With the shipment of the first release candidate (RC) of MySQL 5.7, the next major version of the server is rapidly shaping up. Over the course of the nearly two and a half years that have passed since 5.6 went GA, we have put a lot of work into streamlining the server code in order to ease the burden of developing and maintaining such a large product and codebase.

An important aspect of this work is deprecation and removal. To explain the terms, deprecating a feature means that we signal to the outside world that “this feature is available now, but it will be removed in a future release, so please adjust your use case accordingly”. Removing a feature means just that – in one version the feature is available, but then it is gone, and if you try to use it, you will get an error message saying that the feature is unknown.

Generally we don’t remove features in existing GA releases, but we …

Do you have an idea for improving MySQL? Or do you see a problem in the code you think you can fix? Do you want to see your contribution becoming a part of the MySQL Server codebase?

MySQL Engineering gives you the opportunity of having your code considered for inclusion in one of our upcoming releases.

How to contribute?

These are the steps to follow:

1. Make sure you have signed the Oracle Contributor Agreement (OCA).
2. File a bug report at http://bugs.mysql.com
3. Attach your code to the “contributor” tab in the bug report.

That is all.  At the time of writing, around 100 people have signed up as contributors to MySQL.

What happens then?

The bug system will automatically …

After a version of MySQL Server has been declared GA, Oracle releases regular maintenance updates: the 5.6 GA was 5.6.10 and we are now at 5.6.17.

A lot of work goes into the maintenance releases. The purpose of this blog post is to show you a little bit of what happens on behind the curtains in the Oracle sweatshop that actually produces a maintenance release and to give you an insight into our thinking around testing, quality and bug fixing.

What goes into a maintenance release?
The short answer is “bug fixes”. These fall roughly into two classes,

• The majority of bugs are chosen by Support for their relevance to customers and community and worked on by the Sustaining Team, which is dedicated to fixing the  bugs on Support’s list. Yes, Support choose the bugs. That may come …

Early this year Oracle released  MySQL 5.6 – Best MySQL Release Ever. This release delivered not only quality, but also quantity in terms of number of features. See a comprehensive list here . The blogs below also refer to the massive changes introduced in 5.6
http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2013/01/27/mysql-5-6-improvements-in-the-nutshell/
http://www.flamingspork.com/blog/2013/03/05/mysql-code-size/

It is no mean task to deliver so many features with high quality that too for a feature rich product like MySQL. This was made …

The description of the Milestone Release model has been available at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-development-cycle/en for almost two years. So, this is not new but it has now been in operation for 3.5 years and it can be worth looking back and summarize.

Our first MySQL Server Milestone 5.4.3 was released on October 9th, 2009 and was then followed up by 5.5.2 on Feb. 26, 2010. Initially there was a time of trying out and fine tuning the model before it found its current form around 5.5 GA. The stabilized model has been followed consistently throughout the 5.6 development cycle.   Our latest milestone release (5.7.1) was released on April 22 and was covered in Tomas’ keynote on Percona Live, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpHTV59I1gs. In total we have now done 11 …

We devoted the Palomino Newsletter this month to the important topic of disaster recovery, in light of the challenges posed by Hurricane Sandy. If you're not already receiving our newsletter, you can subscribe here.

Hurricane Sandy has been on many people's minds of late; mine not least.  Having lived the last 4 years of my life in Manhattan and on the Jersey Shore, the loss of lives, the destruction of homes, business and memories, and the disruption of so much has me in shock.  I grew up in Louisiana, and hurricanes were a way of life.  You didn't do something hoping that a hurricane would not come by.  You assumed a hurricane would come.  At least, that's how I was taught.  That's the mentality I try to bring into my architectures, my process and my planning as well.  So, when hurricane Sandy …

We devoted the Palomino Newsletter this month to the important topic of disaster recovery, in light of the challenges posed by Hurricane Sandy. If you're not already receiving our newsletter, you can subscribe here.

Hurricane Sandy has been on many people's minds of late; mine not least.  Having lived the last 4 years of my life in Manhattan and on the Jersey Shore, the loss of lives, the destruction of homes, business and memories, and the disruption of so much has me in shock.  I grew up in Louisiana, and hurricanes were a way of life.  You didn't do something hoping that a hurricane would not come by.  You assumed a hurricane would come.  At least, that's how I was taught.  That's the mentality I try to bring into my architectures, my process and my planning as well.  So, when hurricane Sandy …