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MySQL™ Database Server

Official MySQL™ website www.mysql.com

The MySQL database server is the world's most popular open source database. Its architecture makes it extremely fast and easy to customize. Extensive reuse of code within the software and a minimalistic approach to producing functionally-rich features has resulted in a database management system unmatched in speed, compactness, stability and ease of deployment. The unique separation of the core server from the storage engine makes it possible to run with strict transaction control or with ultra-fast transactionless disk access, whichever is most appropriate for the situation. More >>

Features

ANSI SQL syntax support

The MySQL database server supports a broad subset of the ANSI SQL 99 syntax, along with extra extensions such as the REPLACE statement and the LIMIT clause for SELECT and DELETE. Alternative syntaxes from other database systems are also supported, to make porting applications easier.

Our coverage of the complete ANSI SQL 99 syntax is expanding, with version 4.0 introducing support for the UNION statement.

Cross-platform support

We provide optimised binaries for a wide range of platforms, including Linux, Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, Sun Solaris, IBM's AIX, Mac OS X, HP-UX, AIX, QNX, Novell NetWare, SCO OpenUnix, SGI Irix, and Dec OSF.

You can connect to a MySQL database server from all of the major platforms, using nearly any programming language, with our standard threadsafe client library or one of the products in our Connector family of database drivers.

Independent storage engines

MySQL database server's unique independent storage engines let you choose the type of database storage that is most appropriate for your particular needs. If you need row-level locking and transaction support, you can use the InnoDB storage engine. If your application doesn't require transactions, you can use the MyISAM storage engine for maximum performance.

Transactions

Using the InnoDB or Berkeley DB (BDB) storage engines, the MySQL database server supports transactions. The InnoDB storage engine also supports foreign key constraints.

Flexible security system, including SSL support

The MySQL database server has an advanced permissions and security system, including support for SSL transport-layer encryption. As of version 4.0, the security system also allows you to limit server resources on a per-user basis.

Query caching

Version 4.0 of the server includes a new query cache, which can significantly increase the performance of commonly-issued queries, without requiring any special programming. Performance can be increased by over 200% in typical usage.

Replication

Using database replication, you can have many "slave" servers running off a single "master" server for robustness and speed.

Full-text indexing and searching

Full-text indexes allow you to search fields containing arbitrary text for specific words and phrases, including relevance rankings. With version 4.0, we've expanded the fulltext search to include exact phrase matching and Boolean search operators, which allows for even more fine-grained control over your search results.

Embedded database library

Using the embedded database library (libmysqld), you can include the full power of the MySQL database server into applications and electronics devices, without your end-user having any awareness of the underlying database. The embedded MySQL database is ideal for use behind the scenes in Internet appliances, public kiosks, turn-key hardware/software combination units, high performance Internet servers, self-contained databases distributed on CD-ROM, and more possibilities just waiting for you to invent them.

Benchmarks and Feature Comparisons

We're always looking to make our software better, and have been running benchmark software that we've developed alongside industry-standard benchmarks such as the ANSI SQL Standard Scalable And Portable (AS3AP) benchmark. You can view and compare the results on our website, or download the benchmark software and run your own tests.

We've developed a feature comparison tool called crash-me, which you can download and run against your own database server, or use our online feature comparison tool to compare the results we've collected from various databases. The tool identifies gaps in functionality, limits to functionality, and has been known to take down some servers with its aggressive tests (thus the name).

Upcoming Features

We have a top-notch database server, but we're not sitting still. We have a large team of developers working to implement new features. Here's a sample:

(Note that versions listed for when each feature will appear is simply an estimate. We do not publish estimates as to when new versions will be released, only that we strive to do so as soon as we can without sacrificing our own high standards for quality. If there's a feature you'd like to see finished sooner, or a feature not on the list you'd like us to work on, you should look into our MySQL enhancements and extensions consulting program.)

Character set handling, with full Unicode support

While earlier versions of the database server can be set up to support specific characters sets, version 4.1 adds support for multiple character sets which can be set at the server, database, table, or field level, as well as improved support for converting between character sets. New character sets have been added for storing Unicode data in the UCS2 and UTF8 encodings.

Expanded support for subqueries

Subqueries allow you to use the result of one query as a component of a larger query. The MySQL server already supports some forms of this technique, such as INSERT INTO ... SELECT ..., and this support will be expanded in version 4.1 to include nested SELECT queries, which is one of the most-requested features from our users.

GIS (Geometrical data)

Version 4.1 includes support for a subset of the SQL92 with Geometry Types environment proposed by the Open GIS Consortium. This allows for efficiently storing and manipulating spatial data, including geographic data.

Multi-master replication

Multi-master replication will allow for a slave database server to track data in multiple master databases. Support for this feature will be included in version 5.0.

Stored procedures and triggers

Stored procedures allow you to create functions and subroutines that run on the server. This makes it possible to grant access to specific queries without granting carte blance access to the underlying data, or validate data in the database before it is stored. Triggers can be configured to fire when certain conditions are fulfilled.

The MySQL database server will provide hooks for implementing stored procedures in multiple languages, as well as including support for the Persistent Stored Modules syntax defined as part of ANSI SQL-99.

Support for stored procedures and triggers will be introduced in version 5.0.

Views

Views allow you to configure alternative views of existing tables without changing the underlying table structure. They can be used to grant limited access to tables, or make it easier to construct certain types of queries. Views are currently scheduled to be supported in version 5.1.