Chapter 1 General Information
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Chapter 1 General Information

Table of Contents

1.1 About This Manual
1.2 Typographical and Syntax Conventions
1.3 Overview of the MySQL Database Management System
1.3.1 What is MySQL?
1.3.2 The Main Features of MySQL
1.3.3 History of MySQL
1.4 What Is New in MySQL 8.0
1.5 Server and Status Variables and Options Added, Deprecated, or Removed in MySQL 8.0
1.6 MySQL Information Sources
1.6.1 MySQL Websites
1.6.2 MySQL Mailing Lists
1.6.3 MySQL Community Support at the MySQL Forums
1.6.4 MySQL Community Support on Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
1.6.5 MySQL Enterprise
1.7 How to Report Bugs or Problems
1.8 MySQL Standards Compliance
1.8.1 MySQL Extensions to Standard SQL
1.8.2 MySQL Differences from Standard SQL
1.8.3 How MySQL Deals with Constraints
1.9 Credits
1.9.1 Contributors to MySQL
1.9.2 Documenters and translators
1.9.3 Packages that support MySQL
1.9.4 Tools that were used to create MySQL
1.9.5 Supporters of MySQL

The MySQL™ software delivers a very fast, multithreaded, multi-user, and robust SQL (Structured Query Language) database server. MySQL Server is intended for mission-critical, heavy-load production systems as well as for embedding into mass-deployed software. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. MySQL is a trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates, and shall not be used by Customer without Oracle's express written authorization. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

The MySQL software is Dual Licensed. Users can choose to use the MySQL software as an Open Source product under the terms of the GNU General Public License (http://www.fsf.org/licenses/) or can purchase a standard commercial license from Oracle. See http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/ for more information on our licensing policies.

The following list describes some sections of particular interest in this manual:

Important

To report problems or bugs, please use the instructions at Section 1.7, “How to Report Bugs or Problems”. If you find a sensitive security bug in MySQL Server, please let us know immediately by sending an email message to . Exception: Support customers should report all problems, including security bugs, to Oracle Support.

1.1 About This Manual

This is the Reference Manual for the MySQL Database System, version 8.0, through release 8.0.13. Differences between minor versions of MySQL 8.0 are noted in the present text with reference to release numbers (8.0.x). For license information, see the Legal Notices.

This manual is not intended for use with older versions of the MySQL software due to the many functional and other differences between MySQL 8.0 and previous versions. If you are using an earlier release of the MySQL software, please refer to the appropriate manual. For example, MySQL 5.7 Reference Manual covers the 5.7 series of MySQL software releases.

Because this manual serves as a reference, it does not provide general instruction on SQL or relational database concepts. It also does not teach you how to use your operating system or command-line interpreter.

The MySQL Database Software is under constant development, and the Reference Manual is updated frequently as well. The most recent version of the manual is available online in searchable form at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/. Other formats also are available there, including HTML, PDF, and EPUB versions.

The Reference Manual source files are written in DocBook XML format. The HTML version and other formats are produced automatically, primarily using the DocBook XSL stylesheets. For information about DocBook, see http://docbook.org/

The source code for MySQL itself contains internal documentation written using Doxygen. The generated Doxygen content is available at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/dev/mysql-server/latest/. It is also possible to generate this content locally from a MySQL source distribution using the instructions at Section 2.8.7, “Generating MySQL Doxygen Documentation Content”.

If you have questions about using MySQL, you can ask them using our mailing lists or forums. See Section 1.6.2, “MySQL Mailing Lists”, and Section 1.6.3, “MySQL Community Support at the MySQL Forums”. If you have suggestions concerning additions or corrections to the manual itself, please send them to the http://www.mysql.com/company/contact/.

This manual was originally written by David Axmark and Michael “Monty” Widenius. It is maintained by the MySQL Documentation Team, consisting of Chris Cole, Paul DuBois, Margaret Fisher, Edward Gilmore, Stefan Hinz, David Moss, Philip Olson, Daniel Price, Daniel So, and Jon Stephens.

1.2 Typographical and Syntax Conventions

This manual uses certain typographical conventions:

  • Text in this style is used for SQL statements; database, table, and column names; program listings and source code; and environment variables. Example: “To reload the grant tables, use the FLUSH PRIVILEGES statement.”

  • Text in this style indicates input that you type in examples.

  • Text in this style indicates the names of executable programs and scripts, examples being mysql (the MySQL command-line client program) and mysqld (the MySQL server executable).

  • Text in this style is used for variable input for which you should substitute a value of your own choosing.

  • Text in this style is used for emphasis.

  • Text in this style is used in table headings and to convey especially strong emphasis.

  • Text in this style is used to indicate a program option that affects how the program is executed, or that supplies information that is needed for the program to function in a certain way. Example: “The --host option (short form -h) tells the mysql client program the hostname or IP address of the MySQL server that it should connect to”.

  • File names and directory names are written like this: “The global my.cnf file is located in the /etc directory.”

  • Character sequences are written like this: “To specify a wildcard, use the ‘%’ character.”

When commands are shown that are meant to be executed from within a particular program, the prompt shown preceding the command indicates which command to use. For example, shell> indicates a command that you execute from your login shell, root-shell> is similar but should be executed as root, and mysql> indicates a statement that you execute from the mysql client program: 

shell> type a shell command here
root-shell> type a shell command as root here
mysql> type a mysql statement here

In some areas different systems may be distinguished from each other to show that commands should be executed in two different environments. For example, while working with replication the commands might be prefixed with master and slave: 

master> type a mysql command on the replication master here
slave> type a mysql command on the replication slave here

The “shell” is your command interpreter. On Unix, this is typically a program such as sh, csh, or bash. On Windows, the equivalent program is command.com or cmd.exe, typically run in a console window.

When you enter a command or statement shown in an example, do not type the prompt shown in the example.

Database, table, and column names must often be substituted into statements. To indicate that such substitution is necessary, this manual uses db_name, tbl_name, and col_name. For example, you might see a statement like this: 

mysql> SELECT col_name FROM db_name.tbl_name;

This means that if you were to enter a similar statement, you would supply your own database, table, and column names, perhaps like this: 

mysql> SELECT author_name FROM biblio_db.author_list;

SQL keywords are not case-sensitive and may be written in any lettercase. This manual uses uppercase.

In syntax descriptions, square brackets (“[” and “]”) indicate optional words or clauses. For example, in the following statement, IF EXISTS is optional: 

DROP TABLE [IF EXISTS] tbl_name

When a syntax element consists of a number of alternatives, the alternatives are separated by vertical bars (“|”). When one member from a set of choices may be chosen, the alternatives are listed within square brackets (“[” and “]”): 

TRIM([[BOTH | LEADING | TRAILING] [remstr] FROM] str)

When one member from a set of choices must be chosen, the alternatives are listed within braces (“{” and “}”): 

{DESCRIBE | DESC} tbl_name [col_name | wild]

An ellipsis (...) indicates the omission of a section of a statement, typically to provide a shorter version of more complex syntax. For example, SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE is shorthand for the form of SELECT statement that has an INTO OUTFILE clause following other parts of the statement.

An ellipsis can also indicate that the preceding syntax element of a statement may be repeated. In the following example, multiple reset_option values may be given, with each of those after the first preceded by commas: 

RESET reset_option [,reset_option] ...

Commands for setting shell variables are shown using Bourne shell syntax. For example, the sequence to set the CC environment variable and run the configure command looks like this in Bourne shell syntax: 

shell> CC=gcc ./configure

If you are using csh or tcsh, you must issue commands somewhat differently: 

shell> setenv CC gcc
shell> ./configure

1.3 Overview of the MySQL Database Management System

1.3.1 What is MySQL?
1.3.2 The Main Features of MySQL
1.3.3 History of MySQL

1.3.1 What is MySQL?

MySQL, the most popular Open Source SQL database management system, is developed, distributed, and supported by Oracle Corporation.

The MySQL website (http://www.mysql.com/) provides the latest information about MySQL software.

  • MySQL is a database management system.

    A database is a structured collection of data. It may be anything from a simple shopping list to a picture gallery or the vast amounts of information in a corporate network. To add, access, and process data stored in a computer database, you need a database management system such as MySQL Server. Since computers are very good at handling large amounts of data, database management systems play a central role in computing, as standalone utilities, or as parts of other applications.

  • MySQL databases are relational.

    A relational database stores data in separate tables rather than putting all the data in one big storeroom. The database structures are organized into physical files optimized for speed. The logical model, with objects such as databases, tables, views, rows, and columns, offers a flexible programming environment. You set up rules governing the relationships between different data fields, such as one-to-one, one-to-many, unique, required or optional, and “pointers” between different tables. The database enforces these rules, so that with a well-designed database, your application never sees inconsistent, duplicate, orphan, out-of-date, or missing data.

    The SQL part of “MySQL” stands for “Structured Query Language”. SQL is the most common standardized language used to access databases. Depending on your programming environment, you might enter SQL directly (for example, to generate reports), embed SQL statements into code written in another language, or use a language-specific API that hides the SQL syntax.

    SQL is defined by the ANSI/ISO SQL Standard. The SQL standard has been evolving since 1986 and several versions exist. In this manual, “SQL-92” refers to the standard released in 1992, “SQL:1999” refers to the standard released in 1999, and “SQL:2003” refers to the current version of the standard. We use the phrase “the SQL standard” to mean the current version of the SQL Standard at any time.

  • MySQL software is Open Source.

    Open Source means that it is possible for anyone to use and modify the software. Anybody can download the MySQL software from the Internet and use it without paying anything. If you wish, you may study the source code and change it to suit your needs. The MySQL software uses the GPL (GNU General Public License), http://www.fsf.org/licenses/, to define what you may and may not do with the software in different situations. If you feel uncomfortable with the GPL or need to embed MySQL code into a commercial application, you can buy a commercially licensed version from us. See the MySQL Licensing Overview for more information (http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/).

  • The MySQL Database Server is very fast, reliable, scalable, and easy to use.

    If that is what you are looking for, you should give it a try. MySQL Server can run comfortably on a desktop or laptop, alongside your other applications, web servers, and so on, requiring little or no attention. If you dedicate an entire machine to MySQL, you can adjust the settings to take advantage of all the memory, CPU power, and I/O capacity available. MySQL can also scale up to clusters of machines, networked together.

    MySQL Server was originally developed to handle large databases much faster than existing solutions and has been successfully used in highly demanding production environments for several years. Although under constant development, MySQL Server today offers a rich and useful set of functions. Its connectivity, speed, and security make MySQL Server highly suited for accessing databases on the Internet.

  • MySQL Server works in client/server or embedded systems.

    The MySQL Database Software is a client/server system that consists of a multithreaded SQL server that supports different back ends, several different client programs and libraries, administrative tools, and a wide range of application programming interfaces (APIs).

    We also provide MySQL Server as an embedded multithreaded library that you can link into your application to get a smaller, faster, easier-to-manage standalone product.

  • A large amount of contributed MySQL software is available.

    MySQL Server has a practical set of features developed in close cooperation with our users. It is very likely that your favorite application or language supports the MySQL Database Server.

The official way to pronounce “MySQL” is “My Ess Que Ell” (not “my sequel”), but we do not mind if you pronounce it as “my sequel” or in some other localized way.

1.3.2 The Main Features of MySQL

This section describes some of the important characteristics of the MySQL Database Software. In most respects, the roadmap applies to all versions of MySQL. For information about features as they are introduced into MySQL on a series-specific basis, see the “In a Nutshell” section of the appropriate Manual:

Internals and Portability

  • Written in C and C++.

  • Tested with a broad range of different compilers.

  • Works on many different platforms. See http://www.mysql.com/support/supportedplatforms/database.html.

  • For portability, uses CMake in MySQL 5.5 and up. Previous series use GNU Automake, Autoconf, and Libtool.

  • Tested with Purify (a commercial memory leakage detector) as well as with Valgrind, a GPL tool (http://developer.kde.org/~sewardj/).

  • Uses multi-layered server design with independent modules.

  • Designed to be fully multithreaded using kernel threads, to easily use multiple CPUs if they are available.

  • Provides transactional and nontransactional storage engines.

  • Uses very fast B-tree disk tables (MyISAM) with index compression.

  • Designed to make it relatively easy to add other storage engines. This is useful if you want to provide an SQL interface for an in-house database.

  • Uses a very fast thread-based memory allocation system.

  • Executes very fast joins using an optimized nested-loop join.

  • Implements in-memory hash tables, which are used as temporary tables.

  • Implements SQL functions using a highly optimized class library that should be as fast as possible. Usually there is no memory allocation at all after query initialization.

  • Provides the server as a separate program for use in a client/server networked environment, and as a library that can be embedded (linked) into standalone applications. Such applications can be used in isolation or in environments where no network is available.

Data Types

Statements and Functions

  • Full operator and function support in the SELECT list and WHERE clause of queries. For example: 

    mysql> SELECT CONCAT(first_name, ' ', last_name)
    -> FROM citizen
    -> WHERE income/dependents > 10000 AND age > 30;

  • Full support for SQL GROUP BY and ORDER BY clauses. Support for group functions (COUNT(), AVG(), STD(), SUM(), MAX(), MIN(), and GROUP_CONCAT()).

  • Support for LEFT OUTER JOIN and RIGHT OUTER JOIN with both standard SQL and ODBC syntax.

  • Support for aliases on tables and columns as required by standard SQL.

  • Support for DELETE, INSERT, REPLACE, and UPDATE to return the number of rows that were changed (affected), or to return the number of rows matched instead by setting a flag when connecting to the server.

  • Support for MySQL-specific SHOW statements that retrieve information about databases, storage engines, tables, and indexes. Support for the INFORMATION_SCHEMA database, implemented according to standard SQL.

  • An EXPLAIN statement to show how the optimizer resolves a query.

  • Independence of function names from table or column names. For example, ABS is a valid column name. The only restriction is that for a function call, no spaces are permitted between the function name and the “(” that follows it. See Section 9.3, “Keywords and Reserved Words”.

  • You can refer to tables from different databases in the same statement.

Security

  • A privilege and password system that is very flexible and secure, and that enables host-based verification.

  • Password security by encryption of all password traffic when you connect to a server.

Scalability and Limits

Connectivity

  • Clients can connect to MySQL Server using several protocols:

    • Clients can connect using TCP/IP sockets on any platform.

    • On Windows systems, clients can connect using named pipes if the server is started with the --enable-named-pipe option. Windows servers also support shared-memory connections if started with the --shared-memory option. Clients can connect through shared memory by using the --protocol=memory option.

    • On Unix systems, clients can connect using Unix domain socket files.

  • MySQL client programs can be written in many languages. A client library written in C is available for clients written in C or C++, or for any language that provides C bindings.

  • APIs for C, C++, Eiffel, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl are available, enabling MySQL clients to be written in many languages. See Chapter 27, Connectors and APIs.

  • The Connector/ODBC (MyODBC) interface provides MySQL support for client programs that use ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) connections. For example, you can use MS Access to connect to your MySQL server. Clients can be run on Windows or Unix. Connector/ODBC source is available. All ODBC 2.5 functions are supported, as are many others. See MySQL Connector/ODBC Developer Guide.

  • The Connector/J interface provides MySQL support for Java client programs that use JDBC connections. Clients can be run on Windows or Unix. Connector/J source is available. See MySQL Connector/J 5.1 Developer Guide.

  • MySQL Connector/Net enables developers to easily create .NET applications that require secure, high-performance data connectivity with MySQL. It implements the required ADO.NET interfaces and integrates into ADO.NET aware tools. Developers can build applications using their choice of .NET languages. MySQL Connector/Net is a fully managed ADO.NET driver written in 100% pure C#. See MySQL Connector/Net Developer Guide.

Localization

  • The server can provide error messages to clients in many languages. See Section 10.11, “Setting the Error Message Language”.

  • Full support for several different character sets, including latin1 (cp1252), german, big5, ujis, several Unicode character sets, and more. For example, the Scandinavian characters “å”, “ä” and “ö” are permitted in table and column names.

  • All data is saved in the chosen character set.

  • Sorting and comparisons are done according to the default character set and collation. is possible to change this when the MySQL server is started (see Section 10.3.2, “Server Character Set and Collation”). To see an example of very advanced sorting, look at the Czech sorting code. MySQL Server supports many different character sets that can be specified at compile time and runtime.

  • The server time zone can be changed dynamically, and individual clients can specify their own time zone. See Section 5.1.12, “MySQL Server Time Zone Support”.

Clients and Tools

  • MySQL includes several client and utility programs. These include both command-line programs such as mysqldump and mysqladmin, and graphical programs such as MySQL Workbench.

  • MySQL Server has built-in support for SQL statements to check, optimize, and repair tables. These statements are available from the command line through the mysqlcheck client. MySQL also includes myisamchk, a very fast command-line utility for performing these operations on MyISAM tables. See Chapter 4, MySQL Programs.

  • MySQL programs can be invoked with the --help or -? option to obtain online assistance.

1.3.3 History of MySQL

We started out with the intention of using the mSQL database system to connect to our tables using our own fast low-level (ISAM) routines. However, after some testing, we came to the conclusion that mSQL was not fast enough or flexible enough for our needs. This resulted in a new SQL interface to our database but with almost the same API interface as mSQL. This API was designed to enable third-party code that was written for use with mSQL to be ported easily for use with MySQL.

MySQL is named after co-founder Monty Widenius's daughter, My.

The name of the MySQL Dolphin (our logo) is “Sakila,” which was chosen from a huge list of names suggested by users in our “Name the Dolphin” contest. The winning name was submitted by Ambrose Twebaze, an Open Source software developer from Swaziland, Africa. According to Ambrose, the feminine name Sakila has its roots in SiSwati, the local language of Swaziland. Sakila is also the name of a town in Arusha, Tanzania, near Ambrose's country of origin, Uganda.

1.4 What Is New in MySQL 8.0

This section summarizes what has been added to, deprecated in, and removed from MySQL 8.0. A companion section lists MySQL server options and variables that have been added, deprecated, or removed in MySQL 8.0. See Section 1.5, “Server and Status Variables and Options Added, Deprecated, or Removed in MySQL 8.0”.

Features Added in MySQL 8.0

The following features have been added to MySQL 8.0:

  • Data dictionary.  MySQL now incorporates a transactional data dictionary that stores information about database objects. In previous MySQL releases, dictionary data was stored in metadata files and nontransactional tables. For more information, see Chapter 14, MySQL Data Dictionary.

  • Atomic Data Definition Statements (Atomic DDL).  An atomic DDL statement combines the data dictionary updates, storage engine operations, and binary log writes associated with a DDL operation into a single, atomic transaction. For more information, see Section 13.1.1, “Atomic Data Definition Statement Support”.

  • Security and account management.  These enhancements were added to improve security and enable greater DBA flexibility in account management:

    • A new caching_sha2_password authentication plugin is available. Like the sha256_password plugin, caching_sha2_password implements SHA-256 password hashing, but uses caching to address latency issues at connect time. It also supports more connection protocols and does not require linking against OpenSSL for RSA key pair-based password-exchange capabilities. See Section 6.5.1.3, “Caching SHA-2 Pluggable Authentication”.

      The caching_sha2_password and sha256_password authentication plugins provide more secure password encryption than the mysql_native_password plugin, and caching_sha2_password provides better performance than sha256_password. Due to these superior security and performance characteristics of caching_sha2_password, it is now the preferred authentication plugin, and is also the default authentication plugin rather than mysql_native_password. For information about the implications of this change of default plugin for server operation and compatibility of the server with clients and connectors, see caching_sha2_password as the Preferred Authentication Plugin.

    • MySQL now supports roles, which are named collections of privileges. Roles can be created and dropped. Roles can have privileges granted to and revoked from them. Roles can be granted to and revoked from user accounts. The active applicable roles for an account can be selected from among those granted to the account, and can be changed during sessions for that account. For more information, see Section 6.3.4, “Using Roles”.

    • MySQL now maintains information about password history, enabling restrictions on reuse of previous passwords. DBAs can require that new passwords not be selected from previous passwords for some number of password changes or period of time. It is possible to establish password-reuse policy globally as well as on a per-account basis. Together with existing password-expiration capabilities to require that passwords be changed periodically, the new password-history capabilities provide DBAs more complete control over password management. For more information, see Section 6.3.8, “Password Management”.

    • MySQL now supports FIPS mode, if compiled using OpenSSL, and an OpenSSL library and FIPS Object Module are available at runtime. FIPS mode imposes conditions on cryptographic operations such as restrictions on acceptable encryption algorithms or requirements for longer key lengths. See Section 6.6, “FIPS Support”.

  • Resource management.  MySQL now supports creation and management of resource groups, and permits assigning threads running within the server to particular groups so that threads execute according to the resources available to the group. Group attributes enable control over its resources, to enable or restrict resource consumption by threads in the group. DBAs can modify these attributes as appropriate for different workloads. Currently, CPU time is a manageable resource, represented by the concept of “virtual CPU” as a term that includes CPU cores, hyperthreads, hardware threads, and so forth. The server determines at startup how many virtual CPUs are available, and database administrators with appropriate privileges can associate these CPUs with resource groups and assign threads to groups. For more information, see Section 8.12.5, “Resource Groups”.

  • InnoDB enhancements.  These InnoDB enhancements were added:

    • The current maximum auto-increment counter value is written to the redo log each time the value changes, and saved to an engine-private system table on each checkpoint. These changes make the current maximum auto-increment counter value persistent across server restarts. Additionally:

      • A server restart no longer cancels the effect of the AUTO_INCREMENT = N table option. If you initialize the auto-increment counter to a specific value, or if you alter the auto-increment counter value to a larger value, the new value is persisted across server restarts.

      • A server restart immediately following a ROLLBACK operation no longer results in the reuse of auto-increment values that were allocated to the rolled-back transaction.

      • If you modify an AUTO_INCREMENT column value to a value larger than the current maximum auto-increment value (in an UPDATE operation, for example), the new value is persisted, and subsequent INSERT operations allocate auto-increment values starting from the new, larger value.

      For more information, see Section 15.8.1.5, “AUTO_INCREMENT Handling in InnoDB”, and InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT Counter Initialization.

    • When encountering index tree corruption, InnoDB writes a corruption flag to the redo log, which makes the corruption flag crash safe. InnoDB also writes in-memory corruption flag data to an engine-private system table on each checkpoint. During recovery, InnoDB reads corruption flags from both locations and merges results before marking in-memory table and index objects as corrupt.

    • The InnoDB memcached plugin supports multiple get operations (fetching multiple key/value pairs in a single memcached query) and range queries. See Section 15.19.4, “InnoDB memcached Multiple get and Range Query Support”.

    • A new dynamic configuration option, innodb_deadlock_detect, may be used to disable deadlock detection. On high concurrency systems, deadlock detection can cause a slowdown when numerous threads wait for the same lock. At times, it may be more efficient to disable deadlock detection and rely on the innodb_lock_wait_timeout setting for transaction rollback when a deadlock occurs.

    • The new INFORMATION_SCHEMA.INNODB_CACHED_INDEXES table reports the number of index pages cached in the InnoDB buffer pool for each index.

    • All InnoDB temporary tables are now created in the shared temporary tablespace, ibtmp1.

    • The InnoDB tablespace encryption feature supports encryption of redo log and undo log data. See Redo Log Data Encryption, and Undo Log Data Encryption.

    • InnoDB supports NOWAIT and SKIP LOCKED options with SELECT ... FOR SHARE and SELECT ... FOR UPDATE locking read statements. NOWAIT causes the statement to return immediately if a requested row is locked by another transaction. SKIP LOCKED removes locked rows from the result set. See Locking Read Concurrency with NOWAIT and SKIP LOCKED.

      SELECT ... FOR SHARE replaces SELECT ... LOCK IN SHARE MODE, but LOCK IN SHARE MODE remains available for backward compatibility. The statements are equivalent. However, FOR UPDATE and FOR SHARE support NOWAIT, SKIP LOCKED, and OF tbl_name options. See Section 13.2.10, “SELECT Syntax”.

      OF tbl_name applies locking queries to named tables.

    • ADD PARTITION, DROP PARTITION, COALESCE PARTITION, REORGANIZE PARTITION, and REBUILD PARTITION ALTER TABLE options are supported by native partitioning in-place APIs and may be used with ALGORITHM={COPY|INPLACE} and LOCK clauses.

      DROP PARTITION with ALGORITHM=INPLACE deletes data stored in the partition and drops the partition. However, DROP PARTITION with ALGORITHM=COPY or old_alter_table=ON rebuilds the partitioned table and attempts to move data from the dropped partition to another partition with a compatible PARTITION ... VALUES definition. Data that cannot be moved to another partition is deleted.

    • The InnoDB storage engine now uses the MySQL data dictionary rather than its own storage engine-specific data dictionary. For information about the data dictionary, see Chapter 14, MySQL Data Dictionary.

    • mysql system tables and data dictionary tables are now created in a single InnoDB tablespace file named mysql.ibd in the MySQL data directory. Previously, these tables were created in individual InnoDB tablespace files in the mysql database directory.

    • The following undo tablespace changes are introduced in MySQL 8.0:

      • The number of undo tablespaces can now be modified at runtime, or when the server is restarted, using the innodb_undo_tablespaces configuration option. This change permits the addition of undo tablespaces and rollback segments as the database grows.

      • innodb_undo_log_truncate is enabled by default. See Section 15.7.9, “Truncating Undo Tablespaces”.

      • The innodb_undo_tablespaces default value was changed from 0 to 2, which means that rollback segments are created in two separate undo tablespaces instead of the InnoDB system tablespace by default. A minimum of two undo tablespaces is required to permit truncation of undo logs.

        The minimum innodb_undo_tablespaces value is 2, and setting innodb_undo_tablespaces to 0 is no longer permitted. A minimum value of 2 ensures that rollback segments are always created in undo tablespaces instead of the system tablespace. For more information, see Section 15.7.8, “Configuring Undo Tablespaces”.

      • The naming convention used for undo tablespace files is changed from undoNNN to undo_NNN, where NNN is the undo space number.

      • The innodb_rollback_segments configuration option defines the number of rollback segments per undo tablespace. Previously, innodb_rollback_segments was a global setting that specified the total number of rollback segments for the MySQL instance. This change increases the number of rollback segments available for concurrent transactions. More rollback segments increases the likelihood that concurrent transactions use separate rollback segments for undo logs, resulting in less resource contention.

      • The innodb_undo_logs configuration option is removed. The innodb_rollback_segments configuration option performs the same function and should be used instead.

      • The Innodb_available_undo_logs status variable is removed. The number of available rollback segments per tablespace may be retrieved using SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'innodb_rollback_segments';

    • Default values for configuration options that affect buffer pool preflushing and flushing behavior were modified:

      • The innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct_lwm default value is now 10. The previous default value of 0 disables buffer pool preflushing. A value of 10 enables preflushing when the percentage of dirty pages in the buffer pool exceeds 10%. Enabling preflushing improves performance consistency.

      • The innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct default value was increased from 75 to 90. InnoDB attempts to flush data from the buffer pool so that the percentage of dirty pages does not exceed this value. The increased default value permits a greater percentage of dirty pages in the buffer pool.

    • The default innodb_autoinc_lock_mode setting is now 2 (interleaved). Interleaved lock mode permits the execution of multi-row inserts in parallel, which improves concurrency and scalability. The new innodb_autoinc_lock_mode default setting reflects the change from statement-based replication to row based replication as the default replication type in MySQL 5.7. Statement-based replication requires the consecutive auto-increment lock mode (the previous default) to ensure that auto-increment values are assigned in a predictable and repeatable order for a given sequence of SQL statements, whereas row-based replication is not sensitive to the execution order of SQL statements. For more information, see InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT Lock Modes.

      For systems that use statement-based replication, the new innodb_autoinc_lock_mode default setting may break applications that depend on sequential auto-increment values. To restore the previous default, set innodb_autoinc_lock_mode to 1.

    • Renaming a general tablespace is supported by ALTER TABLESPACE ... RENAME TO syntax.

    • The new innodb_dedicated_server configuration option, which is disabled by default, can be used to have InnoDB automatically configure the following options according to the amount of memory detected on the server:

      This option is intended for MySQL server instances that run on a dedicated server. For more information, see Section 15.6.13, “Enabling Automatic Configuration for a Dedicated MySQL Server”.

    • The new INFORMATION_SCHEMA.INNODB_TABLESPACES_BRIEF view provides space, name, path, flag, and space type data for InnoDB tablespaces.

    • The zlib library version bundled with MySQL was raised from version 1.2.3 to version 1.2.11. MySQL implements compression with the help of the zlib library.

      If you use InnoDB compressed tables, see Section 2.10.1.2, “Changes Affecting Upgrades to MySQL 8.0” for related upgrade implications.

    • Serialized Dictionary Information (SDI) is present in all InnoDB tablespace files except for temporary tablespace and undo tablespace files. SDI is serialized metadata for table and tablespace objects. The presence of SDI data provides metadata redundancy. For example, dictionary object metadata may be extracted from tablespace files if the data dictionary becomes unavailable. SDI extraction is performed using the ibd2sdi tool. SDI data is stored in JSON format.

      The inclusion of SDI data in tablespace files increases tablespace file size. An SDI record requires a single index page, which is 16k in size by default. However, SDI data is compressed when it is stored to reduce the storage footprint.

    • The InnoDB storage engine now supports atomic DDL, which ensures that DDL operations are either fully committed or rolled back, even if the server halts during the operation. For more information, see Section 13.1.1, “Atomic Data Definition Statement Support”.

    • Tablespace files can be moved or restored to a new location while the server is offline using the innodb_directories option. For more information, see Section 15.7.7, “Moving Tablespace Files While the Server is Offline”.

    • The following redo logging optimizations were implemented:

      • User threads can now write concurrently to the log buffer without synchronizing writes.

      • User threads can now add dirty pages to the flush list in a relaxed order.

      • A dedicated log thread is now responsible for writing the log buffer to the system buffers, flushing system buffers to disk, notifying user threads about written and flushed redo, maintaining the lag required for the relaxed flush list order, and write checkpoints.

      • System variables were added for configuring the use of spin delay by user threads waiting for flushed redo:

      • The innodb_log_buffer_size configuration option is now dynamic, which permits resizing of the log buffer while the server is running.

      For more information, see Section 8.5.4, “Optimizing InnoDB Redo Logging”.

  • Character set support.  The default character set has changed from latin1 to utf8mb4. The utf8mb4 character set has several new collations, including utf8mb4_ja_0900_as_cs, the first Japanese language-specific collation available for Unicode in MySQL. For more information, see Section 10.10.1, “Unicode Character Sets”.

  • JSON enhancements.  The following enhancements or additions were made to MySQL's JSON functionality:

    • Added the ->> (inline path) operator, which is equivalent to calling JSON_UNQUOTE() on the result of JSON_EXTRACT().

      This is a refinement of the column path operator -> introduced in MySQL 5.7; col->>"$.path" is equivalent to JSON_UNQUOTE(col->"$.path"). The inline path operator can be used wherever you can use JSON_UNQUOTE(JSON_EXTRACT()), such SELECT column lists, WHERE and HAVING clauses, and ORDER BY and GROUP BY clauses. For more information, see the description of the operator, as well as Section 12.16.8, “JSON Path Syntax”.

    • Added two JSON aggregation functions JSON_ARRAYAGG() and JSON_OBJECTAGG(). JSON_ARRAYAGG() takes a column or expression as its argument, and aggregates the result as a single JSON array. The expression can evaluate to any MySQL data type; this does not have to be a JSON value. JSON_OBJECTAGG() takes two columns or expressions which it interprets as a key and a value; it returns the result as a single JSON object. For more information and examples, see Section 12.19, “Aggregate (GROUP BY) Functions”.

    • Added the JSON utility function JSON_PRETTY(), which outputs an existing JSON value in an easy-to-read format; each JSON object member or array value is printed on a separate line, and a child object or array is intended 2 spaces with respect to its parent.

      This function also works with a string that can be parsed as a JSON value.

      For more detailed information and examples, see Section 12.16.7, “JSON Utility Functions”.

    • When sorting JSON values in a query using ORDER BY, each value is now represented by a variable-length part of the sort key, rather than a part of a fixed 1K in size. In many cases this can reduce excessive usage; for example, a scalar INT or even BIGINT value actually requires very few bytes, so that the remainder of this space (up to 90% or more) was taken up by padding. This change has the following benefits for performance:

      • Sort buffer space is now used more effectively, so that filesorts need not flush to disk as early or often as with fixed-length sort keys. This means that more data can be sorted in memory, avoiding unnecessary disk access.

      • Shorter keys can be compared more quickly than longer ones, providing a noticeable improvement in performance. This is true for sorts performed entirely in memory as well as for sorts that require writing to and reading from disk.

    • Added support in MySQL 8.0.2 for partial, in-place updates of JSON column values, which is more efficient than completely removing an existing JSON value and writing a new one in its place, as was done previously when updating any JSON column. For this optimization to be applied, the update must be applied using JSON_SET(), JSON_REPLACE(), or JSON_REMOVE(). New elements cannot be added to the JSON document being updated; values within the document cannot take more space than they did before the update. See Partial Updates of JSON Values, for a detailed discussion of the requirements.

      Partial updates of JSON documents can be written to the binary log, taking up less space than logging complete JSON documents. Partial updates are always logged as such when statement-based replication is in use. For this to work with row-based replication, you must first set binlog_row_value_options=PARTIAL_JSON; see this variable's description for more information.

    • Added the JSON utility functions JSON_STORAGE_SIZE() and JSON_STORAGE_FREE(). JSON_STORAGE_SIZE() returns the storage space in bytes used for the binary representation of a JSON document prior to any partial update (see previous item). JSON_STORAGE_FREE() shows the amount of space remaining in a table column of type JSON after it has been partially updated using JSON_SET() or JSON_REPLACE(); this is greater than zero if the binary representation of the new value is less than that of the previous value.

      Each of these functions also accepts a valid string representation of a JSON document. For such a value, JSON_STORAGE_SIZE() returns the space used by its binary representation following its conversion to a JSON document. For a variable containing the string representation of a JSON document, JSON_STORAGE_FREE() returns zero. Either function produces an error if its (non-null) argument cannot be parsed as a valid JSON document, and NULL if the argument is NULL.

      For more information and examples, see Section 12.16.7, “JSON Utility Functions”.

      JSON_STORAGE_SIZE() and JSON_STORAGE_FREE() were implemented in MySQL 8.0.2.

    • Added support in MySQL 8.0.2 for ranges such as $[1 to 5] in XPath expressions. Also added support in this version for the last keyword and relative addressing, such that $[last] always selects the last (highest-numbered) element in the array and $[last-1] the next to last element. last and expressions using it can also be included in range definitions; for example, $[last-2 to last-1] returns the last two elements but one from an array. See Searching and Modifying JSON Values, for additional information and examples.

    • Added a JSON merge function intended to conform to RFC 7396. JSON_MERGE_PATCH(), when used on 2 JSON objects, merges them into a single JSON object that has as members a union of the following sets:

      • Each member of the first object for which there is no member with the same key in the second object.

      • Each member of the second object for which there is no member having the same key in the first object, and whose value is not the JSON null literal.

      • Each member having a key that exists in both objects, and whose value in the second object is not the JSON null literal.

      As part of this work, the JSON_MERGE() function has been renamed JSON_MERGE_PRESERVE(). JSON_MERGE() continues to be recognized as an alias for JSON_MERGE_PRESERVE() in MySQL 8.0, but is now deprecated and is subject to removal in a future version of MySQL.

      For more information and examples, see Section 12.16.4, “Functions That Modify JSON Values”.

    • Implemented “last duplicate key wins” normalization of duplicate keys, consistent with RFC 7159 and most JavaScript parsers. An example of this behavior is shown here, where only the rightmost member having the key x is preserved: 

      mysql> SELECT JSON_OBJECT('x', '32', 'y', '[true, false]', 
     >                     'x', '"abc"', 'x', '100') AS Result;
+------------------------------------+
| Result                             |
+------------------------------------+
| {"x": "100", "y": "[true, false]"} |
+------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

      Values inserted into MySQL JSON columns are also normalized in this way, as shown in this example: 

      mysql> CREATE TABLE t1 (c1 JSON);

mysql> INSERT INTO t1 VALUES ('{"x": 17, "x": "red", "x": [3, 5, 7]}');

mysql> SELECT c1 FROM t1;
+------------------+
| c1               |
+------------------+
| {"x": [3, 5, 7]} |
+------------------+

      This is an incompatible change from previous versions of MySQL, where a “first duplicate key wins” algorithm was used in such cases.

      See Normalization, Merging, and Autowrapping of JSON Values, for more information and examples.

    • Added the JSON_TABLE() function in MySQL 8.0.4. This function accepts JSON data and returns it as a relational table having the specified columns.

      This function has the syntax JSON_TABLE(expr, path COLUMNS column_list) [AS] alias), where expr is an expression that returns JSON data, path is a JSON path applied to the source, and column_list is a list of column definitions. An example is shown here: 

      mysql> SELECT * 
    -> FROM  
    ->   JSON_TABLE(
    ->     '[{"a":3,"b":"0"},{"a":"3","b":"1"},{"a":2,"b":1},{"a":0},{"b":[1,2]}]',
    ->     "$[*]" COLUMNS(
    ->       rowid FOR ORDINALITY,
    ->   
    ->       xa INT EXISTS PATH "$.a",
    ->       xb INT EXISTS PATH "$.b",
    ->       
    ->       sa VARCHAR(100) PATH "$.a",
    ->       sb VARCHAR(100) PATH "$.b",
    ->       
    ->       ja JSON PATH "$.a",       
    ->       jb JSON PATH "$.b"
    ->     )   
    ->   ) AS  jt1;
+-------+------+------+------+------+------+--------+
| rowid | xa   | xb   | sa   | sb   | ja   | jb     |
+-------+------+------+------+------+------+--------+
|     1 |    1 |    1 | 3    | 0    | 3    | "0"    |
|     2 |    1 |    1 | 3    | 1    | "3"  | "1"    |
|     3 |    1 |    1 | 2    | 1    | 2    | 1      |
|     4 |    1 |    0 | 0    | NULL | 0    | NULL   |
|     5 |    0 |    1 | NULL | NULL | NULL | [1, 2] |
+-------+------+------+------+------+------+--------+

      The JSON source expression can be any expression that yields a valid JSON document, including a JSON literal, a table column, or a function call that returns JSON such as JSON_EXTRACT(t1, data, '$.post.comments'). For more information, see Section 12.16.6, “JSON Table Functions”.

  • Optimizer.  These optimizer enhancements were added:

    • MySQL now supports invisible indexes. An invisible index is not used by the optimizer at all, but is otherwise maintained normally. Indexes are visible by default. Invisible indexes make it possible to test the effect of removing an index on query performance, without making a destructive change that must be undone should the index turn out to be required. See Section 8.3.12, “Invisible Indexes”.

    • MySQL now supports descending indexes: DESC in an index definition is no longer ignored but causes storage of key values in descending order. Previously, indexes could be scanned in reverse order but at a performance penalty. A descending index can be scanned in forward order, which is more efficient. Descending indexes also make it possible for the optimizer to use multiple-column indexes when the most efficient scan order mixes ascending order for some columns and descending order for others. See Section 8.3.13, “Descending Indexes”.

  • Common table expressions.  MySQL now supports common table expressions, both nonrecursive and recursive. Common table expressions enable use of named temporary result sets, implemented by permitting a WITH clause preceding SELECT statements and certain other statements. For more information, see Section 13.2.13, “WITH Syntax (Common Table Expressions)”.

  • Window functions.  MySQL now supports window functions that, for each row from a query, perform a calculation using rows related to that row. These include functions such as RANK(), LAG(), and NTILE(). In addition, several existing aggregate functions now can be used as window functions; for example, SUM() and AVG(). For more information, see Section 12.20, “Window Functions”.

  • Regular expression support.  Previously, MySQL used the Henry Spencer regular expression library to support regular expression operators (REGEXP, RLIKE). Regular expression support has been reimplemented using International Components for Unicode (ICU), which provides full Unicode support and is multibyte safe. The REGEXP_LIKE() function performs regular expression matching in the manner of the REGEXP and RLIKE operators, which now are synonyms for that function. In addition, the REGEXP_INSTR(), REGEXP_REPLACE(), and REGEXP_SUBSTR() functions are available to find match positions and perform substring substitution and extraction, respectively. The regexp_stack_limit and regexp_time_limit system variables provide control over resource consumption by the match engine. For more information, see Section 12.5.2, “Regular Expressions”. For information about ways in which applications that use regular expressions may be affected by the implementation change, see Regular Expression Compatibility Considerations.

  • Internal temporary tables.  The TempTable storage engine replaces the MEMORY storage engine as the default engine for in-memory internal temporary tables. The TempTable storage engine provides efficient storage for VARCHAR and VARBINARY columns. The internal_tmp_mem_storage_engine session variable defines the storage engine for in-memory internal temporary tables. Permitted values are TempTable (the default) and MEMORY. The temptable_max_ram configuration option defines the maximum amount of memory that the TempTable storage engine can use before data is stored to disk.

  • Logging.  Error logging was rewritten to use the MySQL component architecture. Traditional error logging is implemented using built-in components, and logging using the system log is implemented as a loadable component. In addition, a loadable JSON log writer is available. To control which log components to enable, use the log_error_services system variable. For more information, see Section 5.4.2, “The Error Log”.

  • Backup lock.  A new type of backup lock permits DML during an online backup while preventing operations that could result in an inconsistent snapshot. The new backup lock is supported by LOCK INSTANCE FOR BACKUP and UNLOCK INSTANCE syntax. The BACKUP_ADMIN privilege is required to use these statements.

  • Replication.  The following enhancements have been made to MySQL Replication:

    • MySQL Replication now supports binary logging of partial updates to JSON documents using a compact binary format, saving space in the log over logging complete JSON documents. Such compact logging is done automatically when statement-based logging is in use, and can be enabled by setting the new binlog_row_value_options system variable to PARTIAL_JSON. For more information, see Partial Updates of JSON Values, as well as the description of binlog_row_value_options.

Features Deprecated in MySQL 8.0

The following features are deprecated in MySQL 8.0 and may be or will be removed in a future series. Where alternatives are shown, applications should be updated to use them.

For applications that use features deprecated in MySQL 8.0 that have been removed in a higher MySQL series, statements may fail when replicated from a MySQL 8.0 master to a higher-series slave, or may have different effects on master and slave. To avoid such problems, applications that use features deprecated in 8.0 should be revised to avoid them and use alternatives when possible.

Features Removed in MySQL 8.0

The following items are obsolete and have been removed in MySQL 8.0. Where alternatives are shown, applications should be updated to use them.

For MySQL 5.7 applications that use features removed in MySQL 8.0, statements may fail when replicated from a MySQL 5.7 master to a MySQL 8.0 slave, or may have different effects on master and slave. To avoid such problems, applications that use features removed in MySQL 8.0 should be revised to avoid them and use alternatives when possible.

  • The information_schema_stats configuration option, introduced in MySQL 8.0.0, was removed and replaced by information_schema_stats_expiry in MySQL 8.0.3.

    information_schema_stats_expiry defines an expiration setting for cached INFORMATION_SCHEMA table statistics. For more information, see Section 8.2.3, “Optimizing INFORMATION_SCHEMA Queries”.

  • Code related to obsoleted InnoDB system tables was removed in MySQL 8.0.3. INFORMATION_SCHEMA views based on InnoDB system tables were replaced by internal system views on data dictionary tables. Affected InnoDB INFORMATION_SCHEMA views were renamed:

    Table 1.1 Renamed InnoDB Information Schema Views

    Old Name New Name
    INNODB_SYS_COLUMNS INNODB_COLUMNS
    INNODB_SYS_DATAFILES INNODB_DATAFILES
    INNODB_SYS_FIELDS INNODB_FIELDS
    INNODB_SYS_FOREIGN INNODB_FOREIGN
    INNODB_SYS_FOREIGN_COLS INNODB_FOREIGN_COLS
    INNODB_SYS_INDEXES INNODB_INDEXES
    INNODB_SYS_TABLES INNODB_TABLES
    INNODB_SYS_TABLESPACES INNODB_TABLESPACES
    INNODB_SYS_TABLESTATS INNODB_TABLESTATS
    INNODB_SYS_VIRTUAL INNODB_VIRTUAL

    After upgrading to MySQL 8.0.3 or later, update any scripts that reference previous InnoDB INFORMATION_SCHEMA view names.

  • The following features related to account management have been removed:

    • Using GRANT to create users. Instead, use CREATE USER. Following this practice makes the NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER SQL mode immaterial for GRANT statements, so it too is removed.

    • Using GRANT to modify account properties other than privilege assignments. This includes authentication, SSL, and resource-limit properties. Instead, establish such properties at account-creation time with CREATE USER or modify them afterward with ALTER USER.

    • IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD 'hash_string' syntax for CREATE USER and GRANT. Instead, use IDENTIFIED WITH auth_plugin AS 'hash_string' for CREATE USER and ALTER USER, where the 'hash_string' value is in a format compatible with the named plugin.

      Additionally, because IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD syntax has been removed, the log_builtin_as_identified_by_password system variable is superfluous and has been removed.

    • The PASSWORD() function. Additionally, PASSWORD() removal means that SET PASSWORD ... = PASSWORD('auth_string') syntax is no longer available.

    • The old_passwords system variable.

  • The query cache has been removed. Removal includes these items:

    These deprecated query cache items remain deprecated, but have no effect, and will be removed in a future MySQL release:

    • The SQL_CACHE and SQL_NO_CACHE SELECT modifiers.

    • The ndb_cache_check_time system variable.

    The have_query_cache system variable remains deprecated, always has a value of NO, and will be removed in a future MySQL release.

  • The data dictionary provides information about database objects, so the server no longer checks directory names in the data directory to find databases. Consequently, the --ignore-db-dir option and ignore_db_dirs system variables are extraneous and have been removed.

  • The tx_isolation and tx_read_only system variables have been removed. Use transaction_isolation and transaction_read_only instead.

  • The sync_frm system variable has been removed because .frm files have become obsolete.

  • The secure_auth system variable and --secure-auth client option have been removed. The MYSQL_SECURE_AUTH option for the mysql_options() C API function was removed.

  • The multi_range_count system variable has been removed.

  • The log_warnings system variable and --log-warnings server option have been removed. Use the log_error_verbosity system variable instead.

  • The global scope for the sql_log_bin system variable has been removed. sql_log_bin has session scope only, and applications that rely on accessing @@global.sql_log_bin should be adjusted.

  • These deprecated compatibility SQL modes have been removed: DB2, MAXDB, MSSQL, MYSQL323, MYSQL40, ORACLE, POSTGRESQL, NO_FIELD_OPTIONS, NO_KEY_OPTIONS, NO_TABLE_OPTIONS. They can no longer be assigned to the sql_mode system variable or used as permitted values for the mysqldump --compatible option.

    Removal of MAXDB means that the TIMESTAMP data type for CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE is treated as TIMESTAMP, and is no longer treated as DATETIME.

  • The unused date_format, datetime_format, time_format, and max_tmp_tables system variables have been removed.

  • The EXTENDED and PARTITIONS keywords for the EXPLAIN statement have been removed. These keywords are unnecessary because their effect is always enabled.

  • These encryption-related items have been removed:

    In place of the removed encryption functions: For ENCRYPT(), consider using SHA2() instead for one-way hashing. For the others, consider using AES_ENCRYPT() and AES_DECRYPT() instead.

  • In MySQL 5.7, several spatial functions available under multiple names were deprecated to move in the direction of making the spatial function namespace more consistent, the goal being that each spatial function name begin with ST_ if it performs an exact operation, or with MBR if it performs an operation based on minimum bounding rectangles. In MySQL 8.0, the deprecated functions are removed to leave only the corresponding ST_ and MBR functions:

    • These functions are removed in favor of the MBR names: Contains(), Disjoint(), Equals(), Intersects(), Overlaps(), Within().

    • These functions are removed in favor of the ST_ names: Area(), AsBinary(), AsText(), AsWKB(), AsWKT(), Buffer(), Centroid(), ConvexHull(), Crosses(), Dimension(), Distance(), EndPoint(), Envelope(), ExteriorRing(), GeomCollFromText(), GeomCollFromWKB(), GeomFromText(), GeomFromWKB(), GeometryCollectionFromText(), GeometryCollectionFromWKB(), GeometryFromText(), GeometryFromWKB(), GeometryN(), GeometryType(), InteriorRingN(), IsClosed(), IsEmpty(), IsSimple(), LineFromText(), LineFromWKB(), LineStringFromText(), LineStringFromWKB(), MLineFromText(), MLineFromWKB(), MPointFromText(), MPointFromWKB(), MPolyFromText(), MPolyFromWKB(), MultiLineStringFromText(), MultiLineStringFromWKB(), MultiPointFromText(), MultiPointFromWKB(), MultiPolygonFromText(), MultiPolygonFromWKB(), NumGeometries(), NumInteriorRings(), NumPoints(), PointFromText(), PointFromWKB(), PointN(), PolyFromText(), PolyFromWKB(), PolygonFromText(), PolygonFromWKB(), SRID(), StartPoint(), Touches(), X(), Y().

    • GLength() is removed in favor of ST_Length().

  • The functions described in Section 12.15.4, “Functions That Create Geometry Values from WKB Values” previously accepted either WKB strings or geometry arguments. Geometry arguments are no longer permitted and produce an error. See that section for guidelines for migrating queries away from using geometry arguments.

  • The parser no longer treats \N as a synonym for NULL in SQL statements. Use NULL instead.

    This change does not affect text file import or export operations performed with LOAD DATA INFILE or SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE, for which NULL continues to be represented by \N. See Section 13.2.7, “LOAD DATA INFILE Syntax”.

  • PROCEDURE ANALYSE() syntax is removed.

  • The client-side --ssl and --ssl-verify-server-cert options have been removed. Use --ssl-mode=REQUIRED instead of --ssl=1 or --enable-ssl. Use --ssl-mode=DISABLED instead of --ssl=0, --skip-ssl, or --disable-ssl. Use --ssl-mode=VERIFY_IDENTITY instead of --ssl-verify-server-cert options. (The server-side --ssl option remains unchanged.)

    For the C API, MYSQL_OPT_SSL_ENFORCE and MYSQL_OPT_SSL_VERIFY_SERVER_CERT options for mysql_options() correspond to the client-side --ssl and --ssl-verify-server-cert options and have been removed. Use MYSQL_OPT_SSL_MODE with an option value of SSL_MODE_REQUIRED or SSL_MODE_VERIFY_IDENTITY instead.

  • The --temp-pool server option has been removed.

  • The --ignore-builtin-innodb server option and ignore_builtin_innodb system variable have been removed.

  • The server no longer performs conversion of pre-MySQL 5.1 database names containing special characters to 5.1 format with the addition of a #mysql50# prefix. Because these conversions are no longer performed, the --fix-db-names and --fix-table-names options for mysqlcheck, the UPGRADE DATA DIRECTORY NAME clause for the ALTER DATABASE statement, and the Com_alter_db_upgrade status variable have been removed.

    Upgrades are supported only from one major version to another (for example, 5.0 to 5.1, or 5.1 to 5.5), so there should be little remaining need for conversion of older 5.0 database names to current versions of MySQL. As a workaround, upgrade a MySQL 5.0 installation to MySQL 5.1 before upgrading to a more recent release.

  • The mysql_install_db program has been removed from MySQL distributions. Data directory initialization should be performed by invoking mysqld with the --initialize or --initialize-insecure option instead. In addition, the --bootstrap option for mysqld that was used by mysql_install_db has been removed, and the INSTALL_SCRIPTDIR CMake option that controlled the installation location for mysql_install_db has been removed.

  • The generic partitioning handler has been removed from the MySQL server. In order to support partitioning of a given table, the storage engine used for the table must now provide its own (“native”) partitioning handler. The --partition and --skip-partition options have been removed from the MySQL Server, and partitioning-related entries are no longer shown in the output of SHOW PLUGINS or in the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PLUGINS table.

    Two MySQL storage engines currently provide native partitioning support—InnoDB and NDB; of these, only InnoDB is supported in MySQL 8.0. Any attempt to create partitioned tables in MySQL 8.0 using any other storage engine fails.

    Ramifications for upgrades.  The direct upgrade of a partitioned table using a storage engine other than InnoDB (such as MyISAM) from MySQL 5.7 (or earlier) to MySQL 8.0 is not supported. There are two options for handling such a table:

    At least one of the two operations just listed must be performed for each partitioned non-InnoDB table prior to upgrading the server to MySQL 8.0. Otherwise, such a table cannot be used following the upgrade.

    Due to the fact that table creation statements that would result in a partitioned table using a storage engine without partitioning support now fail with an error (ER_CHECK_NOT_IMPLEMENTED), you must make sure that any statements in a dump file (such as that written by mysqldump) from an older version of MySQL that you wish to import into a MySQL 8.0 server that create partitioned tables do not also specify a storage engine such as MyISAM that has no native partitioning handler. You can do this by performing either of the following:

    • Remove any references to partitioning from CREATE TABLE statements that use a value for the STORAGE ENGINE option other than InnoDB.

    • Specifying the storage engine as InnoDB, or allow InnoDB to be used as the table's storage engine by default.

    For more information, see Section 22.6.2, “Partitioning Limitations Relating to Storage Engines”.

  • System and status variable information is no longer maintained in the INFORMATION_SCHEMA. These tables have been removed: GLOBAL_VARIABLES, SESSION_VARIABLES, GLOBAL_STATUS, SESSION_STATUS. Use the corresponding Performance Schema tables instead. See Section 25.11.13, “Performance Schema System Variable Tables”, and Section 25.11.14, “Performance Schema Status Variable Tables”. In addition, the show_compatibility_56 system variable has been removed. It was used in the transition period during which system and status variable information in INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables was moved to Performance Schema tables, and is no longer needed. These status variables have been removed: Slave_heartbeat_period, Slave_last_heartbeat, Slave_received_heartbeats, Slave_retried_transactions, Slave_running. The information they provided is available in Performance Schema tables; see Migrating to Performance Schema System and Status Variable Tables.

  • The Performance Schema setup_timers table has been removed, as has the TICK row in the performance_timers table.

  • The libmysqld embedded server library has been removed, along with:

    • The mysql_options() MYSQL_OPT_GUESS_CONNECTION, MYSQL_OPT_USE_EMBEDDED_CONNECTION, MYSQL_OPT_USE_REMOTE_CONNECTION, and MYSQL_SET_CLIENT_IP options

    • The mysql_config --libmysqld-libs, --embedded-libs, and --embedded options

    • The CMake WITH_EMBEDDED_SERVER, WITH_EMBEDDED_SHARED_LIBRARY, and INSTALL_SECURE_FILE_PRIV_EMBEDDEDDIR options

    • The (undocumented) mysql --server-arg option

    • The mysqltest --embedded-server, --server-arg, and --server-file options

    • The mysqltest_embedded and mysql_client_test_embedded test programs

  • The mysql_plugin utility has been removed. Alternatives include loading plugins at server startup using the --plugin-load or --plugin-load-add option, or at runtime using the INSTALL PLUGIN statement.

  • The following server error codes are not used and have been removed. Applications that test specifically for any of these errors should be updated. 

    ER_BINLOG_READ_EVENT_CHECKSUM_FAILURE
ER_BINLOG_ROW_RBR_TO_SBR
ER_BINLOG_ROW_WRONG_TABLE_DEF
ER_CANT_ACTIVATE_LOG
ER_CANT_CHANGE_GTID_NEXT_IN_TRANSACTION
ER_CANT_CREATE_FEDERATED_TABLE
ER_CANT_CREATE_SROUTINE
ER_CANT_DELETE_FILE
ER_CANT_GET_WD
ER_CANT_SET_GTID_PURGED_WHEN_GTID_MODE_IS_OFF
ER_CANT_SET_WD
ER_CANT_WRITE_LOCK_LOG_TABLE
ER_CREATE_DB_WITH_READ_LOCK
ER_CYCLIC_REFERENCE
ER_DB_DROP_DELETE
ER_DELAYED_NOT_SUPPORTED
ER_DIFF_GROUPS_PROC
ER_DISK_FULL
ER_DROP_DB_WITH_READ_LOCK
ER_DROP_USER
ER_DUMP_NOT_IMPLEMENTED
ER_ERROR_DURING_CHECKPOINT
ER_ERROR_ON_CLOSE
ER_EVENTS_DB_ERROR
ER_EVENT_CANNOT_DELETE
ER_EVENT_CANT_ALTER
ER_EVENT_COMPILE_ERROR
ER_EVENT_DATA_TOO_LONG
ER_EVENT_DROP_FAILED
ER_EVENT_MODIFY_QUEUE_ERROR
ER_EVENT_NEITHER_M_EXPR_NOR_M_AT
ER_EVENT_OPEN_TABLE_FAILED
ER_EVENT_STORE_FAILED
ER_EXEC_STMT_WITH_OPEN_CURSOR
ER_FAILED_ROUTINE_BREAK_BINLOG
ER_FLUSH_MASTER_BINLOG_CLOSED
ER_FORM_NOT_FOUND
ER_FOUND_GTID_EVENT_WHEN_GTID_MODE_IS_OFF__UNUSED
ER_FRM_UNKNOWN_TYPE
ER_GOT_SIGNAL
ER_GRANT_PLUGIN_USER_EXISTS
ER_GTID_MODE_REQUIRES_BINLOG
ER_GTID_NEXT_IS_NOT_IN_GTID_NEXT_LIST
ER_HASHCHK
ER_INDEX_REBUILD
ER_INNODB_NO_FT_USES_PARSER
ER_LIST_OF_FIELDS_ONLY_IN_HASH_ERROR
ER_LOAD_DATA_INVALID_COLUMN_UNUSED
ER_LOGGING_PROHIBIT_CHANGING_OF
ER_MALFORMED_DEFINER
ER_MASTER_KEY_ROTATION_ERROR_BY_SE
ER_NDB_CANT_SWITCH_BINLOG_FORMAT
ER_NEVER_USED
ER_NISAMCHK
ER_NO_CONST_EXPR_IN_RANGE_OR_LIST_ERROR
ER_NO_FILE_MAPPING
ER_NO_GROUP_FOR_PROC
ER_NO_RAID_COMPILED
ER_NO_SUCH_KEY_VALUE
ER_NO_SUCH_PARTITION__UNUSED
ER_OBSOLETE_CANNOT_LOAD_FROM_TABLE
ER_OBSOLETE_COL_COUNT_DOESNT_MATCH_CORRUPTED
ER_ORDER_WITH_PROC
ER_PARTITION_SUBPARTITION_ERROR
ER_PARTITION_SUBPART_MIX_ERROR
ER_PART_STATE_ERROR
ER_PASSWD_LENGTH
ER_QUERY_ON_MASTER
ER_RBR_NOT_AVAILABLE
ER_SKIPPING_LOGGED_TRANSACTION
ER_SLAVE_CHANNEL_DELETE
ER_SLAVE_MULTIPLE_CHANNELS_HOST_PORT
ER_SLAVE_MUST_STOP
ER_SLAVE_WAS_NOT_RUNNING
ER_SLAVE_WAS_RUNNING
ER_SP_GOTO_IN_HNDLR
ER_SP_PROC_TABLE_CORRUPT
ER_SQL_MODE_NO_EFFECT
ER_SR_INVALID_CREATION_CTX
ER_TABLE_NEEDS_UPG_PART
ER_TOO_MUCH_AUTO_TIMESTAMP_COLS
ER_UNEXPECTED_EOF
ER_UNION_TABLES_IN_DIFFERENT_DIR
ER_UNSUPPORTED_BY_REPLICATION_THREAD
ER_UNUSED1
ER_UNUSED2
ER_UNUSED3
ER_UNUSED4
ER_UNUSED5
ER_UNUSED6
ER_VIEW_SELECT_DERIVED_UNUSED
ER_WRONG_MAGIC
ER_WSAS_FAILED

  • The deprecated INFORMATION_SCHEMA INNODB_LOCKS and INNODB_LOCK_WAITS tables have been removed. Use the Performance Schema data_locks and data_lock_waits tables instead.

    Note

    In MySQL 5.7, the LOCK_TABLE column in the INNODB_LOCKS table and the locked_table column in the sys schema innodb_lock_waits and x$innodb_lock_waits views contain combined schema/table name values. In MySQL 8.0, the data_locks table and the sys schema views contain separate schema name and table name columns. See Section 26.4.3.9, “The innodb_lock_waits and x$innodb_lock_waits Views”.

  • InnoDB no longer supports compressed temporary tables. When innodb_strict_mode is enabled (the default), CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE returns an error if ROW_FORMAT=COMPRESSED or KEY_BLOCK_SIZE is specified. If innodb_strict_mode is disabled, warnings are issued and the temporary table is created using a non-compressed row format.

  • InnoDB no longer creates .isl files (InnoDB Symbolic Link files) when creating tablespace data files outside of the MySQL data directory. The innodb_directories option now supports locating tablespace files created outside of the data directory.

    With this change, moving a remote tablespace while the server is offline by manually modifying an .isl file is no longer supported. Moving remote tablespace files is now supported by the innodb_directories option. See Section 15.7.7, “Moving Tablespace Files While the Server is Offline”.

  • The following InnoDB file format configuration options were removed:

    • innodb_file_format

    • innodb_file_format_check

    • innodb_file_format_max

    • innodb_large_prefix

    File format configuration options were necessary for creating tables compatible with earlier versions of InnoDB in MySQL 5.1. Now that MySQL 5.1 has reached the end of its product lifecycle, these options are no longer required.

    The FILE_FORMAT column was removed from the INNODB_TABLES and INNODB_TABLESPACES Information Schema tables.

  • The innodb_support_xa system variable, which enables support for two-phase commit in XA transactions, was removed. InnoDB support for two-phase commit in XA transactions is always enabled.

  • Support for DTrace has been removed.

  • The JSON_APPEND() function has been removed. Use JSON_ARRAY_APPEND() instead.

1.5 Server and Status Variables and Options Added, Deprecated, or Removed in MySQL 8.0

This section lists server variables, status variables, and options that were added for the first time, have been deprecated, or have been removed in MySQL 8.0.

Options and Variables Introduced in MySQL 8.0

The following system variables, status variables, and options are new in MySQL 8.0, and have not been included in any previous release series.

Options and Variables Deprecated in MySQL 8.0

The following system variables, status variables, and options have been deprecated in MySQL 8.0.

  • expire_logs_days: Purge binary logs after this many days. Deprecated as of MySQL 8.0.3.

  • innodb_undo_tablespaces: The number of tablespace files that rollback segments are divided between. Deprecated as of MySQL 8.0.4.

  • log_syslog: Whether to write error log to syslog. Deprecated as of MySQL 8.0.2.

  • symbolic-links: Permit symbolic links for MyISAM tables. Deprecated as of MySQL 8.0.2.

Options and Variables Removed in MySQL 8.0

The following system variables, status variables, and options have been removed in MySQL 8.0.

  • Com_alter_db_upgrade: Count of ALTER DATABASE ... UPGRADE DATA DIRECTORY NAME statements. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • Innodb_available_undo_logs: Display the total number of InnoDB rollback segments; different from innodb_rollback_segments, which displays the number of active rollback segments. Removed in MySQL 8.0.2.

  • Qcache_free_blocks: Number of free memory blocks in the query cache. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • Qcache_free_memory: The amount of free memory for the query cache. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • Qcache_hits: Number of query cache hits. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • Qcache_inserts: Number of query cache inserts. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • Qcache_lowmem_prunes: Number of queries that were deleted from the query cache due to lack of free memory in the cache. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • Qcache_not_cached: Number of noncached queries (not cacheable, or not cached due to the query_cache_type setting). Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • Qcache_queries_in_cache: Number of queries registered in the query cache. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • Qcache_total_blocks: The total number of blocks in the query cache. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • Slave_heartbeat_period: The slave's replication heartbeat interval, in seconds. Removed in MySQL 8.0.1.

  • Slave_last_heartbeat: Shows when the latest heartbeat signal was received, in TIMESTAMP format. Removed in MySQL 8.0.1.

  • Slave_received_heartbeats: Number of heartbeats received by a replication slave since previous reset. Removed in MySQL 8.0.1.

  • Slave_retried_transactions: The total number of times since startup that the replication slave SQL thread has retried transactions. Removed in MySQL 8.0.1.

  • Slave_running: The state of this server as a replication slave (slave I/O thread status). Removed in MySQL 8.0.1.

  • bootstrap: Used by mysql installation scripts. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • date_format: The DATE format (unused). Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • datetime_format: The DATETIME/TIMESTAMP format (unused). Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • des-key-file: Load keys for des_encrypt() and des_encrypt from given file. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • group_replication_allow_local_disjoint_gtids_join: Allow the current server to join the group even if it has transactions not present in the group. Removed in MySQL 8.0.4.

  • have_crypt: Availability of the crypt() system call. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • ignore-builtin-innodb: Ignore the built-in InnoDB. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • ignore-db-dir: Treat directory as nondatabase directory. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • ignore_db_dirs: Directories treated as nondatabase directories. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • innodb_checksums: Enable InnoDB checksums validation. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • innodb_disable_resize_buffer_pool_debug: Disables resizing of the InnoDB buffer pool. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • innodb_file_format: The format for new InnoDB tables. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • innodb_file_format_check: Whether InnoDB performs file format compatibility checking. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • innodb_file_format_max: The file format tag in the shared tablespace. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • innodb_large_prefix: Enables longer keys for column prefix indexes. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • innodb_locks_unsafe_for_binlog: Force InnoDB not to use next-key locking. Instead use only row-level locking. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • innodb_stats_sample_pages: Number of index pages to sample for index distribution statistics. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • innodb_support_xa: Enable InnoDB support for the XA two-phase commit. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • innodb_undo_logs: Defines the number of undo logs (rollback segments) used by InnoDB; an alias for innodb_rollback_segments. Removed in MySQL 8.0.2.

  • log-warnings: Log some noncritical warnings to the log file. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • log_builtin_as_identified_by_password: Whether to log CREATE/ALTER USER, GRANT in backward-compatible fashion. Removed in MySQL 8.0.11.

  • log_error_filter_rules: Filter rules for error logging. Removed in MySQL 8.0.4.

  • max_tmp_tables: Unused. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • multi_range_count: The maximum number of ranges to send to a table handler at once during range selects. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • old_passwords: Selects password hashing method for PASSWORD(). Removed in MySQL 8.0.11.

  • partition: Enable (or disable) partitioning support. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • query_cache_limit: Do not cache results that are bigger than this. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • query_cache_min_res_unit: Minimal size of unit in which space for results is allocated (last unit will be trimmed after writing all result data). Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • query_cache_size: The memory allocated to store results from old queries. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • query_cache_type: Query cache type. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • query_cache_wlock_invalidate: Invalidate queries in query cache on LOCK for write. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • secure-auth: Disallow authentication for accounts that have old (pre-4.1) passwords. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • show_compatibility_56: Compatibility for SHOW STATUS/VARIABLES. Removed in MySQL 8.0.1.

  • skip-partition: Do not enable user-defined partitioning. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • sync_frm: Sync .frm to disk on create. Enabled by default. Removed in MySQL 8.0.0.

  • temp-pool: Using this option will cause most temporary files created to use a small set of names, rather than a unique name for each new file. Removed in MySQL 8.0.1.

  • time_format: The TIME format (unused). Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • tx_isolation: The default transaction isolation level. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

  • tx_read_only: Default transaction access mode. Removed in MySQL 8.0.3.

1.6 MySQL Information Sources

1.6.1 MySQL Websites
1.6.2 MySQL Mailing Lists
1.6.3 MySQL Community Support at the MySQL Forums
1.6.4 MySQL Community Support on Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
1.6.5 MySQL Enterprise

This section lists sources of additional information that you may find helpful, such as MySQL websites, mailing lists, user forums, and Internet Relay Chat.

1.6.1 MySQL Websites

The primary website for MySQL documentation is http://dev.mysql.com/doc/. Online and downloadable documentation formats are available for the MySQL Reference Manual, MySQL Connectors, and more.

The MySQL developers provide information about new and upcoming features as the MySQL Server Blog.

1.6.2 MySQL Mailing Lists

1.6.2.1 Guidelines for Using the Mailing Lists

This section introduces the MySQL mailing lists and provides guidelines as to how the lists should be used. When you subscribe to a mailing list, you receive all postings to the list as email messages. You can also send your own questions and answers to the list.

To subscribe to or unsubscribe from any of the mailing lists described in this section, visit http://lists.mysql.com/. For most of them, you can select the regular version of the list where you get individual messages, or a digest version where you get one large message per day.

Please do not send messages about subscribing or unsubscribing to any of the mailing lists, because such messages are distributed automatically to thousands of other users.

Your local site may have many subscribers to a MySQL mailing list. If so, the site may have a local mailing list, so that messages sent from lists.mysql.com to your site are propagated to the local list. In such cases, please contact your system administrator to be added to or dropped from the local MySQL list.

To have traffic for a mailing list go to a separate mailbox in your mail program, set up a filter based on the message headers. You can use either the List-ID: or Delivered-To: headers to identify list messages.

The MySQL mailing lists are as follows:

  • announce

    The list for announcements of new versions of MySQL and related programs. This is a low-volume list to which all MySQL users should subscribe.

  • mysql

    The main list for general MySQL discussion. Please note that some topics are better discussed on the more-specialized lists. If you post to the wrong list, you may not get an answer.

  • bugs

    The list for people who want to stay informed about issues reported since the last release of MySQL or who want to be actively involved in the process of bug hunting and fixing. See Section 1.7, “How to Report Bugs or Problems”.

  • internals

    The list for people who work on the MySQL code. This is also the forum for discussions on MySQL development and for posting patches.

  • mysqldoc

    The list for people who work on the MySQL documentation.

  • benchmarks

    The list for anyone interested in performance issues. Discussions concentrate on database performance (not limited to MySQL), but also include broader categories such as performance of the kernel, file system, disk system, and so on.

  • packagers

    The list for discussions on packaging and distributing MySQL. This is the forum used by distribution maintainers to exchange ideas on packaging MySQL and on ensuring that MySQL looks and feels as similar as possible on all supported platforms and operating systems.

  • java

    The list for discussions about the MySQL server and Java. It is mostly used to discuss JDBC drivers such as MySQL Connector/J.

  • win32

    The list for all topics concerning the MySQL software on Microsoft operating systems, such as Windows 9x, Me, NT, 2000, XP, and 2003.

  • myodbc

    The list for all topics concerning connecting to the MySQL server with ODBC.

  • gui-tools

    The list for all topics concerning MySQL graphical user interface tools such as MySQL Workbench.

  • cluster

    The list for discussion of MySQL Cluster.

  • dotnet

    The list for discussion of the MySQL server and the .NET platform. It is mostly related to MySQL Connector/Net.

  • plusplus

    The list for all topics concerning programming with the C++ API for MySQL.

  • perl

    The list for all topics concerning Perl support for MySQL with DBD::mysql.

If you're unable to get an answer to your questions from a MySQL mailing list or forum, one option is to purchase support from Oracle. This puts you in direct contact with MySQL developers.

The following MySQL mailing lists are in languages other than English. These lists are not operated by Oracle.

1.6.2.1 Guidelines for Using the Mailing Lists

Please do not post mail messages from your browser with HTML mode turned on. Many users do not read mail with a browser.

When you answer a question sent to a mailing list, if you consider your answer to have broad interest, you may want to post it to the list instead of replying directly to the individual who asked. Try to make your answer general enough that people other than the original poster may benefit from it. When you post to the list, please make sure that your answer is not a duplication of a previous answer.

Try to summarize the essential part of the question in your reply. Do not feel obliged to quote the entire original message.

When answers are sent to you individually and not to the mailing list, it is considered good etiquette to summarize the answers and send the summary to the mailing list so that others may have the benefit of responses you received that helped you solve your problem.

1.6.3 MySQL Community Support at the MySQL Forums

The forums at http://forums.mysql.com are an important community resource. Many forums are available, grouped into these general categories:

  • Migration

  • MySQL Usage

  • MySQL Connectors

  • Programming Languages

  • Tools

  • 3rd-Party Applications

  • Storage Engines

  • MySQL Technology

  • SQL Standards

  • Business

1.6.4 MySQL Community Support on Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

In addition to the various MySQL mailing lists and forums, you can find experienced community people on Internet Relay Chat (IRC). These are the best networks/channels currently known to us:

freenode (see http://www.freenode.net/ for servers)

  • #mysql is primarily for MySQL questions, but other database and general SQL questions are welcome. Questions about PHP, Perl, or C in combination with MySQL are also common.

  • #workbench is primarily for MySQL Workbench related questions and thoughts, and it is also a good place to meet the MySQL Workbench developers.

1.6.5 MySQL Enterprise

Oracle offers technical support in the form of MySQL Enterprise. For organizations that rely on the MySQL DBMS for business-critical production applications, MySQL Enterprise is a commercial subscription offering which includes:

  • MySQL Enterprise Server

  • MySQL Enterprise Monitor

  • Monthly Rapid Updates and Quarterly Service Packs

  • MySQL Knowledge Base

  • 24x7 Technical and Consultative Support

MySQL Enterprise is available in multiple tiers, giving you the flexibility to choose the level of service that best matches your needs. For more information, see MySQL Enterprise.

1.7 How to Report Bugs or Problems

Before posting a bug report about a problem, please try to verify that it is a bug and that it has not been reported already:

  • Start by searching the MySQL online manual at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/. We try to keep the manual up to date by updating it frequently with solutions to newly found problems. In addition, the release notes accompanying the manual can be particularly useful since it is quite possible that a newer version contains a solution to your problem. The release notes are available at the location just given for the manual.

  • If you get a parse error for an SQL statement, please check your syntax closely. If you cannot find something wrong with it, it is extremely likely that your current version of MySQL Server doesn't support the syntax you are using. If you are using the current version and the manual doesn't cover the syntax that you are using, MySQL Server doesn't support your statement.

    If the manual covers the syntax you are using, but you have an older version of MySQL Server, you should check the MySQL change history to see when the syntax was implemented. In this case, you have the option of upgrading to a newer version of MySQL Server.

  • For solutions to some common problems, see Section B.5, “Problems and Common Errors”.

  • Search the bugs database at http://bugs.mysql.com/ to see whether the bug has been reported and fixed.

  • Search the MySQL mailing list archives at http://lists.mysql.com/. See Section 1.6.2, “MySQL Mailing Lists”.

  • You can also use http://www.mysql.com/search/ to search all the Web pages (including the manual) that are located at the MySQL website.

If you cannot find an answer in the manual, the bugs database, or the mailing list archives, check with your local MySQL expert. If you still cannot find an answer to your question, please use the following guidelines for reporting the bug.

The normal way to report bugs is to visit http://bugs.mysql.com/, which is the address for our bugs database. This database is public and can be browsed and searched by anyone. If you log in to the system, you can enter new reports.

Bugs posted in the bugs database at http://bugs.mysql.com/ that are corrected for a given release are noted in the release notes.

If you find a sensitive security bug in MySQL Server, please let us know immediately by sending an email message to . Exception: Support customers should report all problems, including security bugs, to Oracle Support at http://support.oracle.com/.

To discuss problems with other users, you can use one of the MySQL mailing lists. Section 1.6.2, “MySQL Mailing Lists”.

Writing a good bug report takes patience, but doing it right the first time saves time both for us and for yourself. A good bug report, containing a full test case for the bug, makes it very likely that we will fix the bug in the next release. This section helps you write your report correctly so that you do not waste your time doing things that may not help us much or at all. Please read this section carefully and make sure that all the information described here is included in your report.

Preferably, you should test the problem using the latest production or development version of MySQL Server before posting. Anyone should be able to repeat the bug by just using mysql test < script_file on your test case or by running the shell or Perl script that you include in the bug report. Any bug that we are able to repeat has a high chance of being fixed in the next MySQL release.

It is most helpful when a good description of the problem is included in the bug report. That is, give a good example of everything you did that led to the problem and describe, in exact detail, the problem itself. The best reports are those that include a full example showing how to reproduce the bug or problem. See Section 28.5, “Debugging and Porting MySQL”.

Remember that it is possible for us to respond to a report containing too much information, but not to one containing too little. People often omit facts because they think they know the cause of a problem and assume that some details do not matter. A good principle to follow is that if you are in doubt about stating something, state it. It is faster and less troublesome to write a couple more lines in your report than to wait longer for the answer if we must ask you to provide information that was missing from the initial report.

The most common errors made in bug reports are (a) not including the version number of the MySQL distribution that you use, and (b) not fully describing the platform on which the MySQL server is installed (including the platform type and version number). These are highly relevant pieces of information, and in 99 cases out of 100, the bug report is useless without them. Very often we get questions like, “Why doesn't this work for me?” Then we find that the feature requested wasn't implemented in that MySQL version, or that a bug described in a report has been fixed in newer MySQL versions. Errors often are platform-dependent. In such cases, it is next to impossible for us to fix anything without knowing the operating system and the version number of the platform.

If you compiled MySQL from source, remember also to provide information about your compiler if it is related to the problem. Often people find bugs in compilers and think the problem is MySQL-related. Most compilers are under development all the time and become better version by version. To determine whether your problem depends on your compiler, we need to know what compiler you used. Note that every compiling problem should be regarded as a bug and reported accordingly.

If a program produces an error message, it is very important to include the message in your report. If we try to search for something from the archives, it is better that the error message reported exactly matches the one that the program produces. (Even the lettercase should be observed.) It is best to copy and paste the entire error message into your report. You should never try to reproduce the message from memory.

If you have a problem with Connector/ODBC (MyODBC), please try to generate a trace file and send it with your report. See How to Report Connector/ODBC Problems or Bugs.

If your report includes long query output lines from test cases that you run with the mysql command-line tool, you can make the output more readable by using the --vertical option or the \G statement terminator. The EXPLAIN SELECT example later in this section demonstrates the use of \G.

Please include the following information in your report:

  • The version number of the MySQL distribution you are using (for example, MySQL 5.7.10). You can find out which version you are running by executing mysqladmin version. The mysqladmin program can be found in the bin directory under your MySQL installation directory.

  • The manufacturer and model of the machine on which you experience the problem.

  • The operating system name and version. If you work with Windows, you can usually get the name and version number by double-clicking your My Computer icon and pulling down the “Help/About Windows” menu. For most Unix-like operating systems, you can get this information by executing the command uname -a.

  • Sometimes the amount of memory (real and virtual) is relevant. If in doubt, include these values.

  • The contents of the docs/INFO_BIN file from your MySQL installation. This file contains information about how MySQL was configured and compiled.

  • If you are using a source distribution of the MySQL software, include the name and version number of the compiler that you used. If you have a binary distribution, include the distribution name.

  • If the problem occurs during compilation, include the exact error messages and also a few lines of context around the offending code in the file where the error occurs.

  • If mysqld died, you should also report the statement that crashed mysqld. You can usually get this information by running mysqld with query logging enabled, and then looking in the log after mysqld crashes. See Section 28.5, “Debugging and Porting MySQL”.

  • If a database table is related to the problem, include the output from the SHOW CREATE TABLE db_name.tbl_name statement in the bug report. This is a very easy way to get the definition of any table in a database. The information helps us create a situation matching the one that you have experienced.

  • The SQL mode in effect when the problem occurred can be significant, so please report the value of the sql_mode system variable. For stored procedure, stored function, and trigger objects, the relevant sql_mode value is the one in effect when the object was created. For a stored procedure or function, the SHOW CREATE PROCEDURE or SHOW CREATE FUNCTION statement shows the relevant SQL mode, or you can query INFORMATION_SCHEMA for the information: 

    SELECT ROUTINE_SCHEMA, ROUTINE_NAME, SQL_MODE
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES;

    For triggers, you can use this statement: 

    SELECT EVENT_OBJECT_SCHEMA, EVENT_OBJECT_TABLE, TRIGGER_NAME, SQL_MODE
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TRIGGERS;

  • For performance-related bugs or problems with SELECT statements, you should always include the output of EXPLAIN SELECT ..., and at least the number of rows that the SELECT statement produces. You should also include the output from SHOW CREATE TABLE tbl_name for each table that is involved. The more information you provide about your situation, the more likely it is that someone can help you.

    The following is an example of a very good bug report. The statements are run using the mysql command-line tool. Note the use of the \G statement terminator for statements that would otherwise provide very long output lines that are difficult to read. 

    mysql> SHOW VARIABLES;
mysql> SHOW COLUMNS FROM ...\G
       <output from SHOW COLUMNS>
mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT ...\G
       <output from EXPLAIN>
mysql> FLUSH STATUS;
mysql> SELECT ...;
       <A short version of the output from SELECT,
       including the time taken to run the query>
mysql> SHOW STATUS;
       <output from SHOW STATUS>

  • If a bug or problem occurs while running mysqld, try to provide an input script that reproduces the anomaly. This script should include any necessary source files. The more closely the script can reproduce your situation, the better. If you can make a reproducible test case, you should upload it to be attached to the bug report.

    If you cannot provide a script, you should at least include the output from mysqladmin variables extended-status processlist in your report to provide some information on how your system is performing.

  • If you cannot produce a test case with only a few rows, or if the test table is too big to be included in the bug report (more than 10 rows), you should dump your tables using mysqldump and create a README file that describes your problem. Create a compressed archive of your files using tar and gzip or zip. After you initiate a bug report for our bugs database at http://bugs.mysql.com/, click the Files tab in the bug report for instructions on uploading the archive to the bugs database.

  • If you believe that the MySQL server produces a strange result from a statement, include not only the result, but also your opinion of what the result should be, and an explanation describing the basis for your opinion.

  • When you provide an example of the problem, it is better to use the table names, variable names, and so forth that exist in your actual situation than to come up with new names. The problem could be related to the name of a table or variable. These cases are rare, perhaps, but it is better to be safe than sorry. After all, it should be easier for you to provide an example that uses your actual situation, and it is by all means better for us. If you have data that you do not want to be visible to others in the bug report, you can upload it using the Files tab as previously described. If the information is really top secret and you do not want to show it even to us, go ahead and provide an example using other names, but please regard this as the last choice.

  • Include all the options given to the relevant programs, if possible. For example, indicate the options that you use when you start the mysqld server, as well as the options that you use to run any MySQL client programs. The options to programs such as mysqld and mysql, and to the configure script, are often key to resolving problems and are very relevant. It is never a bad idea to include them. If your problem involves a program written in a language such as Perl or PHP, please include the language processor's version number, as well as the version for any modules that the program uses. For example, if you have a Perl script that uses the DBI and DBD::mysql modules, include the version numbers for Perl, DBI, and DBD::mysql.

  • If your question is related to the privilege system, please include the output of mysqladmin reload, and all the error messages you get when trying to connect. When you test your privileges, you should execute mysqladmin reload version and try to connect with the program that gives you trouble.

  • If you have a patch for a bug, do include it. But do not assume that the patch is all we need, or that we can use it, if you do not provide some necessary information such as test cases showing the bug that your patch fixes. We might find problems with your patch or we might not understand it at all. If so, we cannot use it.

    If we cannot verify the exact purpose of the patch, we will not use it. Test cases help us here. Show that the patch handles all the situations that may occur. If we find a borderline case (even a rare one) where the patch will not work, it may be useless.

  • Guesses about what the bug is, why it occurs, or what it depends on are usually wrong. Even the MySQL team cannot guess such things without first using a debugger to determine the real cause of a bug.

  • Indicate in your bug report that you have checked the reference manual and mail archive so that others know you have tried to solve the problem yourself.

  • If your data appears corrupt or you get errors when you access a particular table, first check your tables with CHECK TABLE. If that statement reports any errors:

    • The InnoDB crash recovery mechanism handles cleanup when the server is restarted after being killed, so in typical operation there is no need to “repair” tables. If you encounter an error with InnoDB tables, restart the server and see whether the problem persists, or whether the error affected only cached data in memory. If data is corrupted on disk, consider restarting with the innodb_force_recovery option enabled so that you can dump the affected tables.

    • For non-transactional tables, try to repair them with REPAIR TABLE or with myisamchk. See Chapter 5, MySQL Server Administration.

    If you are running Windows, please verify the value of lower_case_table_names using the SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'lower_case_table_names' statement. This variable affects how the server handles lettercase of database and table names. Its effect for a given value should be as described in Section 9.2.2, “Identifier Case Sensitivity”.

  • If you often get corrupted tables, you should try to find out when and why this happens. In this case, the error log in the MySQL data directory may contain some information about what happened. (This is the file with the .err suffix in the name.) See Section 5.4.2, “The Error Log”. Please include any relevant information from this file in your bug report. Normally mysqld should never crash a table if nothing killed it in the middle of an update. If you can find the cause of mysqld dying, it is much easier for us to provide you with a fix for the problem. See Section B.5.1, “How to Determine What Is Causing a Problem”.

  • If possible, download and install the most recent version of MySQL Server and check whether it solves your problem. All versions of the MySQL software are thoroughly tested and should work without problems. We believe in making everything as backward-compatible as possible, and you should be able to switch MySQL versions without difficulty. See Section 2.1.1, “Which MySQL Version and Distribution to Install”.

1.8 MySQL Standards Compliance

1.8.1 MySQL Extensions to Standard SQL
1.8.2 MySQL Differences from Standard SQL
1.8.3 How MySQL Deals with Constraints

This section describes how MySQL relates to the ANSI/ISO SQL standards. MySQL Server has many extensions to the SQL standard, and here you can find out what they are and how to use them. You can also find information about functionality missing from MySQL Server, and how to work around some of the differences.

The SQL standard has been evolving since 1986 and several versions exist. In this manual, “SQL-92” refers to the standard released in 1992, “SQL:1999” refers to the standard released in 1999, “SQL:2003” refers to the standard released in 2003, and “SQL:2008” refers to the most recent version of the standard, released in 2008. We use the phrase “the SQL standard” or “standard SQL” to mean the current version of the SQL Standard at any time.

One of our main goals with the product is to continue to work toward compliance with the SQL standard, but without sacrificing speed or reliability. We are not afraid to add extensions to SQL or support for non-SQL features if this greatly increases the usability of MySQL Server for a large segment of our user base. The HANDLER interface is an example of this strategy. See Section 13.2.4, “HANDLER Syntax”.

We continue to support transactional and nontransactional databases to satisfy both mission-critical 24/7 usage and heavy Web or logging usage.

MySQL Server was originally designed to work with medium-sized databases (10-100 million rows, or about 100MB per table) on small computer systems. Today MySQL Server handles terabyte-sized databases.

We are not targeting real-time support, although MySQL replication capabilities offer significant functionality.

MySQL supports ODBC levels 0 to 3.51.

MySQL supports high-availability database clustering using the NDBCLUSTER storage engine. See MySQL NDB Cluster 7.5 and NDB Cluster 7.6.

We implement XML functionality which supports most of the W3C XPath standard. See Section 12.11, “XML Functions”.

MySQL supports a native JSON data type as defined by RFC 7159, and based on the ECMAScript standard (ECMA-262). See Section 11.6, “The JSON Data Type”. MySQL also implements a subset of the SQL/JSON functions specified by a pre-publication draft of the SQL:2016 standard; see Section 12.16, “JSON Functions”, for more information.

Selecting SQL Modes

The MySQL server can operate in different SQL modes, and can apply these modes differently for different clients, depending on the value of the sql_mode system variable. DBAs can set the global SQL mode to match site server operating requirements, and each application can set its session SQL mode to its own requirements.

Modes affect the SQL syntax MySQL supports and the data validation checks it performs. This makes it easier to use MySQL in different environments and to use MySQL together with other database servers.

For more information on setting the SQL mode, see Section 5.1.10, “Server SQL Modes”.

Running MySQL in ANSI Mode

To run MySQL Server in ANSI mode, start mysqld with the --ansi option. Running the server in ANSI mode is the same as starting it with the following options: 

--transaction-isolation=SERIALIZABLE --sql-mode=ANSI

To achieve the same effect at runtime, execute these two statements: 

SET GLOBAL TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE;
SET GLOBAL sql_mode = 'ANSI';

You can see that setting the sql_mode system variable to 'ANSI' enables all SQL mode options that are relevant for ANSI mode as follows: 

mysql> SET GLOBAL sql_mode='ANSI';
mysql> SELECT @@global.sql_mode;
        -> 'REAL_AS_FLOAT,PIPES_AS_CONCAT,ANSI_QUOTES,IGNORE_SPACE,ANSI'

Running the server in ANSI mode with --ansi is not quite the same as setting the SQL mode to 'ANSI' because the --ansi option also sets the transaction isolation level.

See Section 5.1.6, “Server Command Options”.

1.8.1 MySQL Extensions to Standard SQL

MySQL Server supports some extensions that you probably will not find in other SQL DBMSs. Be warned that if you use them, your code will not be portable to other SQL servers. In some cases, you can write code that includes MySQL extensions, but is still portable, by using comments of the following form: 

/*! MySQL-specific code */

In this case, MySQL Server parses and executes the code within the comment as it would any other SQL statement, but other SQL servers will ignore the extensions. For example, MySQL Server recognizes the STRAIGHT_JOIN keyword in the following statement, but other servers will not: 

SELECT /*! STRAIGHT_JOIN */ col1 FROM table1,table2 WHERE ...

If you add a version number after the ! character, the syntax within the comment is executed only if the MySQL version is greater than or equal to the specified version number. The KEY_BLOCK_SIZE clause in the following comment is executed only by servers from MySQL 5.1.10 or higher: 

CREATE TABLE t1(a INT, KEY (a)) /*!50110 KEY_BLOCK_SIZE=1024 */;

The following descriptions list MySQL extensions, organized by category.

1.8.2 MySQL Differences from Standard SQL

1.8.2.1 SELECT INTO TABLE Differences
1.8.2.2 UPDATE Differences
1.8.2.3 Foreign Key Differences
1.8.2.4 '--' as the Start of a Comment

We try to make MySQL Server follow the ANSI SQL standard and the ODBC SQL standard, but MySQL Server performs operations differently in some cases:

1.8.2.1 SELECT INTO TABLE Differences

MySQL Server doesn't support the SELECT ... INTO TABLE Sybase SQL extension. Instead, MySQL Server supports the INSERT INTO ... SELECT standard SQL syntax, which is basically the same thing. See Section 13.2.6.1, “INSERT ... SELECT Syntax”. For example: 

INSERT INTO tbl_temp2 (fld_id)
    SELECT tbl_temp1.fld_order_id
    FROM tbl_temp1 WHERE tbl_temp1.fld_order_id > 100;

Alternatively, you can use SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE or CREATE TABLE ... SELECT.

You can use SELECT ... INTO with user-defined variables. The same syntax can also be used inside stored routines using cursors and local variables. See Section 13.2.10.1, “SELECT ... INTO Syntax”.

1.8.2.2 UPDATE Differences

If you access a column from the table to be updated in an expression, UPDATE uses the current value of the column. The second assignment in the following statement sets col2 to the current (updated) col1 value, not the original col1 value. The result is that col1 and col2 have the same value. This behavior differs from standard SQL. 

UPDATE t1 SET col1 = col1 + 1, col2 = col1;

1.8.2.3 Foreign Key Differences

The MySQL implementation of foreign keys differs from the SQL standard in the following key respects:

  • If there are several rows in the parent table that have the same referenced key value, InnoDB acts in foreign key checks as if the other parent rows with the same key value do not exist. For example, if you have defined a RESTRICT type constraint, and there is a child row with several parent rows, InnoDB does not permit the deletion of any of those parent rows.

    InnoDB performs cascading operations through a depth-first algorithm, based on records in the indexes corresponding to the foreign key constraints.

  • A FOREIGN KEY constraint that references a non-UNIQUE key is not standard SQL but rather an InnoDB extension.

  • If ON UPDATE CASCADE or ON UPDATE SET NULL recurses to update the same table it has previously updated during the same cascade, it acts like RESTRICT. This means that you cannot use self-referential ON UPDATE CASCADE or ON UPDATE SET NULL operations. This is to prevent infinite loops resulting from cascaded updates. A self-referential ON DELETE SET NULL, on the other hand, is possible, as is a self-referential ON DELETE CASCADE. Cascading operations may not be nested more than 15 levels deep.

  • In an SQL statement that inserts, deletes, or updates many rows, foreign key constraints (like unique constraints) are checked row-by-row. When performing foreign key checks, InnoDB sets shared row-level locks on child or parent records that it must examine. MySQL checks foreign key constraints immediately; the check is not deferred to transaction commit. According to the SQL standard, the default behavior should be deferred checking. That is, constraints are only checked after the entire SQL statement has been processed. This means that it is not possible to delete a row that refers to itself using a foreign key.

For information about how the InnoDB storage engine handles foreign keys, see Section 15.8.1.6, “InnoDB and FOREIGN KEY Constraints”.

1.8.2.4 '--' as the Start of a Comment

Standard SQL uses the C syntax /* this is a comment */ for comments, and MySQL Server supports this syntax as well. MySQL also support extensions to this syntax that enable MySQL-specific SQL to be embedded in the comment, as described in Section 9.6, “Comment Syntax”.

Standard SQL uses “--” as a start-comment sequence. MySQL Server uses # as the start comment character. MySQL Server also supports a variant of the -- comment style. That is, the -- start-comment sequence must be followed by a space (or by a control character such as a newline). The space is required to prevent problems with automatically generated SQL queries that use constructs such as the following, where we automatically insert the value of the payment for payment: 

UPDATE account SET credit=credit-payment

Consider about what happens if payment has a negative value such as -1: 

UPDATE account SET credit=credit--1

credit--1 is a valid expression in SQL, but -- is interpreted as the start of a comment, part of the expression is discarded. The result is a statement that has a completely different meaning than intended: 

UPDATE account SET credit=credit

The statement produces no change in value at all. This illustrates that permitting comments to start with -- can have serious consequences.

Using our implementation requires a space following the -- for it to be recognized as a start-comment sequence in MySQL Server. Therefore, credit--1 is safe to use.

Another safe feature is that the mysql command-line client ignores lines that start with --.

1.8.3 How MySQL Deals with Constraints

1.8.3.1 PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE Index Constraints
1.8.3.2 FOREIGN KEY Constraints
1.8.3.3 Constraints on Invalid Data
1.8.3.4 ENUM and SET Constraints

MySQL enables you to work both with transactional tables that permit rollback and with nontransactional tables that do not. Because of this, constraint handling is a bit different in MySQL than in other DBMSs. We must handle the case when you have inserted or updated a lot of rows in a nontransactional table for which changes cannot be rolled back when an error occurs.

The basic philosophy is that MySQL Server tries to produce an error for anything that it can detect while parsing a statement to be executed, and tries to recover from any errors that occur while executing the statement. We do this in most cases, but not yet for all.

The options MySQL has when an error occurs are to stop the statement in the middle or to recover as well as possible from the problem and continue. By default, the server follows the latter course. This means, for example, that the server may coerce invalid values to the closest valid values.

Several SQL mode options are available to provide greater control over handling of bad data values and whether to continue statement execution or abort when errors occur. Using these options, you can configure MySQL Server to act in a more traditional fashion that is like other DBMSs that reject improper input. The SQL mode can be set globally at server startup to affect all clients. Individual clients can set the SQL mode at runtime, which enables each client to select the behavior most appropriate for its requirements. See Section 5.1.10, “Server SQL Modes”.

The following sections describe how MySQL Server handles different types of constraints.

1.8.3.1 PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE Index Constraints

Normally, errors occur for data-change statements (such as INSERT or UPDATE) that would violate primary-key, unique-key, or foreign-key constraints. If you are using a transactional storage engine such as InnoDB, MySQL automatically rolls back the statement. If you are using a nontransactional storage engine, MySQL stops processing the statement at the row for which the error occurred and leaves any remaining rows unprocessed.

MySQL supports an IGNORE keyword for INSERT, UPDATE, and so forth. If you use it, MySQL ignores primary-key or unique-key violations and continues processing with the next row. See the section for the statement that you are using (Section 13.2.6, “INSERT Syntax”, Section 13.2.12, “UPDATE Syntax”, and so forth).

You can get information about the number of rows actually inserted or updated with the mysql_info() C API function. You can also use the SHOW WARNINGS statement. See Section 27.7.7.36, “mysql_info()”, and Section 13.7.6.40, “SHOW WARNINGS Syntax”.

Only InnoDB tables support foreign keys. See Section 15.8.1.6, “InnoDB and FOREIGN KEY Constraints”.

1.8.3.2 FOREIGN KEY Constraints

Foreign keys let you cross-reference related data across tables, and foreign key constraints help keep this spread-out data consistent.

MySQL supports ON UPDATE and ON DELETE foreign key references in CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE statements. The available referential actions are RESTRICT (the default), CASCADE, SET NULL, and NO ACTION.

SET DEFAULT is also supported by the MySQL Server but is currently rejected as invalid by InnoDB. Since MySQL does not support deferred constraint checking, NO ACTION is treated as RESTRICT. For the exact syntax supported by MySQL for foreign keys, see Section 13.1.18.6, “Using FOREIGN KEY Constraints”.

MATCH FULL, MATCH PARTIAL, and MATCH SIMPLE are allowed, but their use should be avoided, as they cause the MySQL Server to ignore any ON DELETE or ON UPDATE clause used in the same statement. MATCH options do not have any other effect in MySQL, which in effect enforces MATCH SIMPLE semantics full-time.

MySQL requires that foreign key columns be indexed; if you create a table with a foreign key constraint but no index on a given column, an index is created.

You can obtain information about foreign keys from the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE table. An example of a query against this table is shown here: 

mysql> SELECT TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME, COLUMN_NAME, CONSTRAINT_NAME
     > FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
     > WHERE REFERENCED_TABLE_SCHEMA IS NOT NULL;
+--------------+---------------+-------------+-----------------+
| TABLE_SCHEMA | TABLE_NAME    | COLUMN_NAME | CONSTRAINT_NAME |
+--------------+---------------+-------------+-----------------+
| fk1          | myuser        | myuser_id   | f               |
| fk1          | product_order | customer_id | f2              |
| fk1          | product_order | product_id  | f1              |
+--------------+---------------+-------------+-----------------+
3 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Information about foreign keys on InnoDB tables can also be found in the INNODB_FOREIGN and INNODB_FOREIGN_COLS tables, in the INFORMATION_SCHEMA database.

Only InnoDB tables support foreign keys. See Section 15.8.1.6, “InnoDB and FOREIGN KEY Constraints”, for information specific to foreign key support in InnoDB.

1.8.3.3 Constraints on Invalid Data

By default, MySQL is forgiving of invalid or improper data values and coerces them to valid values for data entry. However, you can enable strict SQL mode to select more traditional treatment of bad values such that the server rejects them and aborts the statement in which they occur. See Section 5.1.10, “Server SQL Modes”.

This section describes the default (forgiving) behavior of MySQL, as well as the strict SQL mode and how it differs.

If you are not using strict mode, then whenever you insert an “incorrect” value into a column, such as a NULL into a NOT NULL column or a too-large numeric value into a numeric column, MySQL sets the column to the “best possible value” instead of producing an error: The following rules describe in more detail how this works:

  • If you try to store an out of range value into a numeric column, MySQL Server instead stores zero, the smallest possible value, or the largest possible value, whichever is closest to the invalid value.

  • For strings, MySQL stores either the empty string or as much of the string as can be stored in the column.

  • If you try to store a string that does not start with a number into a numeric column, MySQL Server stores 0.

  • Invalid values for ENUM and SET columns are handled as described in Section 1.8.3.4, “ENUM and SET Constraints”.

  • MySQL permits you to store certain incorrect date values into DATE and DATETIME columns (such as '2000-02-31' or '2000-02-00'). In this case, when an application has not enabled strict SQL mode, it up to the application to validate the dates before storing them. If MySQL can store a date value and retrieve exactly the same value, MySQL stores it as given. If the date is totally wrong (outside the server's ability to store it), the special “zero” date value '0000-00-00' is stored in the column instead.

  • If you try to store NULL into a column that doesn't take NULL values, an error occurs for single-row INSERT statements. For multiple-row INSERT statements or for INSERT INTO ... SELECT statements, MySQL Server stores the implicit default value for the column data type. In general, this is 0 for numeric types, the empty string ('') for string types, and the “zero” value for date and time types. Implicit default values are discussed in Section 11.7, “Data Type Default Values”.

  • If an INSERT statement specifies no value for a column, MySQL inserts its default value if the column definition includes an explicit DEFAULT clause. If the definition has no such DEFAULT clause, MySQL inserts the implicit default value for the column data type.

The reason for using the preceding rules in nonstrict mode is that we can't check these conditions until the statement has begun executing. We can't just roll back if we encounter a problem after updating a few rows, because the storage engine may not support rollback. The option of terminating the statement is not that good; in this case, the update would be “half done,” which is probably the worst possible scenario. In this case, it is better to “do the best you can” and then continue as if nothing happened.

You can select stricter treatment of input values by using the STRICT_TRANS_TABLES or STRICT_ALL_TABLES SQL modes: 

SET sql_mode = 'STRICT_TRANS_TABLES';
SET sql_mode = 'STRICT_ALL_TABLES';

STRICT_TRANS_TABLES enables strict mode for transactional storage engines, and also to some extent for nontransactional engines. It works like this:

  • For transactional storage engines, bad data values occurring anywhere in a statement cause the statement to abort and roll back.

  • For nontransactional storage engines, a statement aborts if the error occurs in the first row to be inserted or updated. (When the error occurs in the first row, the statement can be aborted to leave the table unchanged, just as for a transactional table.) Errors in rows after the first do not abort the statement, because the table has already been changed by the first row. Instead, bad data values are adjusted and result in warnings rather than errors. In other words, with STRICT_TRANS_TABLES, a wrong value causes MySQL to roll back all updates done so far, if that can be done without changing the table. But once the table has been changed, further errors result in adjustments and warnings.

For even stricter checking, enable STRICT_ALL_TABLES. This is the same as STRICT_TRANS_TABLES except that for nontransactional storage engines, errors abort the statement even for bad data in rows following the first row. This means that if an error occurs partway through a multiple-row insert or update for a nontransactional table, a partial update results. Earlier rows are inserted or updated, but those from the point of the error on are not. To avoid this for nontransactional tables, either use single-row statements or else use STRICT_TRANS_TABLES if conversion warnings rather than errors are acceptable. To avoid problems in the first place, do not use MySQL to check column content. It is safest (and often faster) to let the application ensure that it passes only valid values to the database.

With either of the strict mode options, you can cause errors to be treated as warnings by using INSERT IGNORE or UPDATE IGNORE rather than INSERT or UPDATE without IGNORE.

1.8.3.4 ENUM and SET Constraints

ENUM and SET columns provide an efficient way to define columns that can contain only a given set of values. See Section 11.4.4, “The ENUM Type”, and Section 11.4.5, “The SET Type”.

With strict mode enabled (see Section 5.1.10, “Server SQL Modes”), the definition of a ENUM or SET column acts as a constraint on values entered into the column. An error occurs for values that do not satisfy these conditions:

  • An ENUM value must be one of those listed in the column definition, or the internal numeric equivalent thereof. The value cannot be the error value (that is, 0 or the empty string). For a column defined as ENUM('a','b','c'), values such as '', 'd', or 'ax' are invalid and are rejected.

  • A SET value must be the empty string or a value consisting only of the values listed in the column definition separated by commas. For a column defined as SET('a','b','c'), values such as 'd' or 'a,b,c,d' are invalid and are rejected.

Errors for invalid values can be suppressed in strict mode if you use INSERT IGNORE or UPDATE IGNORE. In this case, a warning is generated rather than an error. For ENUM, the value is inserted as the error member (0). For SET, the value is inserted as given except that any invalid substrings are deleted. For example, 'a,x,b,y' results in a value of 'a,b'.

1.9 Credits

1.9.1 Contributors to MySQL
1.9.2 Documenters and translators
1.9.3 Packages that support MySQL
1.9.4 Tools that were used to create MySQL
1.9.5 Supporters of MySQL

The following sections list developers, contributors, and supporters that have helped to make MySQL what it is today.

1.9.1 Contributors to MySQL

Although Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates own all copyrights in the MySQL server and the MySQL manual, we wish to recognize those who have made contributions of one kind or another to the MySQL distribution. Contributors are listed here, in somewhat random order:

  • Gianmassimo Vigazzola or

    The initial port to Win32/NT.

  • Per Eric Olsson

    For constructive criticism and real testing of the dynamic record format.

  • Irena Pancirov

    Win32 port with Borland compiler. mysqlshutdown.exe and mysqlwatch.exe.

  • David J. Hughes

    For the effort to make a shareware SQL database. At TcX, the predecessor of MySQL AB, we started with mSQL, but found that it couldn't satisfy our purposes so instead we wrote an SQL interface to our application builder Unireg. mysqladmin and mysql client are programs that were largely influenced by their mSQL counterparts. We have put a lot of effort into making the MySQL syntax a superset of mSQL. Many of the API's ideas are borrowed from mSQL to make it easy to port free mSQL programs to the MySQL API. The MySQL software doesn't contain any code from mSQL. Two files in the distribution (client/insert_test.c and client/select_test.c) are based on the corresponding (noncopyrighted) files in the mSQL distribution, but are modified as examples showing the changes necessary to convert code from mSQL to MySQL Server. (mSQL is copyrighted David J. Hughes.)

  • Patrick Lynch

    For helping us acquire http://www.mysql.com/.

  • Fred Lindberg

    For setting up qmail to handle the MySQL mailing list and for the incredible help we got in managing the MySQL mailing lists.

  • Igor Romanenko

    mysqldump (previously msqldump, but ported and enhanced by Monty).

  • Yuri Dario

    For keeping up and extending the MySQL OS/2 port.

  • Tim Bunce

    Author of mysqlhotcopy.

  • Zarko Mocnik

    Sorting for Slovenian language.

  • "TAMITO"

    The _MB character set macros and the ujis and sjis character sets.

  • Joshua Chamas

    Base for concurrent insert, extended date syntax, debugging on NT, and answering on the MySQL mailing list.

  • Yves Carlier

    mysqlaccess, a program to show the access rights for a user.

  • Rhys Jones (And GWE Technologies Limited)

    For one of the early JDBC drivers.

  • Dr Xiaokun Kelvin ZHU

    Further development of one of the early JDBC drivers and other MySQL-related Java tools.

  • James Cooper

    For setting up a searchable mailing list archive at his site.

  • Rick Mehalick

    For xmysql, a graphical X client for MySQL Server.

  • Doug Sisk

    For providing RPM packages of MySQL for Red Hat Linux.

  • Diemand Alexander V.

    For providing RPM packages of MySQL for Red Hat Linux-Alpha.

  • Antoni Pamies Olive

    For providing RPM versions of a lot of MySQL clients for Intel and SPARC.

  • Jay Bloodworth

    For providing RPM versions for MySQL 3.21.

  • David Sacerdote

    Ideas for secure checking of DNS host names.

  • Wei-Jou Chen

    Some support for Chinese(BIG5) characters.

  • Wei He

    A lot of functionality for the Chinese(GBK) character set.

  • Jan Pazdziora

    Czech sorting order.

  • Zeev Suraski

    FROM_UNIXTIME() time formatting, ENCRYPT() functions, and bison advisor. Active mailing list member.

  • Luuk de Boer

    Ported (and extended) the benchmark suite to DBI/DBD. Have been of great help with crash-me and running benchmarks. Some new date functions. The mysql_setpermission script.

  • Alexis Mikhailov

    User-defined functions (UDFs); CREATE FUNCTION and DROP FUNCTION.

  • Andreas F. Bobak

    The AGGREGATE extension to user-defined functions.

  • Ross Wakelin

    Help to set up InstallShield for MySQL-Win32.

  • Jethro Wright III

    The libmysql.dll library.

  • James Pereria

    Mysqlmanager, a Win32 GUI tool for administering MySQL Servers.

  • Curt Sampson

    Porting of MIT-pthreads to NetBSD/Alpha and NetBSD 1.3/i386.

  • Martin Ramsch

    Examples in the MySQL Tutorial.

  • Steve Harvey

    For making mysqlaccess more secure.

  • Konark IA-64 Centre of Persistent Systems Private Limited

    Help with the Win64 port of the MySQL server.

  • Albert Chin-A-Young.

    Configure updates for Tru64, large file support and better TCP wrappers support.

  • John Birrell

    Emulation of pthread_mutex() for OS/2.

  • Benjamin Pflugmann

    Extended MERGE tables to handle INSERTS. Active member on the MySQL mailing lists.

  • Jocelyn Fournier

    Excellent spotting and reporting innumerable bugs (especially in the MySQL 4.1 subquery code).

  • Marc Liyanage

    Maintaining the OS X packages and providing invaluable feedback on how to create OS X packages.

  • Robert Rutherford

    Providing invaluable information and feedback about the QNX port.

  • Previous developers of NDB Cluster

    Lots of people were involved in various ways summer students, master thesis students, employees. In total more than 100 people so too many to mention here. Notable name is Ataullah Dabaghi who up until 1999 contributed around a third of the code base. A special thanks also to developers of the AXE system which provided much of the architectural foundations for NDB Cluster with blocks, signals and crash tracing functionality. Also credit should be given to those who believed in the ideas enough to allocate of their budgets for its development from 1992 to present time.

  • Google Inc.

    We wish to recognize Google Inc. for contributions to the MySQL distribution: Mark Callaghan's SMP Performance patches and other patches.

Other contributors, bugfinders, and testers: James H. Thompson, Maurizio Menghini, Wojciech Tryc, Luca Berra, Zarko Mocnik, Wim Bonis, Elmar Haneke, , , , Ted Deppner , Mike Simons, Jaakko Hyvatti.

And lots of bug report/patches from the folks on the mailing list.

A big tribute goes to those that help us answer questions on the MySQL mailing lists:

1.9.2 Documenters and translators

The following people have helped us with writing the MySQL documentation and translating the documentation or error messages in MySQL.

  • Paul DuBois

    Ongoing help with making this manual correct and understandable. That includes rewriting Monty's and David's attempts at English into English as other people know it.

  • Kim Aldale

    Helped to rewrite Monty's and David's early attempts at English into English.

  • Michael J. Miller Jr.

    For the first MySQL manual. And a lot of spelling/language fixes for the FAQ (that turned into the MySQL manual a long time ago).

  • Yan Cailin

    First translator of the MySQL Reference Manual into simplified Chinese in early 2000 on which the Big5 and HK coded versions were based.

  • Jay Flaherty

    Big parts of the Perl DBI/DBD section in the manual.

  • Paul Southworth , Ray Loyzaga

    Proof-reading of the Reference Manual.

  • Therrien Gilbert , Jean-Marc Pouyot

    French error messages.

  • Petr Snajdr,

    Czech error messages.

  • Jaroslaw Lewandowski

    Polish error messages.

  • Miguel Angel Fernandez Roiz

    Spanish error messages.

  • Roy-Magne Mo

    Norwegian error messages and testing of MySQL 3.21.xx.

  • Timur I. Bakeyev

    Russian error messages.

  • & Filippo Grassilli

    Italian error messages.

  • Dirk Munzinger

    German error messages.

  • Billik Stefan

    Slovak error messages.

  • Stefan Saroiu

    Romanian error messages.

  • Peter Feher

    Hungarian error messages.

  • Roberto M. Serqueira

    Portuguese error messages.

  • Carsten H. Pedersen

    Danish error messages.

  • Arjen Lentz

    Dutch error messages, completing earlier partial translation (also work on consistency and spelling).

1.9.3 Packages that support MySQL

The following is a list of creators/maintainers of some of the most important API/packages/applications that a lot of people use with MySQL.

We cannot list every possible package here because the list would then be way to hard to maintain. For other packages, please refer to the software portal at http://solutions.mysql.com/software/.

  • Tim Bunce, Alligator Descartes

    For the DBD (Perl) interface.

  • Andreas Koenig

    For the Perl interface for MySQL Server.

  • Jochen Wiedmann

    For maintaining the Perl DBD::mysql module.

  • Eugene Chan

    For porting PHP for MySQL Server.

  • Georg Richter

    MySQL 4.1 testing and bug hunting. New PHP 5.0 mysqli extension (API) for use with MySQL 4.1 and up.

  • Giovanni Maruzzelli

    For porting iODBC (Unix ODBC).

  • Xavier Leroy

    The author of LinuxThreads (used by the MySQL Server on Linux).

1.9.4 Tools that were used to create MySQL

The following is a list of some of the tools we have used to create MySQL. We use this to express our thanks to those that has created them as without these we could not have made MySQL what it is today.

  • Free Software Foundation

    From whom we got an excellent compiler (gcc), an excellent debugger (gdb and the libc library (from which we have borrowed strto.c to get some code working in Linux).

  • Free Software Foundation & The XEmacs development team

    For a really great editor/environment.

  • Julian Seward

    Author of valgrind, an excellent memory checker tool that has helped us find a lot of otherwise hard to find bugs in MySQL.

  • Dorothea Lütkehaus and Andreas Zeller

    For DDD (The Data Display Debugger) which is an excellent graphical front end to gdb).

1.9.5 Supporters of MySQL

Although Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates own all copyrights in the MySQL server and the MySQL manual, we wish to recognize the following companies, which helped us finance the development of the MySQL server, such as by paying us for developing a new feature or giving us hardware for development of the MySQL server.

  • VA Linux / Andover.net

    Funded replication.

  • NuSphere

    Editing of the MySQL manual.

  • Stork Design studio

    The MySQL website in use between 1998-2000.

  • Intel

    Contributed to development on Windows and Linux platforms.

  • Compaq

    Contributed to Development on Linux/Alpha.

  • SWSoft

    Development on the embedded mysqld version.

  • FutureQuest

    The --skip-show-database option.

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