1 General Information about MySQL

This is the MySQL reference manual; it documents MySQL version 3.23.5-alpha.

MySQL is a very fast, multi-threaded, multi-user and robust SQL (Structured Query Language) database server.

For Unix and OS/2 platforms, MySQL is basically free; for Microsoft platforms you must get a MySQL license after a trial time of 30 days. 3 MySQL licensing and support.

The MySQL home page provides the latest information about MySQL.

For a discussion of MySQL's capabilities, see 1.4 The main features of MySQL.

For installation instructions, see 4 Installing MySQL. For tips on porting MySQL to new machines or operating systems, see G Comments on porting to other systems.

For information about upgrading from a 3.21 release, see 4.16.2 Upgrading from a 3.21 version to 3.22.

For a tutorial introduction to MySQL, see 8 MySQL Tutorial.

For examples of SQL and benchmarking information, see the benchmarking directory. For source distributions, this is the `bench' directory. For binary distributions, this is the `sql-bench' directory.

For a history of new features and bug fixes, see D MySQL change history.

For a list of currently known bugs and misfeatures, see E Known errors and design deficiencies in MySQL.

For future plans, see F List of things we want to add to MySQL in the future (The TODO).

For a list of all the contributors to this product, see C Contributors to MySQL.

IMPORTANT:

Send bug (error) reports, questions and comments to the mailing list at

For source distributions, the mysqlbug script can be found in the `scripts' directory. For binary distributions, mysqlbug can be found in the `bin' directory.

If you have any suggestions concerning additions or corrections to this manual, please send them to the MySQL mailing list (mysql@lists.mysql.com) with the following subject line: documentation suggestion: [Insert Topic Here]. 2.1 The MySQL mailing lists.