Libdrizzle 5.1.2 released and Libdrizzle at FOSDEM

Libdrizzle is getting better and better with every release, and to reflect this we have two announcements to make.

First of all, Libdrizzle 5.1.2 has been released.  This release has several major bug fixes and performance enhancements.  Changes are as follows:

• Non-blocking Windows connections are now more stable
• Improvements to Windows building
• Unix Socket connections are now more stable
• Memory allocation/freeing cleanups (for performance and ease of code)
• Network packet buffer now much more flexible
• Many performance improvements (the bundled drizzle_binlogs tool is now around 10x faster on my i7 laptop)
• Several other minor bug fixes

API chages:

• drizzle_query_str() has been removed, drizzle_query() with a 0 byte length parameter now does the same thing.

As always you can download the tarball and documentation from the Libdrizzle Launchpad Page.

I'm also going to be giving a talk entitled "Libdrizzle Redux, the next-gen MySQL compatible connector" on Sunday 3rd Feb in the MySQL devroom at FOSDEM.  This will be a great chance to find out more about the work we have been doing on the connector and how it can benefit you.

Libdrizzle 5.1.1 released!

A new version of the BSD licensed, MySQL compatible C client library, called Libdrizzle (5.1.1 codename Carbrooke) has been released today.

Since the last release (less than 2 weeks ago) the diff is 7725 lines long, 224KB in size.  So we have been really busy :)

There have been a few API changes in this version, especially around the prepared statement API.  We have made this API much simpler to use.  So applications will very likely need slight modifications and recompiling.

Major changes in this version:

• Windows support (using MinGW) - Big thanks to Brian Aker, he worked very hard on this
• More cleanups and improvements to the general API
• Faster, more stable non-blocking connection handling - Something else Brian has been working hard on
• Almost the entire prepared statement user API has been re-written.  It now uses get/set functions for the statement data.  It can also use column names instead of IDs to get the data
• Binary log functions now support MySQL 5.6's checksums (and is aware of the new event types)
• The glib2 dependency which was used for the drizzle_binlogs example utility has been removed
• Every branch merge to trunk for this release was tested on Jenkins!
• Many other bug fixes

You can download the source and documentation on the Launchpad downloads page.  We are aiming to have binary releases soon (although this may be around version 5.1.2).

We are still working on some awesome improvements and I intend to blog some examples soon.  Feel free to give at try, file a bug, ask a question and help us make this an even more awesome product :)

Questions about the MariaDB C Connector

I should first start this blog post with the acronym IANAL (I am not a lawyer).  Also the views in this post are mine and not my employer's (a lawyer did ask me to say that part).

Questions on the MariaDB JDBC Driver have already been raised so I wanted to do something similar for the MariaDB C Connector.  The JDBC's issues are mostly ethical whereas my C Connector questions are mostly legal.

But first a little history...  MySQL 3.23.58 was the last version to include an LGPL licensed connector for MySQL, the connector went GPL (and of course commercial) after this version.  Nowadays the connector is GPL with a FLOSS exception, that exception allows you to compile with certain other licensed software.  The main reason for this is PHP version 4 switched from a dual-licensed under the GPL to PHP licensed only.  The PHP license is incompatible with GPL and LGPL licensed in both directions, this is because clauses 3&4 of the PHP license conflicts with clause 6 of the GPL license (which is also clause 10 of the LGPLv2 license).  The FLOSS exception isn't in 3.23.58, it wasn't needed back then.

Why is this relevant?  The MariaDB C Connector is based on the LGPL 3.23 connector and is coded-up to have the current features of the MySQL connector.  Some of this is based on the PHP licensed MySQLnd connector.

Being LGPL licensed is one of the main selling points of the connector.  It means you can dynamically link the library with a commercial application.  Something you would have to buy a license for to do with the MySQL connector.

So, my questions are:

1. How can MariaDB's C Connector legally include LGPL and PHP licensed code in the same source under the LGPL umbrella?

2. There are questions around the licensing and availability of the native LGPL SDBC (OpenOffice) driver that other parts of the connector are based on.  In the comments of another blog post it was claimed it that the SDBC code was "... developed by MySQL in 2006 and 2007 and never reached GA – discontinued when Sun Microsystems acquired MySQL AB" but I haven't seen any evidence of this.  The only Sun code I can find for SDBC is 2008/2009 and LGPLv3 which can't be re-licensed as LGPLv2.  Now there is a newer MySQL SDBC driver which is Apache2 licensed.  Where can we find the code MaraDB based their work on?

3. Although not distributed in the packages there are GPL licensed test cases in the bzr source.  Can you globally call it LGPL with these in there?

I do hope answers to these can be put to rest so that customers can continue to be happy using the alternative connector.

A MySQL Christmas present - Libdrizzle 5.1.0

Brian Aker and I have been working hard in the last few weeks to give you a great Christmas present, Libdrizzle 5.1.0.  The MySQL compatible, BSD licensed C connector (so static compiling with commercial software gets the thumbs up!).

The latest changes include:

• A server-side prepared statement API
• Improved binary log API
• An example binary log remote retrieval utility using the binlog API called "drizzle_binlogs"
• A new build system, DDM4 which is used by Gearman and Memcached
• Many bugs fixes

The source and manuals can be found on the Launchpad downloads page.  Please enjoy, feel free to file bugs, questions and hack on code on our Launchpad page.  Happy holidays to all!

Libdrizzle Redux 5.0-alpha1 Released!

Over the past few months I have been spending my spare time on a new project.  A new version of libdrizzle which is much simpler to use and with many new features.  Today the first version of this MySQL compatible client is released, called Libdrizzle Redux.

Why 5.0?  Because Libdrizzle 1.0 and 2.0 have already been released, in packaging versions 3.0 and 4.0 used as API revisions.  So 5.0 is the fresh start.

Main Features

These are the main features of the library:

• A BSD licensed MySQL compatible C connector, so you can statically link it with commercial software
• A simplified API compared to Libdrizzle.  No more confusion over whether the client or library should be allocating/freeing.  There isn't a big difference to the MySQL C API for most things.
• New documentation, PDF for now web based coming soon.
• A new binlog reading API.  This can connect as a MySQL slave or mysqlbinlog client and get each event from the binary log.

Differences from Libdrizzle

Whilst based on Libdrizzle, Libdrizzle Redux has had an overhaul:

• The API is a little different from the older Libdrizzle library, for the most part it has been simplified
• The server-side API has been stripped out, this is now a client-only connector
• The new Binlog API
• Improved documentation

Still to Come

These is still a lot of work to do.  There are several features I want to get in over the next 6 months and improve the features we already have.  Some example of the improvements needed are:

• Improvements to documentation with better examples and a breakdown of the explanation of the examples and how they work
• More tests!  Testing against more platforms too
• A different build system.  I used CMake for now for RAD purposes, Brian Aker is already working on switching this out for an autotools based system.
• Server-side prepared statement support
• Several new client projects using this library

This is a fully open source project, so anyone can come along and hack on it.

Download

You can download it now from Launchpad along with the documentation.  The download page is here.

Slides for Connectors Talk

I could not find a way to upload my slides for today's talk entitled "MySQL Compatible Open Source Connectors" on the Percona Live website so the PDF can be viewed on Slideshare.  Enjoy!

Upcoming MySQL Conferences

I may not work on many MySQL related things any more but there are some MySQL ecosystem events that I am participating in.

First there is Percona Live London.  This event is on the 3rd and 4th of December at The Millennium Gloucester Conference Centre.  At this event I will be giving a talk on MySQL Compatible Open Source Connectors.  This will cover alternatives to the standard connectors and how to use them, it will be useful if you find the licensing behind the standard connectors prohibiting.  There is also a 40% off discount code you can use when registering, simply enter the promo code "Come2mytalk".

On the 2nd and 3rd of February is FOSDEM.  At this event there is a "MySQL and Friends" dev room on the Sunday.  I am on the committee overseeing the talks submitted to this room and am looking forward to some great talk submissions.  One of the great things about FOSDEM is it is completely free and no registration is required.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone related to the MySQL ecosystem at these events!