Hacking the latest storage engine? Working on a fancy new SHOW command? Hunting for a bug in mysqld? This is for you!

Once you’ve got MySQL compiled, how do you test your mysqld binary? You’ll need to get it started. Stop! Don’t make install it!

1. Set up your sandbox

   $ mkdir ~/t
   $ vi ~/t/my.cnf
   

   Add the following to ~/t/my.cnf (modify to taste):

   [mysqld]
   basedir=sql
   datadir=/Users/jcole/t
   port=3307
   socket=/Users/jcole/t/mysql.sock
   skip-grant
   skip-innodb
   skip-bdb
           
   [client]
   port=3307
   socket=/Users/jcole/t/mysql.sock
   

2. Build your source
3. Set up a symlink for share

   $ ln -s . sql/share/mysql
   

   This, combined with the basedir=sql in my.cnf means that MySQL will be able to find its error message and character set files, so that the release you’re building doesn’t have to match the release installed on the …

I'll be coming to the MySQL User Conference next month, then hanging around a little while longer for a support group meet.

After booking various things my bank called me about possible fraudulent charges on my credit card. Apparently I wasn't supposed to go?

We know that people are pretty interested in "stuff" with the MySQL logo/name on it. Like, last year's anniversary mug was pretty popular, as are the t-shirts we hand out at various conferences. So we're working on more! We're the only ones who can make this happen, since it involves our trademarks.

This is your chance to tell the MySQL community team what kind of stuff you would like to see, and do feel free to be quite specific (like colour for t-shirts, etc). Tell what you would like: geek wear, baby wear, underwear?, mugs, caps, stickers, ...

The photo on the left is of my daughter Phoebe (10 months old now), with possibly the smallest MySQL shirt in existence (this one was custom printed). This just to give your creativity a nudge.

Also, if you have any cool/funny sloguns in mind, now is the time …

Georg Richter, Apache, PHP, and MySQL hacker finally has a blog!

The new version of my Normalization article is now online:

http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/intro-to-normalization.html

Apparently SCO is trying to push it's OS with a new Product - SCAMP, a LAMP-like combination of OpenServer, Apache, MySQL and PHP/Perl. Unfortunately for them the abbreviation is already an english word.
Leo says in german it's "Schuft, Spitzbube" as a noun and "pfuschen" as a verb. Should this tell us anything about the product? This reminds me of the short-lived slogan of the Deutsche Bahn "Geniessen Sie Ihr Leben in vollen Zügen" (Enjoy Your life to the fullest / Enjoy Your life in overcrowded trains). But who's to blame, our latest product is named Chorizo :-)

The MySQL GUI team, under the leadership of graphical guru Mike Zinner, has posted a new beta version of MySQL Workbench.  This is a brand new graphical tool targeted to DBAs giving them a powerful graphical environment for modeling and managing database schemas.  This is an awesome tool that makes it easy to reverse engineer huge database schemas, maintain the model graphically, and it provides complete 2-way synchronization between the graphical model and the underlying database schema.  It provides automatic layout, customizable views, drag and drop capabilities and more. 

MySQL Workbench runs on …

from this thread on the orafaq forum:

?There is no way we would be able to raise the money required to buy a commercial Oracle license.?

?I believe the XE edition is a max of 2gig. htmldb would be free for that, but by the time you add htmldb overhead and users, I gotta think this site has way way more data than what is left out of the starting 2gig. ? Standard Edition One would be the next option, at 5 grand per proc.?

maybe oracle will toss a free license their way, but this is a great case study on how useless oracle?s free offerings really are. (to contrast, of course, mysql?s free offering is fully-featured, with no artificial limitations. same with other truly free databases like firebird or the open-source versions of …

Ok, I just had to laugh.  The Oracle FAQ site OraFAQ runs on... MySQL!   I guess it just goes to show how cost-effective open source is.  Here's some quotes from a thread on their discussion forum:

"Interesting - we don't run an Oracle database. But I suppose we ARE a free site so are probably a bit short of cash.

David "

...

"What cash? Every penny we make goes back into running and developing this site. There is no way we would be able to raise the money required to buy a commercial Oracle license.

Best regards.

Frank

To be honest, it's not a surprise.  There are tens of thousands of web sites that run MySQL ranging from the mega sites like Yahoo, Google, Craigslist, Travelocity, to many ecommerce sites, blogs, forums, and discussion sites.  After all, …

I'll be speaking at the Open Source Software Forum on April 6th in Hobart, Tasmania. Speaking, I say? They offered me the keynote straight after the minister's intro. Grand!
I've been asked to talk about "bridging the divide between bright developers and the real world", basically a mix of my "How to Eat an Elephant" and "The MySQL Business Model" talks.

There's a serious crowd of OSS and other software vendors present, I've seen names from Red Hat, IBM, and Microsoft. The website explains
The forum will be used to promote awareness and understanding of OSS and to examine the risks and benefits associated with the adoption of the software. The forum will also provide an opportunity to showcase OSS solutions using case studies and/or pilot programs discovered via market research. The forum will involve stakeholders from within …