[Mageia-dev] HEADSUP: mariadb available for testing

andre999 andre999mga at laposte.net
Tue Nov 15 00:38:22 CET 2011


Maarten Vanraes a écrit :
> Hi all,
>
> mariadb-5.5.15-0.mga2 should be hitting the mirrors soon (at cauldron
> core/updates_testing). It's purpose is to be an alternative to mysql. for that
> reason, mariadb packages provide also the similar mysql targets.
>
> mariadb is intended to be a drop-in replacement for mysql, it goes so far to
> actually have the same files and ABI's as mysql. after looking at their forking
> process (it's not actually a full fork, they start from mysql and then patch),
> i've seen that it's actually very good for a drop-in replacement. There are a
> few differences ( http://kb.askmonty.org/en/mariadb-versus-mysql-compatibility
> ) but they are minor. I've done a few minor tests with amarok, akonadi, drupal
> and phpmyadmin (and of course mysql client).
>
> NOTE: mariadb provides actually most storage engines mysql provides as well,
> but also the original and unpatched MyISAM and InnoDB engines from mysql. On
> top of that, it has some extra storage engines. XtraDB, which is the drop-in
> replacement storage engine for Innodb, is essentially an innodb with extra
> patches from various sources, like google, facebook, etc... ( see
> http://kb.askmonty.org/en/mariadb-versus-mysql-features )
>
> I've chosen to use mkrel 0 atm, because it's not a released version yet, I've
> talked extensively to mariadb developers, and they mentioned that they did 5.3
> and 5.5 in parallel, so that 5.5 should be released as beta pretty soon. When
> i talked about our release schedule, they did mention that mariadb-5.5 should
> be final before februari.
>
> My plan is as follows:
> 1. provide testing package [DONE]
> 2. clean up spec file from mysql and file some patches upstream [DONE]
> 3. provide newer testing package when it's released as a alpha/beta
> 4. if testing is satisfactory (not breaking buildsystem or mysql) submit to
> core/release and get more testing.
> 5. if final 5.5 release is on time, have mariadb into mageia2
>
> now there, we have a few options:
>
> considering that mariadb is essentially mysql + extra features, if we ship
> both mysql and mariadb, we should ensure that normal users don't go from
> mariadb to mysql. (if a storage engine would be used that's NOT in mysql,
> suddenly a few databases might not work, even though the data is still there.)
>
> A. provide both but with vendor preference
> making sure one of them both is preferred should be ok, since they conflict
> anyway, if a user installs the non-preferred one, she knows what she's doing.
> ( I think a note could be added here for warning purposes )
>
> B. only use mariadb anymore
> =>  That's the easiest and safest option...
> _IF_ mariadb works well. (which i'm sure we'll see in our testing)
> (IMHO, if it worked for libreoffice, i don't see why not for mariadb)
>
>
> any opinions? testings? problems?
>
>    
I think it is a great idea, from all I've read.
I've already been thinking of installing it in place of mysql.

As for the options, I'm inclined to prefer a choice (option A), since 
some users could have problems with either, given that there are some 
(minor) incompatibilities.
But if we have only one, at least those preferring the other could 
always go upstream.

As for what was done with Libreoffice/Openoffice, the obsolete forced me 
to install upstream versions to have both installed.  They have no file 
conflict.
One can even have installed (but not run at the same time) different 
versions of upstream Libreoffice at the same time.  (They recommend 
doing that for testing.)

-- 
André



More information about the Mageia-dev mailing list