bug report for instructions on uploading the archive to the bugs database.

  • If you believe that the MySQL server produces a strange result from a statement, include not only the result, but also your opinion of what the result should be, and an explanation describing the basis for your opinion.

  • When you provide an example of the problem, it is better to use the table names, variable names, and so forth that exist in your actual situation than to come up with new names. The problem could be related to the name of a table or variable. These cases are rare, perhaps, but it is better to be safe than sorry. After all, it should be easier for you to provide an example that uses your actual situation, and it is by all means better for us. If you have data that you do not want to be visible to others in the bug report, you can upload it using the Files tab as previously described. If the information is really top secret and you do not want to show it even to us, go ahead and provide an example using other names, but please regard this as the last choice.

  • Include all the options given to the relevant programs, if possible. For example, indicate the options that you use when you start the mysqld server, as well as the options that you use to run any MySQL client programs. The options to programs such as mysqld and mysql, and to the configure script, are often key to resolving problems and are very relevant. It is never a bad idea to include them. If your problem involves a program written in a language such as Perl or PHP, please include the language processor's version number, as well as the version for any modules that the program uses. For example, if you have a Perl script that uses the DBI and DBD::mysql modules, include the version numbers for Perl, DBI, and DBD::mysql.

  • If your question is related to the privilege system, please include the output of mysqladmin reload, and all the error messages you get when trying to connect. When you test your privileges, you should execute mysqladmin reload version and try to connect with the program that gives you trouble.

  • If you have a patch for a bug, do include it. But do not assume that the patch is all we need, or that we can use it, if you do not provide some necessary information such as test cases showing the bug that your patch fixes. We might find problems with your patch or we might not understand it at all. If so, we cannot use it.

    If we cannot verify the exact purpose of the patch, we will not use it. Test cases help us here. Show that the patch handles all the situations that may occur. If we find a borderline case (even a rare one) where the patch will not work, it may be useless.

  • Guesses about what the bug is, why it occurs, or what it depends on are usually wrong. Even the MySQL team cannot guess such things without first using a debugger to determine the real cause of a bug.

  • Indicate in your bug report that you have checked the reference manual and mail archive so that others know you have tried to solve the problem yourself.

  • If your data appears corrupt or you get errors when you access a particular table, first check your tables with CHECK TABLE. If that statement reports any errors:

    • The InnoDB crash recovery mechanism handles cleanup when the server is restarted after being killed, so in typical operation there is no need to “repair” tables. If you encounter an error with InnoDB tables, restart the server and see whether the problem persists, or whether the error affected only cached data in memory. If data is corrupted on disk, consider restarting with the innodb_force_recovery option enabled so that you can dump the affected tables.

    • For non-transactional tables, try to repair them with REPAIR TABLE or with myisamchk. See Chapter 5, MySQL Server Administration.

    If you are running Windows, please verify the value of lower_case_table_names using the SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'lower_case_table_names' statement. This variable affects how the server handles lettercase of database and table names. Its effect for a given value should be as described in Section 9.2.3, “Identifier Case Sensitivity”.

  • If you often get corrupted tables, you should try to find out when and why this happens. In this case, the error log in the MySQL data directory may contain some information about what happened. (This is the file with the .err suffix in the name.) See Section 5.4.2, “The Error Log”. Please include any relevant information from this file in your bug report. Normally mysqld should never crash a table if nothing killed it in the middle of an update. If you can find the cause of mysqld dying, it is much easier for us to provide you with a fix for the problem. See Section B.4.1, “How to Determine What Is Causing a Problem”.

  • If possible, download and install the most recent version of MySQL Server and check whether it solves your problem. All versions of the MySQL software are thoroughly tested and should work without problems. We believe in making everything as backward-compatible as possible, and you should be able to switch MySQL versions without difficulty. See Section 2.1.1, “Which MySQL Version and Distribution to Install”.

1.8 MySQL Standards Compliance

1.8.1 MySQL Extensions to Standard SQL
1.8.2 MySQL Differences from Standard SQL
1.8.3 How MySQL Deals with Constraints

This section describes how MySQL relates to the ANSI/ISO SQL standards. MySQL Server has many extensions to the SQL standard, and here you can find out what they are and how to use them. You can also find information about functionality missing from MySQL Server, and how to work around some of the differences.

The SQL standard has been evolving since 1986 and several versions exist. In this manual, “SQL-92” refers to the standard released in 1992. “SQL:1999”, “SQL:2003”, “SQL:2008”, and “SQL:2011” refer to the versions of the standard released in the corresponding years, with the last being the most recent version. We use the phrase “the SQL standard” or “standard SQL” to mean the current version of the SQL Standard at any time.

One of our main goals with the product is to continue to work toward compliance with the SQL standard, but without sacrificing speed or reliability. We are not afraid to add extensions to SQL or support for non-SQL features if this greatly increases the usability of MySQL Server for a large segment of our user base. The HANDLER interface is an example of this strategy. See Section 13.2.4, “HANDLER Statement”.

We continue to support transactional and nontransactional databases to satisfy both mission-critical 24/7 usage and heavy Web or logging usage.

MySQL Server was originally designed to work with medium-sized databases (10-100 million rows, or about 100MB per table) on small computer systems. Today MySQL Server handles terabyte-sized databases, but the code can also be compiled in a reduced version suitable for hand-held and embedded devices. The compact design of the MySQL server makes development in both directions possible without any conflicts in the source tree.

We are not targeting real-time support, although MySQL replication capabilities offer significant functionality.

MySQL supports ODBC levels 0 to 3.51.

MySQL supports high-availability database clustering using the NDBCLUSTER storage engine. See Chapter 21, MySQL NDB Cluster 7.5 and NDB Cluster 7.6.

We implement XML functionality which supports most of the W3C XPath standard. See Section 12.11, “XML Functions”.

MySQL (5.7.8 and later) supports a native JSON data type as defined by RFC 7159, and based on the ECMAScript standard (ECMA-262). See Section 11.5, “The JSON Data Type”. MySQL also implements a subset of the SQL/JSON functions specified by a pre-publication draft of the SQL:2016 standard; see Section 12.17, “JSON Functions”, for more information.

Selecting SQL Modes

The MySQL server can operate in different SQL modes, and can apply these modes differently for different clients, depending on the value of the sql_mode system variable. DBAs can set the global SQL mode to match site server operating requirements, and each application can set its session SQL mode to its own requirements.

Modes affect the SQL syntax MySQL supports and the data validation checks it performs. This makes it easier to use MySQL in different environments and to use MySQL together with other database servers.

For more information on setting the SQL mode, see Section 5.1.10, “Server SQL Modes”.

Running MySQL in ANSI Mode

To run MySQL Server in ANSI mode, start mysqld with the --ansi option. Running the server in ANSI mode is the same as starting it with the following options: 

--transaction-isolation=SERIALIZABLE --sql-mode=ANSI

To achieve the same effect at runtime, execute these two statements: 

SET GLOBAL TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE;
SET GLOBAL sql_mode = 'ANSI';

You can see that setting the sql_mode system variable to 'ANSI' enables all SQL mode options that are relevant for ANSI mode as follows: 

mysql> SET GLOBAL sql_mode='ANSI';
mysql> SELECT @@GLOBAL.sql_mode;
        -> 'REAL_AS_FLOAT,PIPES_AS_CONCAT,ANSI_QUOTES,IGNORE_SPACE,ANSI'

Running the server in ANSI mode with --ansi is not quite the same as setting the SQL mode to 'ANSI' because the --ansi option also sets the transaction isolation level.

See Section 5.1.6, “Server Command Options”.

1.8.1 MySQL Extensions to Standard SQL

MySQL Server supports some extensions that you probably will not find in other SQL DBMSs. Be warned that if you use them, your code will not be portable to other SQL servers. In some cases, you can write code that includes MySQL extensions, but is still portable, by using comments of the following form: 

/*! MySQL-specific code */

In this case, MySQL Server parses and executes the code within the comment as it would any other SQL statement, but other SQL servers will ignore the extensions. For example, MySQL Server recognizes the STRAIGHT_JOIN keyword in the following statement, but other servers will not: 

SELECT /*! STRAIGHT_JOIN */ col1 FROM table1,table2 WHERE ...

If you add a version number after the ! character, the syntax within the comment is executed only if the MySQL version is greater than or equal to the specified version number. The KEY_BLOCK_SIZE clause in the following comment is executed only by servers from MySQL 5.1.10 or higher: 

CREATE TABLE t1(a INT, KEY (a)) /*!50110 KEY_BLOCK_SIZE=1024 */;

The following descriptions list MySQL extensions, organized by category.

1.8.2 MySQL Differences from Standard SQL

1.8.2.1 SELECT INTO TABLE Differences
1.8.2.2 UPDATE Differences
1.8.2.3 FOREIGN KEY Constraint Differences
1.8.2.4 '--' as the Start of a Comment

We try to make MySQL Server follow the ANSI SQL standard and the ODBC SQL standard, but MySQL Server performs operations differently in some cases:

1.8.2.1 SELECT INTO TABLE Differences

MySQL Server doesn't support the SELECT ... INTO TABLE Sybase SQL extension. Instead, MySQL Server supports the INSERT INTO ... SELECT standard SQL syntax, which is basically the same thing. See Section 13.2.5.1, “INSERT ... SELECT Statement”. For example: 

INSERT INTO tbl_temp2 (fld_id)
    SELECT tbl_temp1.fld_order_id
    FROM tbl_temp1 WHERE tbl_temp1.fld_order_id > 100;

Alternatively, you can use SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE or CREATE TABLE ... SELECT.

You can use SELECT ... INTO with user-defined variables. The same syntax can also be used inside stored routines using cursors and local variables. See Section 13.2.9.1, “SELECT ... INTO Statement”.

1.8.2.2 UPDATE Differences

If you access a column from the table to be updated in an expression, UPDATE uses the current value of the column. The second assignment in the following statement sets col2 to the current (updated) col1 value, not the original col1 value. The result is that col1 and col2 have the same value. This behavior differs from standard SQL. 

UPDATE t1 SET col1 = col1 + 1, col2 = col1;

1.8.2.3 FOREIGN KEY Constraint Differences

The MySQL implementation of foreign key constraints differs from the SQL standard in the following key respects:

  • If there are several rows in the parent table with the same referenced key value, InnoDB performs a foreign key check as if the other parent rows with the same key value do not exist. For example, if you define a RESTRICT type constraint, and there is a child row with several parent rows, InnoDB does not permit the deletion of any of the parent rows.

  • If ON UPDATE CASCADE or ON UPDATE SET NULL recurses to update the same table it has previously updated during the same cascade, it acts like RESTRICT. This means that you cannot use self-referential ON UPDATE CASCADE or ON UPDATE SET NULL operations. This is to prevent infinite loops resulting from cascaded updates. A self-referential ON DELETE SET NULL, on the other hand, is possible, as is a self-referential ON DELETE CASCADE. Cascading operations may not be nested more than 15 levels deep.

  • In an SQL statement that inserts, deletes, or updates many rows, foreign key constraints (like unique constraints) are checked row-by-row. When performing foreign key checks, InnoDB sets shared row-level locks on child or parent records that it must examine. MySQL checks foreign key constraints immediately; the check is not deferred to transaction commit. According to the SQL standard, the default behavior should be deferred checking. That is, constraints are only checked after the entire SQL statement has been processed. This means that it is not possible to delete a row that refers to itself using a foreign key.

  • No storage engine, including InnoDB, recognizes or enforces the MATCH clause used in referential-integrity constraint definitions. Use of an explicit MATCH clause does not have the specified effect, and it causes ON DELETE and ON UPDATE clauses to be ignored. Specifying the MATCH should be avoided.

    The MATCH clause in the SQL standard controls how NULL values in a composite (multiple-column) foreign key are handled when comparing to a primary key in the referenced table. MySQL essentially implements the semantics defined by MATCH SIMPLE, which permits a foreign key to be all or partially NULL. In that case, a (child table) row containing such a foreign key can be inserted even though it does not match any row in the referenced (parent) table. (It is possible to implement other semantics using triggers.)

  • MySQL requires that the referenced columns be indexed for performance reasons. However, MySQL does not enforce a requirement that the referenced columns be UNIQUE or be declared NOT NULL.

    A FOREIGN KEY constraint that references a non-UNIQUE key is not standard SQL but rather an InnoDB extension. The NDB storage engine, on the other hand, requires an explicit unique key (or primary key) on any column referenced as a foreign key.

    The handling of foreign key references to nonunique keys or keys that contain NULL values is not well defined for operations such as UPDATE or DELETE CASCADE. You are advised to use foreign keys that reference only UNIQUE (including PRIMARY) and NOT NULL keys.

  • MySQL parses but ignores “inline REFERENCES specifications” (as defined in the SQL standard) where the references are defined as part of the column specification. MySQL accepts REFERENCES clauses only when specified as part of a separate FOREIGN KEY specification. For storage engines that do not support foreign keys (such as MyISAM), MySQL Server parses and ignores foreign key specifications.

For information about foreign key constraints, see Section 13.1.18.6, “FOREIGN KEY Constraints”.

1.8.2.4 '--' as the Start of a Comment

Standard SQL uses the C syntax /* this is a comment */ for comments, and MySQL Server supports this syntax as well. MySQL also support extensions to this syntax that enable MySQL-specific SQL to be embedded in the comment, as described in Section 9.6, “Comment Syntax”.

Standard SQL uses “--” as a start-comment sequence. MySQL Server uses # as the start comment character. MySQL Server also supports a variant of the -- comment style. That is, the -- start-comment sequence must be followed by a space (or by a control character such as a newline). The space is required to prevent problems with automatically generated SQL queries that use constructs such as the following, where we automatically insert the value of the payment for payment: 

UPDATE account SET credit=credit-payment

Consider about what happens if payment has a negative value such as -1: 

UPDATE account SET credit=credit--1

credit--1 is a valid expression in SQL, but -- is interpreted as the start of a comment, part of the expression is discarded. The result is a statement that has a completely different meaning than intended: 

UPDATE account SET credit=credit

The statement produces no change in value at all. This illustrates that permitting comments to start with -- can have serious consequences.

Using our implementation requires a space following the -- for it to be recognized as a start-comment sequence in MySQL Server. Therefore, credit--1 is safe to use.

Another safe feature is that the mysql command-line client ignores lines that start with --.

1.8.3 How MySQL Deals with Constraints

1.8.3.1 PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE Index Constraints
1.8.3.2 FOREIGN KEY Constraints
1.8.3.3 Constraints on Invalid Data
1.8.3.4 ENUM and SET Constraints

MySQL enables you to work both with transactional tables that permit rollback and with nontransactional tables that do not. Because of this, constraint handling is a bit different in MySQL than in other DBMSs. We must handle the case when you have inserted or updated a lot of rows in a nontransactional table for which changes cannot be rolled back when an error occurs.

The basic philosophy is that MySQL Server tries to produce an error for anything that it can detect while parsing a statement to be executed, and tries to recover from any errors that occur while executing the statement. We do this in most cases, but not yet for all.

The options MySQL has when an error occurs are to stop the statement in the middle or to recover as well as possible from the problem and continue. By default, the server follows the latter course. This means, for example, that the server may coerce invalid values to the closest valid values.

Several SQL mode options are available to provide greater control over handling of bad data values and whether to continue statement execution or abort when errors occur. Using these options, you can configure MySQL Server to act in a more traditional fashion that is like other DBMSs that reject improper input. The SQL mode can be set globally at server startup to affect all clients. Individual clients can set the SQL mode at runtime, which enables each client to select the behavior most appropriate for its requirements. See Section 5.1.10, “Server SQL Modes”.

The following sections describe how MySQL Server handles different types of constraints.

1.8.3.1 PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE Index Constraints

Normally, errors occur for data-change statements (such as INSERT or UPDATE) that would violate primary-key, unique-key, or foreign-key constraints. If you are using a transactional storage engine such as InnoDB, MySQL automatically rolls back the statement. If you are using a nontransactional storage engine, MySQL stops processing the statement at the row for which the error occurred and leaves any remaining rows unprocessed.

MySQL supports an IGNORE keyword for INSERT, UPDATE, and so forth. If you use it, MySQL ignores primary-key or unique-key violations and continues processing with the next row. See the section for the statement that you are using (Section 13.2.5, “INSERT Statement”, Section 13.2.11, “UPDATE Statement”, and so forth).

You can get information about the number of rows actually inserted or updated with the mysql_info() C API function. You can also use the SHOW WARNINGS statement. See Section 27.7.6.36, “mysql_info()”, and Section 13.7.5.40, “SHOW WARNINGS Statement”.

InnoDB and NDB tables support foreign keys. See Section 1.8.3.2, “FOREIGN KEY Constraints”.

1.8.3.2 FOREIGN KEY Constraints

Foreign keys let you cross-reference related data across tables, and foreign key constraints help keep this spread-out data consistent.

MySQL supports ON UPDATE and ON DELETE foreign key references in CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE statements. The available referential actions are RESTRICT (the default), CASCADE, SET NULL, and NO ACTION.

SET DEFAULT is also supported by the MySQL Server but is currently rejected as invalid by InnoDB. Since MySQL does not support deferred constraint checking, NO ACTION is treated as RESTRICT. For the exact syntax supported by MySQL for foreign keys, see Section 13.1.18.6, “FOREIGN KEY Constraints”.

MATCH FULL, MATCH PARTIAL, and MATCH SIMPLE are allowed, but their use should be avoided, as they cause the MySQL Server to ignore any ON DELETE or ON UPDATE clause used in the same statement. MATCH options do not have any other effect in MySQL, which in effect enforces MATCH SIMPLE semantics full-time.

MySQL requires that foreign key columns be indexed; if you create a table with a foreign key constraint but no index on a given column, an index is created.

You can obtain information about foreign keys from the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE table. An example of a query against this table is shown here: 

mysql> SELECT TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME, COLUMN_NAME, CONSTRAINT_NAME
     > FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
     > WHERE REFERENCED_TABLE_SCHEMA IS NOT NULL;
+--------------+---------------+-------------+-----------------+
| TABLE_SCHEMA | TABLE_NAME    | COLUMN_NAME | CONSTRAINT_NAME |
+--------------+---------------+-------------+-----------------+
| fk1          | myuser        | myuser_id   | f               |
| fk1          | product_order | customer_id | f2              |
| fk1          | product_order | product_id  | f1              |
+--------------+---------------+-------------+-----------------+
3 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Information about foreign keys on InnoDB tables can also be found in the INNODB_SYS_FOREIGN and INNODB_SYS_FOREIGN_COLS tables, in the INFORMATION_SCHEMA database.

InnoDB and NDB tables support foreign keys.

1.8.3.3 Constraints on Invalid Data

MySQL 5.7.5 and later uses strict SQL mode by default, which treats invalid values such that the server rejects them and aborts the statement in which they occur (see Section 5.1.10, “Server SQL Modes”). Previously, MySQL was much more forgiving of incorrect values used in data entry; this now requires disabling of strict mode, which is not recommended. The remainder of this section discusses the old behavior followed by MySQL when strict mode has been disabled.

If you are not using strict mode, then whenever you insert an “incorrect” value into a column, such as a NULL into a NOT NULL column or a too-large numeric value into a numeric column, MySQL sets the column to the “best possible value” instead of producing an error: The following rules describe in more detail how this works:

  • If you try to store an out of range value into a numeric column, MySQL Server instead stores zero, the smallest possible value, or the largest possible value, whichever is closest to the invalid value.

  • For strings, MySQL stores either the empty string or as much of the string as can be stored in the column.

  • If you try to store a string that does not start with a number into a numeric column, MySQL Server stores 0.

  • Invalid values for ENUM and SET columns are handled as described in Section 1.8.3.4, “ENUM and SET Constraints”.

  • MySQL permits you to store certain incorrect date values into DATE and DATETIME columns (such as '2000-02-31' or '2000-02-00'). In this case, when an application has not enabled strict SQL mode, it up to the application to validate the dates before storing them. If MySQL can store a date value and retrieve exactly the same value, MySQL stores it as given. If the date is totally wrong (outside the server's ability to store it), the special “zero” date value '0000-00-00' is stored in the column instead.

  • If you try to store NULL into a column that doesn't take NULL values, an error occurs for single-row INSERT statements. For multiple-row INSERT statements or for INSERT INTO ... SELECT statements, MySQL Server stores the implicit default value for the column data type. In general, this is 0 for numeric types, the empty string ('') for string types, and the “zero” value for date and time types. Implicit default values are discussed in Section 11.6, “Data Type Default Values”.

  • If an INSERT statement specifies no value for a column, MySQL inserts its default value if the column definition includes an explicit DEFAULT clause. If the definition has no such DEFAULT clause, MySQL inserts the implicit default value for the column data type.

The reason for using the preceding rules when strict mode is not in effect is that we cannot check these conditions until the statement has begun executing. We cannot just roll back if we encounter a problem after updating a few rows, because the storage engine may not support rollback. The option of terminating the statement is not that good; in this case, the update would be “half done,” which is probably the worst possible scenario. In this case, it is better to “do the best you can” and then continue as if nothing happened.

You can select stricter treatment of input values by using the STRICT_TRANS_TABLES or STRICT_ALL_TABLES SQL modes: 

SET sql_mode = 'STRICT_TRANS_TABLES';
SET sql_mode = 'STRICT_ALL_TABLES';

STRICT_TRANS_TABLES enables strict mode for transactional storage engines, and also to some extent for nontransactional engines. It works like this:

  • For transactional storage engines, bad data values occurring anywhere in a statement cause the statement to abort and roll back.

  • For nontransactional storage engines, a statement aborts if the error occurs in the first row to be inserted or updated. (When the error occurs in the first row, the statement can be aborted to leave the table unchanged, just as for a transactional table.) Errors in rows after the first do not abort the statement, because the table has already been changed by the first row. Instead, bad data values are adjusted and result in warnings rather than errors. In other words, with STRICT_TRANS_TABLES, a wrong value causes MySQL to roll back all updates done so far, if that can be done without changing the table. But once the table has been changed, further errors result in adjustments and warnings.

For even stricter checking, enable STRICT_ALL_TABLES. This is the same as STRICT_TRANS_TABLES except that for nontransactional storage engines, errors abort the statement even for bad data in rows following the first row. This means that if an error occurs partway through a multiple-row insert or update for a nontransactional table, a partial update results. Earlier rows are inserted or updated, but those from the point of the error on are not. To avoid this for nontransactional tables, either use single-row statements or else use STRICT_TRANS_TABLES if conversion warnings rather than errors are acceptable. To avoid problems in the first place, do not use MySQL to check column content. It is safest (and often faster) to let the application ensure that it passes only valid values to the database.

With either of the strict mode options, you can cause errors to be treated as warnings by using INSERT IGNORE or UPDATE IGNORE rather than INSERT or UPDATE without IGNORE.

1.8.3.4 ENUM and SET Constraints

ENUM and SET columns provide an efficient way to define columns that can contain only a given set of values. See Section 11.3.5, “The ENUM Type”, and Section 11.3.6, “The SET Type”.

Unless strict mode is disabled (not recommended, but see Section 5.1.10, “Server SQL Modes”), the definition of a ENUM or SET column acts as a constraint on values entered into the column. An error occurs for values that do not satisfy these conditions:

  • An ENUM value must be one of those listed in the column definition, or the internal numeric equivalent thereof. The value cannot be the error value (that is, 0 or the empty string). For a column defined as ENUM('a','b','c'), values such as '', 'd', or 'ax' are invalid and are rejected.

  • A SET value must be the empty string or a value consisting only of the values listed in the column definition separated by commas. For a column defined as SET('a','b','c'), values such as 'd' or 'a,b,c,d' are invalid and are rejected.

Errors for invalid values can be suppressed in strict mode if you use INSERT IGNORE or UPDATE IGNORE. In this case, a warning is generated rather than an error. For ENUM, the value is inserted as the error member (0). For SET, the value is inserted as given except that any invalid substrings are deleted. For example, 'a,x,b,y' results in a value of 'a,b'.

1.9 Credits

1.9.1 Contributors to MySQL
1.9.2 Documenters and translators
1.9.3 Packages that support MySQL
1.9.4 Tools that were used to create MySQL
1.9.5 Supporters of MySQL

The following sections list developers, contributors, and supporters that have helped to make MySQL what it is today.

1.9.1 Contributors to MySQL

Although Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates own all copyrights in the MySQL server and the MySQL manual, we wish to recognize those who have made contributions of one kind or another to the MySQL distribution. Contributors are listed here, in somewhat random order:

  • Gianmassimo Vigazzola or

    The initial port to Win32/NT.

  • Per Eric Olsson

    For constructive criticism and real testing of the dynamic record format.

  • Irena Pancirov

    Win32 port with Borland compiler. mysqlshutdown.exe and mysqlwatch.exe.

  • David J. Hughes

    For the effort to make a shareware SQL database. At TcX, the predecessor of MySQL AB, we started with mSQL, but found that it couldn't satisfy our purposes so instead we wrote an SQL interface to our application builder Unireg. mysqladmin and mysql client are programs that were largely influenced by their mSQL counterparts. We have put a lot of effort into making the MySQL syntax a superset of mSQL. Many of the API's ideas are borrowed from mSQL to make it easy to port free mSQL programs to the MySQL API. The MySQL software doesn't contain any code from mSQL. Two files in the distribution (client/insert_test.c and client/select_test.c) are based on the corresponding (noncopyrighted) files in the mSQL distribution, but are modified as examples showing the changes necessary to convert code from mSQL to MySQL Server. (mSQL is copyrighted David J. Hughes.)

  • Patrick Lynch

    For helping us acquire http://www.mysql.com/.

  • Fred Lindberg

    For setting up qmail to handle the MySQL mailing list and for the incredible help we got in managing the MySQL mailing lists.

  • Igor Romanenko

    mysqldump (previously msqldump, but ported and enhanced by Monty).

  • Yuri Dario

    For keeping up and extending the MySQL OS/2 port.

  • Tim Bunce

    Author of mysqlhotcopy.

  • Zarko Mocnik

    Sorting for Slovenian language.

  • "TAMITO"

    The _MB character set macros and the ujis and sjis character sets.

  • Joshua Chamas

    Base for concurrent insert, extended date syntax, debugging on NT, and answering on the MySQL mailing list.

  • Yves Carlier

    mysqlaccess, a program to show the access rights for a user.

  • Rhys Jones (And GWE Technologies Limited)

    For one of the early JDBC drivers.

  • Dr Xiaokun Kelvin ZHU

    Further development of one of the early JDBC drivers and other MySQL-related Java tools.

  • James Cooper

    For setting up a searchable mailing list archive at his site.

  • Rick Mehalick

    For xmysql, a graphical X client for MySQL Server.

  • Doug Sisk

    For providing RPM packages of MySQL for Red Hat Linux.

  • Diemand Alexander V.

    For providing RPM packages of MySQL for Red Hat Linux-Alpha.

  • Antoni Pamies Olive

    For providing RPM versions of a lot of MySQL clients for Intel and SPARC.

  • Jay Bloodworth

    For providing RPM versions for MySQL 3.21.

  • David Sacerdote

    Ideas for secure checking of DNS host names.

  • Wei-Jou Chen

    Some support for Chinese(BIG5) characters.

  • Wei He

    A lot of functionality for the Chinese(GBK) character set.

  • Jan Pazdziora

    Czech sorting order.

  • Zeev Suraski

    FROM_UNIXTIME() time formatting, ENCRYPT() functions, and bison advisor. Active mailing list member.

  • Luuk de Boer

    Ported (and extended) the benchmark suite to DBI/DBD. Have been of great help with crash-me and running benchmarks. Some new date functions. The mysql_setpermission script.

  • Alexis Mikhailov

    User-defined functions (UDFs); CREATE FUNCTION and DROP FUNCTION.

  • Andreas F. Bobak

    The AGGREGATE extension to user-defined functions.

  • Ross Wakelin

    Help to set up InstallShield for MySQL-Win32.

  • Jethro Wright III

    The libmysql.dll library.

  • James Pereria

    Mysqlmanager, a Win32 GUI tool for administering MySQL Servers.

  • Curt Sampson

    Porting of MIT-pthreads to NetBSD/Alpha and NetBSD 1.3/i386.

  • Martin Ramsch

    Examples in the MySQL Tutorial.

  • Steve Harvey

    For making mysqlaccess more secure.

  • Konark IA-64 Centre of Persistent Systems Private Limited

    Help with the Win64 port of the MySQL server.

  • Albert Chin-A-Young.

    Configure updates for Tru64, large file support and better TCP wrappers support.

  • John Birrell

    Emulation of pthread_mutex() for OS/2.

  • Benjamin Pflugmann

    Extended MERGE tables to handle INSERTS. Active member on the MySQL mailing lists.

  • Jocelyn Fournier

    Excellent spotting and reporting innumerable bugs (especially in the MySQL 4.1 subquery code).

  • Marc Liyanage

    Maintaining the OS X packages and providing invaluable feedback on how to create OS X packages.

  • Robert Rutherford

    Providing invaluable information and feedback about the QNX port.

  • Previous developers of NDB Cluster

    Lots of people were involved in various ways summer students, master thesis students, employees. In total more than 100 people so too many to mention here. Notable name is Ataullah Dabaghi who up until 1999 contributed around a third of the code base. A special thanks also to developers of the AXE system which provided much of the architectural foundations for NDB Cluster with blocks, signals and crash tracing functionality. Also credit should be given to those who believed in the ideas enough to allocate of their budgets for its development from 1992 to present time.

  • Google Inc.

    We wish to recognize Google Inc. for contributions to the MySQL distribution: Mark Callaghan's SMP Performance patches and other patches.

Other contributors, bugfinders, and testers: James H. Thompson, Maurizio Menghini, Wojciech Tryc, Luca Berra, Zarko Mocnik, Wim Bonis, Elmar Haneke, , , , Ted Deppner , Mike Simons, Jaakko Hyvatti.

And lots of bug report/patches from the folks on the mailing list.

A big tribute goes to those that help us answer questions on the MySQL mailing lists:

1.9.2 Documenters and translators

The following people have helped us with writing the MySQL documentation and translating the documentation or error messages in MySQL.

  • Paul DuBois

    Ongoing help with making this manual correct and understandable. That includes rewriting Monty's and David's attempts at English into English as other people know it.

  • Kim Aldale

    Helped to rewrite Monty's and David's early attempts at English into English.

  • Michael J. Miller Jr.

    For the first MySQL manual. And a lot of spelling/language fixes for the FAQ (that turned into the MySQL manual a long time ago).

  • Yan Cailin

    First translator of the MySQL Reference Manual into simplified Chinese in early 2000 on which the Big5 and HK coded versions were based.

  • Jay Flaherty

    Big parts of the Perl DBI/DBD section in the manual.

  • Paul Southworth , Ray Loyzaga

    Proof-reading of the Reference Manual.

  • Therrien Gilbert , Jean-Marc Pouyot

    French error messages.

  • Petr Snajdr,

    Czech error messages.

  • Jaroslaw Lewandowski

    Polish error messages.

  • Miguel Angel Fernandez Roiz

    Spanish error messages.

  • Roy-Magne Mo

    Norwegian error messages and testing of MySQL 3.21.xx.

  • Timur I. Bakeyev

    Russian error messages.

  • & Filippo Grassilli

    Italian error messages.

  • Dirk Munzinger

    German error messages.

  • Billik Stefan

    Slovak error messages.

  • Stefan Saroiu

    Romanian error messages.

  • Peter Feher

    Hungarian error messages.

  • Roberto M. Serqueira

    Portuguese error messages.

  • Carsten H. Pedersen

    Danish error messages.

  • Arjen Lentz

    Dutch error messages, completing earlier partial translation (also work on consistency and spelling).

1.9.3 Packages that support MySQL

The following is a list of creators/maintainers of some of the most important API/packages/applications that a lot of people use with MySQL.

We cannot list every possible package here because the list would then be way to hard to maintain. For other packages, please refer to the software portal at http://solutions.mysql.com/software/.

  • Tim Bunce, Alligator Descartes

    For the DBD (Perl) interface.

  • Andreas Koenig

    For the Perl interface for MySQL Server.

  • Jochen Wiedmann

    For maintaining the Perl DBD::mysql module.

  • Eugene Chan

    For porting PHP for MySQL Server.

  • Georg Richter

    MySQL 4.1 testing and bug hunting. New PHP 5.0 mysqli extension (API) for use with MySQL 4.1 and up.

  • Giovanni Maruzzelli

    For porting iODBC (Unix ODBC).

  • Xavier Leroy

    The author of LinuxThreads (used by the MySQL Server on Linux).

1.9.4 Tools that were used to create MySQL

The following is a list of some of the tools we have used to create MySQL. We use this to express our thanks to those that has created them as without these we could not have made MySQL what it is today.

  • Free Software Foundation

    From whom we got an excellent compiler (gcc), an excellent debugger (gdb and the libc library (from which we have borrowed strto.c to get some code working in Linux).

  • Free Software Foundation & The XEmacs development team

    For a really great editor/environment.

  • Julian Seward

    Author of valgrind, an excellent memory checker tool that has helped us find a lot of otherwise hard to find bugs in MySQL.

  • Dorothea Lütkehaus and Andreas Zeller

    For DDD (The Data Display Debugger) which is an excellent graphical front end to gdb).

1.9.5 Supporters of MySQL

Although Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates own all copyrights in the MySQL server and the MySQL manual, we wish to recognize the following companies, which helped us finance the development of the MySQL server, such as by paying us for developing a new feature or giving us hardware for development of the MySQL server.

  • VA Linux / Andover.net

    Funded replication.

  • NuSphere

    Editing of the MySQL manual.

  • Stork Design studio

    The MySQL website in use between 1998-2000.

  • Intel

    Contributed to development on Windows and Linux platforms.

  • Compaq

    Contributed to Development on Linux/Alpha.

  • SWSoft

    Development on the embedded mysqld version.

  • FutureQuest

    The --skip-show-database option.

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