Deep dive into Clang sanitizer testing with MariaDB

MariaDB uses Clang’s memory, address, and undefined behavior sanitizers are used for identify coding flaws during the continuous development and testing process. MariaDB would like to share via an online event on how easy perform the same sanitizer checking.

The MemorySanitizer environment is particularly onerous to create. Because MariaDB use container based build and testing, we have an environment that can be re-used by anyone.

Our “Deep Dives” were once an internal skills transfer mechanism, however for the first time we’re making it available for anyone to join.

This particular deep dive will cover:

This month in MariaDB Foundation: Mar 2025

March was a busy month in the world of MariaDB!

Let’s explore the progress through the lens of the Six Goals for 2025, introduced in January. 

Board Meeting 1/2025: New Executive Chairman, new CEO

But before we dive into that, let me briefly highlight developments from the two most recent Board Meetings. In the Report from the Board blog post about the late February meeting, I already noted a key organisational change:

  • I am transitioning my role to be Executive Chairman, providing the overall leadership vision for the transformation of the Foundation and expanding the Foundation’s presence and influence in the industry. 

Tell us how to DROP USER!

Shortly, we will start coding a task, for which we would appreciate your input: How would you like to DROP USER?

Why do we ask?

DROP user (originating in MySQL in 2004) always used to just drop the account from the privilege tables, but left all existing connections active. You can argue that this was questionable in 2004, but it’s really unexpected and confusing in 2025, with MariaDB being ubiquitous as it is.

So now we’re considering changing it.

But changing a 20-year-old behavior cannot be done lightly. We want to ask
you, our users, what would you prefer DROP USER to do.

Wrapping up the MariaDB Bucharest Meetup

This past Friday was reserved for our very own cozy event in Bucharest, planned by the romanian squad of the MariaDB Foundation. With an audience ranging from students just starting out on their journey up to seniors with experience in multiple database servers and AI, lots of interesting talks took place. We were glad to meet the Head of Domains and IT Technology of our gold sponsor, IONOS.

Although not his first visit in Romania, Monty’s attendance was a welcome sight, even bringing in people from the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.

MariaDB’s AI RAG Hackathon is underway

We had the pleasure on Friday to take individual calls with everybody who submitted to the ideation phase of the MariaDB AI RAG hackathon

The ideation phase deadline passed last week, and we are happy to share that we received several promising submissions for both the innovation track and the integration track. Innovation involves applications using MariaDB Vector, like RAG, and integration being enabling MariaDB Vector in an existing framework. 

Participants range from individual contributors to even a corporate team. Some already have some experience with AI, and some are newcomers to RAG.

Always use the right UUID in MariaDB

The following post was written by Stefano Petrilli, who contributed UUIDv4 and UUIDv7 implementations to MariaDB. Thank you, Stefano!


The original version of the Universal Unique IDentifiers (UUID), which is now known as UUIDv1, made his first appearance in the 1980s. The most interesting guarantee that they provide is the generation of IDs that are always unique across space and time.

To comply with this promise, it uses a combination of three elements:

  • The node, which is a field that identifies the machine that generated the UUID.

First Steps in Contributing to MariaDB

At MariaDB Day in February in Brussels, VP Engineering Vicențiu Ciurbaru delivered an inspiring presentation titled “Launch Your Open Source Career: First Steps in Contributing to MariaDB.”

In the spirit of the recent positive stats on new contributions to MariaDB, let me recap Vicentiu’s tips for anyone looking to make their first contribution. 

Contributing to MariaDB is not only about writing code—it’s about joining a vibrant community where every contribution, big or small, drives innovation. We hope newcomers can see a tangible path to getting involved.

How to start contributing? 

Why contribute? Scratch your own itch!

Scratch you own itch, and help others while at it!

Why do people contribute to Open Source projects?

The question is as old as Open Source and its predecessor Free Software: Why do people contribute? We re-asked the oldie-but-goodie, and got results that confirm the old adage about scratching your own itch.

Fixing work or personal needs

The most popular answer? Fixing work or personal needs. It got 44 %, nearly half the votes. You simply need to get the job done, and there is an Open Source project that almost does it already.