Re: DBD::MariaDB or DBD::Mysql

Hi, that's a good question and I agree that it's confusing and not answered simply by quoting a blurb from the MariaDB website. The following is how I understand it as a 22-year user of Perl/MySQL for database development.

MySQL began as an open-source RDBMS. Its holding company was sold to Sun Microsystems and then absorbed into Oracle, which comntinues to maintain and release a "community" open source version. DBD::mysql or a predecessor has been the open-source Perl DBI driver for MySQL since the early 1990s; in its current form since 1995.

MariaDB was started as an open-source replacement for the now-commercially owned MySQL. Since its introduction many hard-working developers have tried to ensure that the two are as near-compatible as possible. DBD::mysql has been patched often to keep it compatible with the MariaDB client libraries as well as those for MySQL.

In summer 2018 Pali forked DBD::mysql because it had accumulated a list of unresolved bugs and support requests. In July 2018 version 1.00 was released. Pali has also continued to contribute to DBD::mysql.

Since that time, the MariaDB website has garnered the statement quoted by LanX above, and the doc for DBD::MariaDB boldy says: "DBD::MariaDB is the Perl5 Database Interface driver for MariaDB and MySQL databases" (emphasis mine). And while that doc in the Author section does acknowledge the long history of DBD::mysql development, it gives the impression that the fork was on an abandoned module and that DBD::MariaDB is now the only DBI solution for MySQL.

This is patently not true. DBD::mysql continues in active development with regular releases. And in fact the MySQL website states: "The DBD::mysql module. This is the DataBase Driver (DBD) module for Perl" (emphasis mine).

That hubristic "spin" is what has caused me personally to skip the fork for now. It may be a great way to access MySQL databases; it may even be more up-to-date in regards to edge use cases that I never encounter. But it's certainly not the only DBI accessor. (I'm also concerned about gradual drift towards MySQL-incompatibility since such support is obviously a poor stepsister to MariaDB).

So yeah, it's confusing. As of today you can use either. I use DBD::mysql and plan to continue doing so.

Hope this helps!

The way forward always starts with a minimal test.

Comment on Re: DBD::MariaDB or DBD::Mysql Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: DBD::MariaDB or DBD::Mysql by LanX (Saint) on Oct 14, 2018 at 13:51 UTC
> DBD::mysql is the Perl5 Database Interface driver for the MySQL database. In other words: DBD::mysql is an interface between the Perl programming language and the MySQL programming API that comes with the MySQL relational database management system (emphasis mine). seems like the author forked the documentation too. > it gives the impression that the fork was on an abandoned module Where exactly? All I found is: > In 2018 unreleased version 4.042_01 of DBD::mysql was forked and DBD::MariaDB was created to fix long standing Unicode bugs and MariaDB support. Currently it is developed in GoodData and maintained by Pali (pali@cpan.org). Looks like a company's fork to fix particular needs, much like with Cpanel and JSON. Compare Cpanel::JSON::XS Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice}	[reply]
Re^2: DBD::MariaDB or DBD::Mysql by Anonymous Monk on Oct 14, 2018 at 18:54 UTC
I wouldn't take the documentation so personally, especially since the particular parts you quoted are just copies of the DBD::mysql documentation. I would suggest getting more familiar with the history of the need for the fork, which I can summarize as: Many people over the years report the Unicode bug, the maintainers do nothing, Pali contributes a fix to the Unicode bug, it breaks existing code and is reverted along with a large amount of other important fixes, the maintainers continue to do nothing, Pali and GoodData fork the module, the maintainers start reapplying fixes to DBD::mysql that were previously reverted. Also, the name choice is unfortunate and I disagreed with it at the time but neither DBD::mysql nor DBD::MariaDB have shown any intention of only supporting one or the other so far.	[reply]
Re^3: DBD::MariaDB or DBD::Mysql by Anonymous Monk on Oct 14, 2018 at 19:03 UTC
And feel free to look up the relevant mailing list threads yourself if you think my viewpoint is too biased, but please take note of the dates of posts and commits on the repo while bugs and broken behavior persisted.	[reply]
Re^2: DBD::MariaDB or DBD::Mysql by afoken (Chancellor) on Oct 16, 2018 at 20:50 UTC
In summer 2018 Pali forked DBD::mysql because it had accumulated a list of unresolved bugs and support requests. In July 2018 version 1.00 was released. Pali has also continued to contribute to DBD::mysql. Some more history: Fork DBD::mysql by pali, 2017-Aug-28 DBD::mysql path forward by Patrick M. Galbraith, 2017-Sep-12 New DBI driver DBD::MariaDB by pali, 2018-Jan-23 DBD::MariaDB 1.00 released on CPAN by pali, 2018-Jul-12 Alexander -- Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)	[reply]


Do you know where your variables are?
	PerlMonks