If this can be of any interest, the following is the list of new variables included in MySQL™ v.6.0.6-alpha. Maria-variables already included in prev. binary versions (like 5.1.23-maria) are not count here.

1. falcon_checksums: (default ON) to calculate and verify page checksums.
2. falcon_serial_log_file_size: not documented.
3. falcon_use_sectorcache:  not documented.
4. falcon_use_supernodes: not documented.
5. maria_force_start_after_recovery_failures: Number of consecutive log recovery failures after which logs will be automatically deleted to cure the problem; 0 (the default) disables the feature.
6. maria_recover: Specifies how corrupted tables should be automatically repaired.

No new status variables have been included. …

Have you heard of Drizzle? It was announced at OSCON yesterday and is all over the blogosphere. From the Drizzle FAQ:

* So what are the differences between is and MySQL?

No modes, views, triggers, prepared statements, stored procedures, query cache, data conversion inserts, ACL. Fewer data types. Less engines, less code. Assume the primary engine is transactional.

Also from the FAQ is that, right now at least, there is no intention to make this run natively on windows and they make the point:

* "This is not a SQL compliant relational..."

Very true, and we do not aim to be that.

It is a fork of MySQL that takes it backward to pre-5.0 in features but hopefully greatly reduces the bugs and instabilities. I plan to look at it but I don't see …

On Windows® - but I guess it’s the same on another O.S. that does not support cluster - I noticed the following behavior when trying to execute a CREATE LOGFILE GROUP syntax like this:

CREATE
 LOGFILE GROUP `test`
 ADD UNDOFILE ‘test’
 INITIAL_SIZE = 33M
 UNDO_BUFFER_SIZE = 8M
 ENGINE = NDBCLUSTER;

In v.5.1.25-rc, v.5.1.24-rc and v.5.1.23-rc, only SQL warnings are shown:

mysql> CREATE
    ->  LOGFILE GROUP `test`
    ->  ADD UNDOFILE ‘test’
    ->  INITIAL_SIZE = 33M
    ->  UNDO_BUFFER_SIZE = 8M
    ->  ENGINE = NDBCLUSTER;
Query OK, 0 rows affected, 2 warnings (0.01 sec)

mysql> SHOW WARNINGS;
…

Today Robin Schumacher, MySQL's Director of Product Management, announced that the mysql Falcon storage engine has moved into a beta release stage. Falcon, a new transactional storage engine introduced in mysql 6 (aka 5.2), has been in alpha for years. Other popular storage engines include MyISAM, InnoDB, which Falcon is supposed to challenge (successfully? :-/), and the upcoming Maria.

Falcon …

If you are not familiar with tablespaces you may be wondering what the big deal about them is. Tablespaces are a logical addition to a database that helps maintenance, and potentially, can improve performance.

In Oracle and MySQL, a tablespace is a logical unit meant to store segments (i.e. tables and indexes). In Postgres, a tablespace is a physical unit. It is a symbolic link to a directory. Postgres does not allow tablespaces on operating systems that do not support symbolic links (such as windows).

The data file is the actual physical storage mechanism in Oracle and MySQL. Postgres stores tables in individual files. Postgres support of tablespaces is minimal. In MySQL and Oracle, performance can be improved by a more granular spread of data across disks. Ease of maintenance is maintained due to the logical grouping of tablespaces.

Oracle syntax for creating a tablespace is much the same as MySQL …

I just downloaded Falcon and was running some tests. I was getting an error:

C:\MySQL\bin>mysqladmin version status proc 
mysqladmin: connect to server at 'localhost' failed
error: 'Access denied for user 'ODBC'@'localhost' 
                             (using password: NO)'

To fix this error, just add a -u parameter, i.e.:

C:\MySQL\bin>mysqladmin version status proc -u root
mysqladmin  Ver 8.42 Distrib 6.0.2-alpha, for Win32 on ia32
Copyright (C) 2000-2006 MySQL AB
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free 
software, and you are welcome to modify and redistribute it 
under the GPL license

Server version          6.0.2-alpha-community-nt-debug
Protocol version        10
Connection              localhost via TCP/IP
TCP port                3306
Uptime:                 27 min 43 sec

Threads: 1  Questions: 4  Slow queries: 0  Opens: 15  Flush tables: 1  
Open tables: 8  Queries …