Community Archives - Page 7 of 37

Why MariaDB is both its own database — and the natural continuation of MySQL

Because MariaDB is at the same time a completely independent database and a fundamentally compatible extension of MySQL, the MySQL user base is not dependent upon Oracle nor upon new forks of MySQL for their future. For pragmatical reasons – and those have always carried weight in the MySQL universe – MariaDB is part of the MySQL ecosystem.

Applications, teams, skills, investments, and use cases — all of it remains viable within the MariaDB part of the MySQL ecosystem.

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Continue reading “Is MariaDB part of the MySQL ecosystem?”

Inspired by my VERY long presentation on the topic at FOSDEM26 I thought I’d say a couple of words on how the contribution process works.

Contributing changes to MariaDB server is easy because it follows industry best practices: it’s using “normal” GitHub pull requests. Note that I’m working for the MariaDB Foundation. As such, “normal” for me is doing everything in the open, for everybody to see and participate. And all of the communication around the contribution (including the code review) is happening in that same pull request and is public. Until the intended end of the process: merging the pull request into the repository.

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Continue reading “The MariaDB contribution process: a step by step guide.”

Couple of weeks ago we’ve announced a poll for the Top external contribution of 2025. Thank you all that voted for the time you took to do so.

The vote was organized in two categories:

Organizations
Individuals

We are extremely happy to share that the winner of 2025 Top Contributor to MariaDB award.

In this section the Winner is:

MDEV-36737 Research and Estimation for Adapting VIDEX to MariaDB!

Congratulations to ByteDance and Haibo Yang (YoungHypo) and Rong Kang (kr11)!

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Continue reading “And The Winners Of The Inaugural Top External Contributor To MariaDB Award are …”

I have recently completed a large project to implement a new improved binlog format for MariaDB. The result will be available shortly in the upcoming MariaDB 12.3.1 release.

In this article, I will give a short overview of the new binlog implementation. For more details, check the documentation which is in the source tree as the file Docs/replication/binlog.md, or here: https://github.com/MariaDB/server/blob/knielsen_binlog_in_engine/Docs/replication/binlog.md

EDIT: Also see Mark Callaghan’s benchmark of the new feature.

Using the new binlog

To enable the new binlog, configure the MariaDB server with binlog_storage_engine=innodb.

Additionally, the binlog must itself be enabled as usual using the option log_bin.

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Continue reading “New binlog implementation in MariaDB 12.3”

When choosing a database, many times you want to play and see what it can do to see if it’s relevant. Containers are easy, but a web page is even easier. DB Fiddle (https://www.db-fiddle.com/) has added MariaDB to its collection of databases that can be tested.

Screenshot of DB Fiddle showing an SQL example of dogs and cats

One of DB Fiddle’s strengths is its Text to DDL function, that can take a text format of a table, and create a database structure from it. I took the following paragraph of a table in markdown.

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Continue reading “DB Fiddle – SQL Database Playground – now has MariaDB”

Benchmark results only have meaning when the workload, hardware, and methodology are clearly defined and reproducible. When those elements are unclear or incomplete, the conclusions can easily mislead readers into assuming the results represent something they do not.

That is the core issue with the recent Percona post comparing MySQL, Percona Server, and MariaDB.

This is not about disputing Percona’s numbers. Their results may be valid for their environment.

The problem is that the post presents the results in a way that implies a valid OLTP vendor comparison, while the underlying methodology and hardware make such a comparison impossible to support.

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Continue reading “Why sysbench‑tpcc results on outdated hardware should not be presented as a valid OLTP vendor comparison”

At the MariaDB Foundation, clarity of purpose matters. In an ecosystem as foundational as open-source databases, confidence is built not through slogans, but through predictability, restraint, and long-term commitment.

As I reflect upon what we learned in 2025 and how we can serve the database community in 2026, one thought stands out: MariaDB is the natural successor to MySQL, as Oracle loses its interest in the development of what has been the default Open Source Relational DBMS.

The MariaDB Foundation recognises its responsibility. As uncertainty around MySQL’s long-term direction continues to grow, the global community of users, operators, and vendors quite reasonably seeks continuity.

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Continue reading “Making MariaDB the Natural Successor to MySQL”

It’s the time of the year to look back and reflect. In line with the holiday spirit, we’d like to highlight some of the MariaDB Server contributions from 2025 that the team found particularly inspiring and interesting, and to say thank you to everyone who submitted them.

At the end of the post, we invite the community to help us recognise the most impactful external contributions of the year.