High performance MySQL consulting

We provide quite a few different MySQL releases on the Proven Scaling Mirror. Since MySQL 5.0 is split into “Community” and “Enterprise”, navigating all of those different releases can be very confusing, making it difficult to choose which release is right for you.

There are three main branches of MySQL being produced by Sun/MySQL: Community, Enterprise MRU, and Enterprise QSP. All Community and Enterprise releases are distributed under the terms of the GPLv2 license. The changes between each release are tracked in the MySQL manual. The difference between these branches are subtle but important.

MySQL Community is a branch of MySQL that is released less frequently, but also contains contributions from developers outside of Sun/MySQL. So far the only notable feature in the Community release is SHOW PROFILE, a query-profiling feature originally developed by Proven Scaling. Unless you want the SHOW PROFILE feature, there is currently no reason to use this release instead of a newer Enterprise release.

MySQL Enterprise MRU (commonly called just MySQL Enterprise) is a “Monthly Rapid Update” that is regularly updated with bug fixes and changes that were developed by MySQL during the previous month. According to MySQL’s guidance, MRU releases should only be used when a critical fix is needed that hasn’t yet been included in a QSP release. MRU releases don’t have any special naming scheme. At the time of this post the version number of the most recent release is 5.0.66a. You can find the source or binaries of this version on the Proven Scaling mirror.

MySQL Enterprise QSP is a “Quarterly Service Pack” which is released once per quarter. This release contains all the changes in the MRU releases since the previous QSP release. QSP releases can also contain critical bug fixes from MRU releases with higher version numbers than the QSP has. For instance, 5.0.56sp1 contains fixes from 5.0.58 — this can make it somewhat more difficult to understand whether or not you’re affected by a particular bug. Other critical fixes may only be in MRU releases until the next scheduled QSP release. You can find the source or binaries of this version on the Proven Scaling mirror.

The format of the release notes pages in the manual has changed between 5.0.56sp1 and 5.0.60sp1. In version 5.0.56sp1 the release notes page contained all the changes in the previous MRU releases since the last QSP. As of 5.0.60sp1 the release notes page¹ contains only the changes back ported from the next MRU release. It can be confusing when comparing release notes between versions. Be sure to read the paragraph at the top of the release notes page to see what is actually contained within.

¹ Note that 5.0.60sp1 has no changes from 5.0.60. It was merely recompiled with a new version number and released as 5.0.60sp1.