Since before MySQL was MySQL, there has been the .FRM file. Of course, what it really wanted to be was “.form” -  a file that stored how to display a form on your (green) CRT. Jan blogged earlier in the year on this still being there, even in MySQL 5.1 (albeit not in any useful form).

So why do we want it to die?

Well… it’s not exactly very useful anymore.

There are a few things it’s used for….

If database/table.frm exists, the table exists (or, on Windows, you may also get database\table.frm). This is tested in a few bits in the code by a call to access(2).

Most engines have their own data dictionaries (Innodb, PBXT, NDB, Falcon). Keeping these in sync with the FRMs can be problematic at best. This is especially true with distributed engines such as NDB.

The current solution is …

OurDelta build for MySQL 5.0.67 with patchset d7 is now available, in source (new!) and packaged binaries for RHEL/CentOS 4 and 5, Debian 4.0 Etch, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy) and (new!) Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid).

If you already installed the OurDelta repository information, yum update or apt-get upgrade will install the updated packages for you. Please do review the special notes on backward compatibility.

See the full release …

VirtualBox is really nice, but if you’re like me, maybe you found the networking confusing. There are three ways to do it, as explained by the manual, and the best way is with host interfaces, which don’t have limitations like the inability to ping and so on. I found what I think is [...]

Today was epoch day in American history. Maybe even most important day this year, but it's not what I'd like to write about here. What does it mean for US citizens and all other people around the world? We know, but what does it mean for us - IT professionals and/or internet portals serving news for end users?

Increased number of requests to webservers, high network utilization, and huge number of queries against your databases (while on duty last night, I saw customer servers handling 10 times larger traffic than usual)..

How to deal with it? How to prepare for such events?

In the moments like that, the most important thing is to assure the continuity and high efficiency.  How to accomplish it?

The best way is through preparation for the planned event.  From past experience, we know that during the ongoing event, it is often impossible …

OurDelta build for MySQL 5.0.67 with patchset d7 is now available, in source (new!) and packaged binaries for RHEL/CentOS 4 and 5, Debian 4.0 Etch, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy) and (new!) Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid).

If you already installed the OurDelta repository information, yum update or apt-get upgrade will install the updated packages for you. Please do review the special notes on backward compatibility below.

Fixes & Additions:

• Fixed up all backward compatibility and reserved keyword issues. You …

You might be wondering what's been happening with MySQL performance since Sun arrived on the scene. The good news is that we haven't been idle. There's been general recognition that MySQL could benefit from some performance and scalability enhancements, and Sun assembled a cross-organizational team immediately after the acquisition to get started on it. We've enjoyed excellent cooperation between the engineers from both organizations.

This kind of effort is not new for Sun - we've been working with proprietary database companies on performance for years, with source code for each of the major databases on site to help the process. In this case, the fact that the MySQL engineers are working for the same company certainly simplifies a lot of things.

If you'd like to get some insight into what's been happening, a video has just …

You might be wondering what's been happening with MySQL performance since Sun arrived on the scene. The good news is that we haven't been idle. There's been general recognition that MySQL could benefit from some performance and scalability enhancements, and Sun assembled a cross-organizational team immediately after the acquisition to get started on it. We've enjoyed excellent cooperation between the engineers from both organizations.

This kind of effort is not new for Sun - we've been working with proprietary database companies on performance for years, with source code for each of the major databases on site to help the process. In this case, the fact that the MySQL engineers are working for the same company certainly simplifies a lot of things.

If you'd like to get some insight into what's been happening, a video has just …

Did you see the press release today, called “Sun MySQL Server Solution“?

What it means is that we start seeing the fruits of what we’ve been talking about all along since the acquisition, such as when launching MySQL this week in Argentina and in Uruguay:

• That Sun remains committed to MySQL’s cross-platform presence, doing at least as much as before the acquisition on any individual platform or for any individual stack.

• That the acquisition of MySQL through …

Uruguay is the Switzerland of South America, in many ways: when it comes to bank secrets, to the size of the country, and to the relative cleanliness compared to neighbouring countries. Uruguay has a similar accent to that of Buenos Aires, and a highly developed economy with demanding database users.

Like yesterday in Argentina, I could today be part of the MySQL launch in Uruguay. Following our script from Argentina (meet press, present to customers, meet individual customers), the difference in Uruguay is that we mostly work through partners.

The most prominent Sun partner in Uruguay is Arnaldo C. Castro S.A. They hosted our customer event in hotel Cala di Volpe (Giuseppe told me this Italian name means “Bay of Foxes”, and quite like Argentina, Uruguay has plenty of Italian immigrants). I met with plenty of representatives for …

Will the BizSpark program impact the use of open source by startups? READ MORE