MySQL is a multithreaded, multi-user SQL database management system (DBMS). The basic program runs as a server providing multiuser access to a number of databases.
The MySQL database server can handle deeply embedded applications with a footprint of only 1MB to running massive data warehouses holding terabytes of information.
MySQL offers a powerful transactional database engine. Features include complete ACID (atomic, consistent, isolated, durable) transaction support, unlimited row-level locking, distributed transaction capability, and multi-version transaction support where readers never block writers and vice-versa. Full data integrity is also assured through server-enforced referential integrity, specialized transaction isolation levels, and instant deadlock detection.
MySQL is a popular database backend for web sites as it has a high-performance query engine, fast data insert capability, and strong support for specialized web functions like fast full text searches.
MySQL was awarded Application of the Year by YouTube, Amp’d Mobile and Adobe.
Key Features
- A broad subset of ANSI SQL 99, as well as extensions.
- Cross-platform support.
- Stored procedures.
- Triggers.
- Cursors.
- Updatable Views.
- True VARCHAR support.
- INFORMATION_SCHEMA.
- Strict mode.
- X/Open XA distributed transaction processing (DTP) support; two phase commit as part of this, using Oracle’s InnoDB engine.
- Independent storage engines (MyISAM for read speed, InnoDB for transactions and referential integrity, Archive for storing historical data in little space).
- Transactions with the InnoDB, BDB and Cluster storage engines; savepoints with InnoDB SSL support.
- Query caching.
- Sub-SELECTs (i.e. nested SELECTs).
- Replication with one master per slave, many slaves per master, no automatic support for multiple masters per slave.
- Full-text indexing and searching using MyISAM engine.
- Embedded database library.
- Partial Unicode support (UTF-8 sequences longer than 3 bytes are not supported; UCS-2 encoded strings are also limited to the BMP).
- ACID compliance using the InnoDB, BDB and Cluster engines.
- Shared-nothing clustering through MySQL Cluster.
- Multiple storage engines, allowing you to choose the one which is most effective for each table in the application.
- Native storage engines (MyISAM, Falcon, Merge, Memory (heap), Federated, Archive, CSV, Blackhole, Cluster, BDB, EXAMPLE).
- Partner-developed storage engines (InnoDB, solidDB, NitroEDB, BrightHouse).
- Community-developed storage engines (memcached, httpd, PBXT).
- Custom storage engines.
- Commit grouping, gather.
Website: www.mysql.com
Support: Documentation
Developer: MySQL AB
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
MySQL is written in C and C++. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Relational Databases | |
|---|---|
| MariaDB | Seeks high compatibility with MySQL, ensuring drop-in replacement capability |
| PostgreSQL | Award winning Object-relational database management system |
| MySQL | Multithreaded, multi-user SQL database management system |
| SQLite | Embeddable SQL Database Engine |
| rqlite | Distributed database built on SQLite |
| MonetDB | High performance relational database system for analytics |
| Firebird | Relational database offering many ANSI SQL features |
| H2 | Relational database management system written in Java |
| HSQLDB | JDBC interface, client-server version, query tool, grid and more |
| CUBRID | Database engine with built-in enterprise grade features |
| Virtuoso | Data Management with Web Application Server and Web Services Platform |
| Apache Derby | Full-featured relational database implemented entirely in Java |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |

