MySQL 5.1 is the current development release series.

MySQL 5.0 is the current stable (production-quality) release series. New releases are issued for bugfixes only; no new features are being added that could effect stability.

MySQL 4.1 is the previous stable (production-quality) release series. New releases are issued for critical bugfixes and security fixes. No significant new features are to be added to this series.

MySQL 4.0 and 3.23 are the old stable (production-quality) release series. These versions are now retired, so new releases are issued only to fix extremely critical bugs (primarily security issues).

The first number (5) is the major version and describes the file format. All MySQL 5 releases have the same file format.

The second number (0) is the release level. Taken together, the major version and release level constitute the release series number.

The third number (12) is the version number within the release series. This is incremented for each new release. Usually you want the latest version for the series you have chosen.

alpha indicates that the release is for preview purposes only. Known bugs should be documented in the News section (see Appendix E, MySQL Change History). Most alpha releases implement new commands and extensions. Active development that may involve major code changes can occur in an alpha release. However, we do conduct testing before issuing a release.

beta indicates that the release is appropriate for use with new development. Within beta releases, the features and compatibility should remain consistent. However, beta releases may contain numerous and major unaddressed bugs.

All APIs, externally visible structures, and columns for SQL statements will not change during future beta, release candidate, or production releases.

rc indicates a Release Candidate. Release candidates are believed to be stable, having passed all of MySQL's internal testing, and with all known fatal runtime bugs fixed. However, the release has not been in widespread use long enough to know for sure that all bugs have been identified. Only minor fixes are added. (A release candidate is what formerly was known as a gamma release.)

If there is no suffix, it indicates that the release is a General Availability (GA) or Production release. GA releases are stable, having successfully passed through all earlier release stages and are believed to be reliable, free of serious bugs, and suitable for use in production systems. Only critical bugfixes are applied to the release.

An internal test suite

The mysql-test directory contains an extensive set of test cases. We run these tests for every server binary. See Section 24.1.2, “MySQL Test Suite”, for more information about this test suite.

The MySQL benchmark suite

This suite runs a range of common queries. It is also a test to determine whether the latest batch of optimizations actually made the code faster. See Section 7.1.4, “The MySQL Benchmark Suite”.

The crash-me test

This test tries to determine what features the database supports and what its capabilities and limitations are. See Section 7.1.4, “The MySQL Benchmark Suite”.

Binary distributions generally are easier to install than source distributions.

To satisfy different user requirements, we provide several servers in binary distributions. mysqld is an optimized server that is a smaller, faster binary. mysqld-debug is compiled with debugging support.

Each of these servers is compiled from the same source distribution, though with different configuration options. All native MySQL clients can connect to servers from either MySQL version.

You want to install MySQL at some explicit location. The standard binary distributions are ready to run at any installation location, but you might require even more flexibility to place MySQL components where you want.

You want to configure mysqld to ensure that features are available that might not be included in the standard binary distributions. Here is a list of the most common extra options that you may want to use to ensure feature availability:

You want to configure mysqld without some features that are included in the standard binary distributions. For example, distributions normally are compiled with support for all character sets. If you want a smaller MySQL server, you can recompile it with support for only the character sets you need.

You have a special compiler (such as pgcc) or want to use compiler options that are better optimized for your processor. Binary distributions are compiled with options that should work on a variety of processors from the same processor family.

You want to use the latest sources from one of the BitKeeper repositories to have access to all current bugfixes. For example, if you have found a bug and reported it to the MySQL development team, the bugfix is committed to the source repository and you can access it there. The bugfix does not appear in a release until a release actually is issued.

You want to read (or modify) the C and C++ code that makes up MySQL. For this purpose, you should get a source distribution, because the source code is always the ultimate manual.

Source distributions contain more tests and examples than binary distributions.

Enterprise Server releases are meant to appear every 18 months, supplemented by quarterly service packs and monthly rapid updates. Community Server releases are meant to appear 2–3 times per year.

Releases are issued within each series. Enterprise Server releases are numbered using even numbers (for example, 5.0.20). Community Server releases are numbered using odd numbers (for example, 5.0.21).

Binary distributions for some platforms are made by us for major releases. Other people may make binary distributions for other systems, but probably less frequently.

We make fixes available as soon as we have identified and corrected small or non-critical but annoying bugs. The fixes are available in source form immediately from our public BitKeeper repositories, and are included in the next release.

If by any chance a security vulnerability or critical bug is found in a release, our policy is to fix it in a new release as soon as possible. (We would like other companies to do this, too!)

We monitor bugs from our customer support list, the bugs database at http://bugs.mysql.com/, and the MySQL external mailing lists.

All reported bugs for live versions are entered into the bugs database.

When we fix a bug, we always try to make a test case for it and include it into our test system to ensure that the bug can never recur without being detected. (About 90% of all fixed bugs have test cases.)

We create test cases for each new feature that we add to MySQL.

Before we start to build a new MySQL release, we ensure that all reported repeatable bugs for that MySQL version (3.23.x, 4.0.x, 4.1.x, 5.0.x, 5.1.x, and so on) are fixed. If something is impossible to fix due to some internal design decision in MySQL, we document this in the manual. See Section B.1.8, “Known Issues in MySQL”.

We do a build on all platforms for which we support binaries and run our test suite and benchmark suite on all of them.

We do not publish a binary for a platform for which the test or benchmark suite fails. If the problem is due to a general error in the source, we fix it and do the build plus tests on all systems again from scratch.

The build and test process takes a week. If we receive a report regarding a fatal bug during this process (for example, one that causes a core dump), we fix the problem and restart the build process.

After publishing the binaries on http://dev.mysql.com/, we send out an announcement message to the mysql and announce mailing lists. See Section 1.7.1, “MySQL Mailing Lists”. The announcement message contains a list of all changes to the release and any known problems with the release. The Known Problems section in the release notes has been needed for only a handful of releases.

To quickly give our users access to the latest MySQL features, we try to produce a new MySQL release every 4-8 weeks. Source code snapshots are built daily and are available at http://downloads.mysql.com/snapshots.php.

If, despite our best efforts, we receive any bug reports after a release is issued that a critical problem exists for the build on a specific platform, we fix it at once and build a new 'a' release for that platform. Thanks to our large user base, problems are found and resolved very quickly.

Our track record for making stable releases is quite good. In the last 150 releases, we had to do a new build for fewer than 10 of them. In three of these cases, the bug was a faulty glibc library on one of our build machines that took us a long time to track down.

Linux 2.4.xx x86 with gcc 2.95.3:

CFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=pentiumpro" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=pentiumpro
-felide-constructors" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --enable-assembler --disable-shared
--with-client-ldflags=-all-static --with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static

Linux 2.4.x x86 with icc (Intel C++ Compiler 8.1 or later releases):

CC=icc CXX=icpc CFLAGS="-O3 -unroll2 -ip -mp -no-gcc -restrict"
CXXFLAGS="-O3 -unroll2 -ip -mp -no-gcc -restrict" ./configure
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql --localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data
--libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --enable-assembler
--disable-shared --with-client-ldflags=-all-static
--with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static --with-embedded-server --with-innodb

Note that versions 8.1 and newer of the Intel compiler have separate drivers for 'pure' C (icc) and C++ (icpc); if you use icc version 8.0 or older for building MySQL, you will need to set CXX=icc.

Linux 2.4.xx Intel Itanium 2 with ecc (Intel C++ Itanium Compiler 7.0):

CC=ecc CFLAGS="-O2 -tpp2 -ip -nolib_inline" CXX=ecc CXXFLAGS="-O2
-tpp2 -ip -nolib_inline" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile

Linux 2.4.xx Intel Itanium with ecc (Intel C++ Itanium Compiler 7.0):

CC=ecc CFLAGS=-tpp1 CXX=ecc CXXFLAGS=-tpp1 ./configure
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile

Linux 2.4.xx alpha with ccc (Compaq C V6.2-505 / Compaq C++ V6.3-006):

CC=ccc CFLAGS="-fast -arch generic" CXX=cxx CXXFLAGS="-fast -arch
generic -noexceptions -nortti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --with-mysqld-ldflags=-non_shared
--with-client-ldflags=-non_shared --disable-shared

Linux 2.x.xx ppc with gcc 2.95.4:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3
-fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions
-fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data --libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --disable-shared --with-embedded-server
--with-innodb

Linux 2.4.xx s390 with gcc 2.95.3:

CFLAGS="-O2" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O2 -felide-constructors" ./configure
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared
--with-client-ldflags=-all-static --with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static

Linux 2.4.xx x86_64 (AMD64) with gcc 3.2.1:

CXX=gcc ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --disable-shared

Sun Solaris 8 x86 with gcc 3.2.3:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3
-fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions
-fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data --libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --disable-shared --with-innodb

Sun Solaris 8 SPARC with gcc 3.2:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3
-fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions
-fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --enable-assembler --with-named-z-libs=no
--with-named-curses-libs=-lcurses --disable-shared

Sun Solaris 8 SPARC 64-bit with gcc 3.2:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -m64 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3
-m64 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions
-fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no
--with-named-curses-libs=-lcurses --disable-shared

Sun Solaris 9 SPARC with gcc 2.95.3:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3
-fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions
-fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --enable-assembler --with-named-curses-libs=-lcurses
--disable-shared

Sun Solaris 9 SPARC with cc-5.0 (Sun Forte 5.0):

CC=cc-5.0 CXX=CC ASFLAGS="-xarch=v9" CFLAGS="-Xa -xstrconst -mt
-D_FORTEC_ -xarch=v9" CXXFLAGS="-noex -mt -D_FORTEC_ -xarch=v9"
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --enable-assembler
--with-named-z-libs=no --enable-thread-safe-client --disable-shared

IBM AIX 4.3.2 ppc with gcc 3.2.3:

CFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=powerpc -Wa,-many " CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O2
-mcpu=powerpc -Wa,-many -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions
-fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no --disable-shared

IBM AIX 4.3.3 ppc with xlC_r (IBM Visual Age C/C++ 6.0):

CC=xlc_r CFLAGS="-ma -O2 -qstrict -qoptimize=2 -qmaxmem=8192"
CXX=xlC_r CXXFLAGS ="-ma -O2 -qstrict -qoptimize=2 -qmaxmem=8192"
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data
--libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no
--disable-shared --with-innodb

IBM AIX 5.1.0 ppc with gcc 3.3:

CFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=powerpc -Wa,-many" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=powerpc
-Wa,-many -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no
--disable-shared

IBM AIX 5.2.0 ppc with xlC_r (IBM Visual Age C/C++ 6.0):

CC=xlc_r CFLAGS="-ma -O2 -qstrict -qoptimize=2 -qmaxmem=8192"
CXX=xlC_r CXXFLAGS="-ma -O2 -qstrict -qoptimize=2 -qmaxmem=8192"
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data
--libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no
--disable-shared --with-embedded-server --with-innodb

HP-UX 10.20 pa-risc1.1 with gcc 3.1:

CFLAGS="-DHPUX -I/opt/dce/include -O3 -fPIC" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-DHPUX
-I/opt/dce /include -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti
-O3 -fPIC" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --with-pthread --with-named-thread-libs=-ldce
--with-lib-ccflags=-fPIC --disable-shared

HP-UX 11.00 pa-risc with aCC (HP ANSI C++ B3910B A.03.50):

CC=cc CXX=aCC CFLAGS=+DAportable CXXFLAGS=+DAportable ./configure
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql --localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data
--libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared
--with-embedded-server --with-innodb

HP-UX 11.11 pa-risc2.0 64bit with aCC (HP ANSI C++ B3910B A.03.33):

CC=cc CXX=aCC CFLAGS=+DD64 CXXFLAGS=+DD64 ./configure
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared

HP-UX 11.11 pa-risc2.0 32bit with aCC (HP ANSI C++ B3910B A.03.33):

CC=cc CXX=aCC CFLAGS="+DAportable" CXXFLAGS="+DAportable" ./configure
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql --localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data
--libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared
--with-innodb

HP-UX 11.22 ia64 64bit with aCC (HP aC++/ANSI C B3910B A.05.50):

CC=cc CXX=aCC CFLAGS="+DD64 +DSitanium2" CXXFLAGS="+DD64 +DSitanium2"
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data
--libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared
--with-embedded-server --with-innodb

Apple Mac OS X 10.2 powerpc with gcc 3.1:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3
-fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions
-fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --disable-shared

FreeBSD 4.7 i386 with gcc 2.95.4:

CFLAGS=-DHAVE_BROKEN_REALPATH ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --enable-assembler --with-named-z-libs=not-used
--disable-shared

FreeBSD 4.7 i386 using LinuxThreads with gcc 2.95.4:

CFLAGS="-DHAVE_BROKEN_REALPATH -D__USE_UNIX98 -D_REENTRANT
-D_THREAD_SAFE -I/usr/local/include/pthread/linuxthreads"
CXXFLAGS="-DHAVE_BROKEN_REALPATH -D__USE_UNIX98 -D_REENTRANT
-D_THREAD_SAFE -I/usr/local/include/pthread/linuxthreads" ./configure
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql --localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data
--libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --enable-assembler
--with-named-thread-libs="-DHAVE_GLIBC2_STYLE_GETHOSTBYNAME_R
-D_THREAD_SAFE -I /usr/local/include/pthread/linuxthreads
-L/usr/local/lib -llthread -llgcc_r" --disable-shared
--with-embedded-server --with-innodb

QNX Neutrino 6.2.1 i386 with gcc 2.95.3qnx-nto 20010315:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3
-fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions
-fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --disable-shared

SCO Unix 3.2v5.0.7 i386 with gcc 2.95.3:

CFLAGS="-O3 -mpentium" LDFLAGS=-static CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -mpentium
-felide-constructors" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no --enable-thread-safe-client
--disable-shared

SCO UnixWare 7.1.4 i386 with CC 3.2:

CC=cc CFLAGS="-O" CXX=CC ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no --enable-thread-safe-client
--disable-shared --with-readline

SCO OpenServer 6.0.0 i386 with CC 3.2:

CC=cc CFLAGS="-O" CXX=CC ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no --enable-thread-safe-client
--disable-shared --with-readline

Compaq Tru64 OSF/1 V5.1 732 alpha with cc/cxx (Compaq C V6.3-029i / DIGITAL C++ V6.1-027):

CC="cc -pthread" CFLAGS="-O4 -ansi_alias -ansi_args -fast -inline
speed -speculate all" CXX="cxx -pthread" CXXFLAGS="-O4 -ansi_alias
-fast -inline speed -speculate all -noexceptions -nortti" ./configure
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile
--with-named-thread-libs="-lpthread -lmach -lexc -lc" --disable-shared
--with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static

SGI Irix 6.5 IP32 with gcc 3.0.1:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXXFLAGS="-O3
-fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions
-fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --disable-shared

FreeBSD/sparc64 5.0 with gcc 3.2.1:

CFLAGS=-DHAVE_BROKEN_REALPATH ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data --libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --disable-shared --with-innodb

Linux 2.2.xx SPARC with egcs 1.1.2:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3
-fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions
-fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client
--enable-local-infile --enable-assembler --disable-shared

Linux 2.2.x with x686 with gcc 2.95.2:

CFLAGS="-O3 -mpentiumpro" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -mpentiumpro
-felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql --enable-assembler
--with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static --disable-shared
--with-extra-charsets=complex

SunOS 4.1.4 2 sun4c with gcc 2.7.2.1:

CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -felide-constructors" ./configure
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql --disable-shared --with-extra-charsets=complex
--enable-assembler

SunOS 5.5.1 (and above) sun4u with egcs 1.0.3a or 2.90.27 or gcc 2.95.2 and newer:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -felide-constructors
-fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-low-memory --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-assembler

SunOS 5.6 i86pc with gcc 2.8.1:

CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O3 ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-low-memory --with-extra-charsets=complex

BSDI BSD/OS 3.1 i386 with gcc 2.7.2.1:

CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex

BSDI BSD/OS 2.1 i386 with gcc 2.7.2:

CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O3 ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex

AIX 4.2 with gcc 2.7.2.2:

CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O3 ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
--with-extra-charsets=complex