MySQL is an (RDBMS). In July 2013, it was the world’s second most widely used RDBMS, and the most widely used open-source RDBMS. Its name is a combination of “My”, the name of co-founder ‘ daughter, and ““, the abbreviation for . The MySQL development project has made its available under the terms of the , as well as under a variety of agreements. MySQL was owned and sponsored by a single firm, the company , now owned by . For proprietary use, several paid editions are available, and offer additional functionality.
MySQL is a popular choice of database for use in web applications, and is a central component of the widely used open-source web application software stack (and other “” stacks). LAMP is an acronym for “,, MySQL, //“. open-source projects that require a full-featured database management system often use MySQL. Applications that use the MySQL database include: , , ,, , , and other software. MySQL is also used in many high-profile, large-scale , including (though not for searches), , , , and.
On all platforms except Windows, MySQL ships with no tools to administer MySQL databases or manage data contained within the databases. Users may use the included tools, or install via a separate download. Many third party GUI tools are also available.
Features
MySQL is offered under two different editions: the open source MySQL Community Server and the proprietary . MySQL Enterprise Server is differentiated by a series of proprietary extensions which install as server plugins, but otherwise shares the version numbering system and is built from the same code base.
Major features as available in MySQL 5.6:
- A broad subset of , as well as extensions
- Cross-platform support
- , using a procedural language that closely adheres to
- Updatable
- when using the InnoDB Storage Engine.
- Performance Schema that collects and aggregates statistics about server execution and query performance for monitoring purposes.
- A set of SQL Mode options to control runtime behavior, including a strict mode to better adhere to SQL standards.
- (DTP) support; as part of this, using the default storage engine
- Transactions with when using the default InnoDB Storage Engine. The NDB Cluster Storage Engine also supports transactions.
- compliance when using InnoDB and NDB Cluster Storage Engines
- support
- Query
- Sub- (i.e. nested SELECTs)
- Built-in support (i.e. Master-Master Replication & Master-Slave Replication) with one master per slave, many slaves per master. is provided in , and multi-master support can be added to unclustered configurations using Galera Cluster.
- Full-text and searching
- Embedded database library
- support
- Partitioned tables with pruning of partitions in optimizer
- clustering through
- Multiple storage engines, allowing one to choose the one that is most effective for each table in the application.
- Native storage engines , , Merge, Memory (heap), , Archive, , Blackhole, NDB Cluster.
- Commit grouping, gathering multiple transactions from multiple connections together to increase the number of commits per second.
The developers release minor updates of the MySQL Server approximately every two months. The sources can be obtained from MySQL’s website or from MySQL’s repository, both under the GPL license.
