Sun announces MySQL 5.1

Sun Microsystems has announced at the MySQL conference that it will be releasing version 5.1 of MySQL in this quarter. A release candidate is already available for downloading.

Two and half years after the release of version 5.0, the database specialists have shortened response times with the addition of new properties and simplified management. Keywords such as range, hash and key can be used to partition tables and indices, which is expected to shorten response times by reducing the amount of data that has to be sifted through. In addition, a white paper available for registered users explains that DB admins will also have more control of storage and operations.

Originally, MySQL database replication was statement based. In MySQL 5.1.5 another method called row based replication was added. Now in version 5.1.8 there is a third mixed option. This uses statement based replication by default and only switches to row based in particular cases. Furthermore, a task/event scheduler has been added to allow DBAs to automate both single and recurring tasks (similar to cron under Unix). The developers also improved the CSV engine that has been used since 5.0.

The extensions also include the option of loading components without having to reboot the server and support of XPath via the functions EXTRACTVALUE and UPDATEXML.

The server is still available in three variants. The Community Server is available under the GNU General Public License (GPL), while the Enterprise and Embedded Servers include updates, service packs, and the option of including the DB server in in-house products. Version 6.0 is also available as an Alpha Development Release.

(trk)