Most of us are familiar with how MySQL handles timezones, and what one must do to keep up with the latest changes, etc. Most of us use the system timezone info, which is great – one less item to update when changes occur (usually because of daylight savings changes). And for those who need more specifics, most everyone (except Windows and HP-UX) can update their timezone info using the zoneinfo database from the OS.

For those few Windows and HP-UX, you have to download the package of pre-built time zone tables that MySQL provides. Per the manual (timezone section):

“If your system is one that has no zoneinfo database (for example, Windows or HP-UX), you can use the package of pre-built time zone tables that is available for download at the MySQL Developer Zone:”

…

Caution: This is just a fun post.

I was performing some testing on Windows the other day and encountered the following error in the error log:

130313  9:40:03 [ERROR] Error writing file 'G:\mysql\log.txt' (errno: 28)

Quickly, I ran “perror 28″ from the command line:

c:\>perror 28
Win32 error code 28: The printer is out of paper.

Hehe, really, Windows?!?

In fact, the drive was out of space. No more could be written to the general log, hence the error.

Fwiw, the Linux OS code 28 reports what you would expect:

OS error code  28:  No space left on device

So, if you ever run into “The printer is out of paper” error, you’ll know what to do.

Well, as you or may not have heard, MariaDB 5.5 (5.5.23) was declared GA last week!

It was only about 6-ish weeks ago that MariaDB 5.5 had been released as alpha, so the fact it’s already GA is excellent news for all MariaDB users (and MySQL 5.5 users looking to migrate).

Some of the 5.5 enhancements include:

• Significantly more efficient thread pool, comparable in functionality to the closed source feature in MySQL Enterprise.
• Non-blocking client API Library (MWL#192)
• @@skip_replication option (MWL#234)
• SphinxSE updated to version 2.0.4.
• “extended keys” support for XtraDB and InnoDB
• New INSTALL SONAME statement
• New LIMIT ROWS EXAMINED optimization.
• mysql_real_connect() Changes
  In MySQL, and in MariaDB versions before 5.5.21, mysql_real_connect() …

I just wanted to share my steps for building MariaDB 5.3 on Windows. (Note, this is not much different than the instructions Wlad posted here).

But, things are not always so smooth, and of course I ran into a couple small issues, so I wanted to share my outputs plus those issues and their solutions (once again many thanks go to Wlad!) for those out there who might encounter the same.

Here are the steps to build:

1. Download MariaDB 5.3 and extracted to C:\mariadb-5.3

2. cd C:\mariadb-5.3

3. mkdir bld

4. cd bld

5. cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 9 2008"

6.     cmake --build . --config relwithdebinfo --target package

* …

Recently, I found myself needing MariaDB 5.1.60 for Windows for some testing purposes. Therefore, I needed to build it from source. I ended up using what I’d call a “blend” of the commands listed in this “how-to” and the readme file INSTALL-WIN-SOURCE, so I thought I’d post those steps.

1. Download 5.1.60 MariaDB source from here.

2. cd C:\mariadb-5.1

3. win\configure.js

4. cmake .

5. VS: File -> Open -> Solution -> MySql.sln
6. VS: Build -> Build Solution
7. VS: Right-click “PACKAGE” -> Build (in “Solution Explorer” View)

That’s it.

Let’s fire it up:

MariaDB> select version(); …

The other day, I posted a “how-to” article for building MySQL 5.5 on Windows from the source code tree.

In an attempt to keep the post as brief as possible, I omitted many outputs, as well as a number of common bugs/problems one could encounter, and so I just wanted to follow-up with some of that in this “appendix” of sorts.

This way, folks who run into any issues might find solutions to those problems here.

I’ll start with the outputs first, followed by the common problems.

Outputs (When works as expected):

..

Output from Obtaining Source Code:

C:\Users\Chris>cd C:\

C:\>bzr init-repo --trees mysql-5.5
Shared repository with trees (format: 2a)
Location:
  shared repository: mysql-5.5

C:\>cd mysql-5.5

C:\mysql-5.5>bzr branch lp:mysql-server/5.5 mysql-5.5
Connected (version …

Not counting obtaining the source code, and once you have the prerequisites satisfied, [Windows] users can build from source code in 5 easy steps.

Prerequisites – Install & ensure they are in the $PATH:

1. CMake <-- Download
2. C++ compiler <-- Visual Studio 2008 Express - Free Download
3. Bison <-- Download (ensure m4.exe is also included, which it should be)

Optional (but most likely you’ll want):

1. Perl <-- For Test Suite/Scripts. Strawberry Perl is a great option.
2. Bazaar <-- If want latest …

A few months ago I wrote an article geared towards MySQL Windows users on using ActiveState Perl in order to run various MySQL scripts. It was kind of a pain to get set up properly for MySQL usage, hence requiring a write-up in the first place.

But now I’d just like to inform all Windows MySQL users that using Strawberry Perl for your Perl needs is much easier than Active State Perl.

Simply install it. That’s it. No need to worry about later locating and installing the Perl DBI and DBD:MySQL modules, as they’re automatically installed. How refreshing!

You can download Strawberry Perl from here:

http://strawberryperl.com

I downloaded the latest GA version: 5.12.3.0, double-clicked on the installer, installed it, and ran the MySQL scripts immediately.

It doesn’t get …

Not a big deal, but I just added a “Table of Contents” page to my blog to make finding older articles much easier.

I noticed most of my posts are quite lengthy, and it can take a bit of searching/clicking to find an older entry. So unless you happen to recall the ‘month/year’ it was published, which I don’t even remember that, then hopefully this will help.

Really simple, and looks just like this:

• Microseconds and MariaDB
• Dealing with Assertion failure in log/log0recv.c – !page || (ibool)!!page_is_comp(page) == dict_table_is_comp(index->table)
• MySQL Windows Users – Use Grep to Search MySQL Source Code
• …

For Windows users, if you try searching the MySQL source code for various strings, you know you will often come up empty with the built-in Windows search.

It wasn’t too long ago and I was searching the source for “MALLOC_OVERHEAD”. My Windows search came up empty, and someone suggested I try grep for Windows.

Well, I downloaded it, extracted it to the location I wanted, and added the .exe to the $PATH.

Now I can grep away!

See the new results when searching for “MALLOC_OVERHEAD”:

C:\mysql-5.5\mysql-5.5>grep -r "MALLOC_OVERHEAD" .
./client/mysql.cc:   (longlong) 2*1024L*1024L*1024L, MALLOC_OVERHEAD, 1024, 0},
./client/mysql.cc:   REQUIRED_ARG, 16384, 1024, 512*1024*1024L, MALLOC_OVERHEAD, 1024, 0},
./client/mysqldump.c:   (longlong) 2L*1024L*1024L*1024L, MALLOC_OVERHEAD, 1024, 0},
./client/mysqldump.c: …