The latest from the MySQL community

If you have been MySQL User for many years you might remember the times when MySQL had "zero bugs policy", this is when all known bugs really were fixed before release was made. To be honest at that time bugs were reported via bugs mailing list not via bugs database as they are now so they were not tracked so accurately but still there was intention and all known serious bugs were fixed before release was made.

Over years this policy had few changes, transforming to something like "no critical bugs in production releases" and in practice releases moved to predictive schedule rather than based on the moment when all bugs were fixed.

To tell you the truth this was inevitable - with so huge amount of users as MySQL has and growing MySQL complexity you can't hope to have zero bugs, especially as some bugs are design bugs which require a lot of work to get fixed. But at the same time MySQL for very long time kept silence about known bugs …

A few weeks ago I held a MySQL University Session about MySQL Proxy. Thanks to our docs team we now have

• the IRC log,
• the slides and
• the voice recording

online.

If you are interested in writing your own scripts for the proxy, check out the Writing LUA Scripts for MySQL …

Test-Commander Eric was working on the log-replay task and as he is at my place right now, we have put our heads together to get a working prototype together.

---
-- log queries going throw the proxy on request and
-- provide a commands to work on the logged queries
--
-- * PROXY SET GLOBAL replay.log_queries = (true|false)
--   log queries sequentially (used by SAVE)
-- * PROXY SET GLOBAL replay.fake_mysqld = (true|false)
--   return the logged resultset for known queries
--
-- * QUERYLOG SAVE INTO "filename"
--   dump the queries into a file and reset the log buffer
-- * QUERYLOG LOAD FROM "filename"
--   load logged queries back into the query_log (used by the
--   fake_mysqld)
-- * QUERYLOG SHOW

What is this useful for ? ... hmm ...

The first goal is creating a fake-mysqld allowing us to run proxy tests without have to have a mysqld on the box.

As a proof-of-concept we logged the SHOW GLOBAL STATUS going through the proxy …

in his infoworld blog, zack urlocker (vp products at mysql) passes on a good link about smaller software teams. and says very kind things about me, since he read the article after i posted it to our internal business-intelligence list. i used to report directly to zack, but i have managed to shoehorn in three other people between us on the orgchart since then.

that business-intelligence list is kind of a funny beast. it is mostly industry news (who bought who), with some interesting mentions of mysql in the press and blogs, and my ongoing implicit criticism of our development processes. it would make a pretty good blog. i should at least start posting the things i have been sending to the list.

Two weeks ago we had the first small get-together of MySQL users in Helsinki. About a dozen people attended, so we had a good chance to talk shop in detail. It would be interesting to expand this group further, plus I know several people who'd probably have interesting stuff to share but couldn't make it. So, we'll have to do this again. Any volunteer organizers?

Our DBAs had put together a bit of material that I spoke about, since they couldn't make it this time. I promised to post it here, but I've been really busy with other stuff, so here goes - better late than never.

How to back up MySQL using free tools As far as production backups go, mysqldump doesn't really cut it. Too slow, too much load to the database, locks too many things, etc. Innobackup is good, but sometimes you don't want to invest in the licenses. Here's how to do it with free tools only, Linux + LVM (applicable to other environments).
The good:

Nokia has announced an updated version of their Internet Tablet with the new N810.  This is a huge upgrade to an already solid device and platform.  Highlights of the N810 include:

• Slide out keyboard
• Faster CPU, faster boot times
• Built-in wi-fi and GPS
• 2 GB internal memory, expandable with Micro-SD cards
• Built-in Opera browser, email, media player
• Compatible with Skype, YouTube, Facebook etc
• Updated Linux Maemo user interface
• 4 hour battery life
• 800 x 480 display
• 5 x 2.83 x 0.55-inches, 7.97 ounces

The N810 looks like a great device and a great open source platform for developers.  Existing …

So, like most things involving development, release schedule, marketing, community events, press releases — well, pretty much anything at all — the release of MySQL 5.1.22 as a Release Candidate stirred emotions of many MySQLers, both internal and external. If there's one thing I've learned from working at MySQL for nearly two years, it's that there is no shortage of emotion in our beloved little company.

This, of course, can be both a blessing and a curse. You can compare the dilemma of our situation as similar to the framers of a government. Stray too much towards absolute democracy, and efficiency and direction can be lost. Veer too much towards despotism and you get a well-oiled, but utterly one-tracked, machine. And thus the latest debates internal to MySQL over what the newest MySQL 5.1.x should be called — beta? gamma? RC? speckledottedgobblegook? — were fierce. …

It is submission time now, with about one week left till proposal submission deadline. Both me and Vadim had submitted few talks to the Grand Jury which will make elite selection of sessions for MySQL Users Conference and we plan to submit few more.

Our experience in MySQL is rather broad - we can prepare talks in areas of MySQL Performance Optimization, Scaling, High Availability and Replication , efficient application design, good operations practices or take one of applications we helped with and show its internals as a case. We can do some new talks or update some of old talks with modern material such as those about general MySQL Performance Optimization or Innodb Tuning.

Anyway we would like to hear what would you like to hear about on MySQL Users Conference and if that falls in our area of experience we'll propose such talk !

Entry posted by peter | …

Jim Winstead, one of our top developers, recently sent a link to an article by Bob Warfield "To build better software, you need fewer people." Jim's one of the unsung heroes of MySQL who works like crazy to eliminate bugs whether in the server, in our ODBC driver or lending a hand on various storage engines. But while he's a heads-down hard-working guy, he's also very thoughtful about what makes for good software development. So when he highlights an article, it's always worth reading and figuring out how to apply some of the ideas at MySQL. In his blog, Bob... READ MORE

Recently I wanted to setup a little MySQL sandbox where I could hack away at MySQL with reckless abandon.? A sandbox is different than a test environment, it’s usually one which is very breakable.? You want to be able to break things, or rather take them completely apart and put them back together.? It’s the only way to understand all of the moving parts.

So searching google, I happened upon Giuseppe Maxia’s Replication Playground. It basically installs into an unprivileged directory, one master, and three slaves.? You can then test out various scenarios. Read his blog entry.

It is trivial to install, however I encountered some issues with MySQL 5.0, which caused me some troubles.? I sent him my feedback, and comments, and it looks like he has …