MySQL 4 or Higher

Rui Miguel Seabra rms at 1407.org
Tue Dec 30 10:45:25 UTC 2003


On Tue, 2003-12-30 at 10:19, WipeOut wrote:
> Rui Miguel Seabra wrote:
> >Other options include:
> >  a) getting the people whose projects don't use a GPL compatible
> >license to change the license into a GPL compatible one
> This would not be easy..

Disregarding this option without even trying makes it harder!

> >  b) don't build the conflicting modules (like the php mysql, module for
> >instance).
> This would be silly since probably 95% of MySQL's use is in conjunction 
> with PHP..

Oh, I think you're seriously over rating MySQL's dependence of php...
there's perl, of course, and it's dbd MySQL module suffers not from the
same maladies PHP does.

> >This would make some people sad (namely those specific module
> >maintainers), but holding on to MySQL 3.x seems to make more people sad,
> >from what I've been reading here.
>
> I am hoping the MySQL come up with a solution.. Some other projects that 
> I use are already migrating to Postgresql because of the new MySQL 
> licencing problems.. If that trend catches on MySQL will lose its hold 
> on the database market very quickly..

Why do you insist that it is a MySQL licensing problem? I suspect it is
more a problem of someone being lazy. PHP's faq says:

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

4.  PHP 5 no longer bundles MySQL client libraries, what does this mean
to me? Can I still use MySQL with PHP? I try to use MySQL and get
"function undefined" errors, what gives? 


Yes. There will always be MySQL support in PHP of one kind or another.
The only change in PHP 5 is that we are no longer bundling the client
library itself. Some reasons in no particular order: 

      * Most systems these days already have the client library
        installed. 
        
      * Given the above, having multiple versions of the library can get
        messy. For example, if you link mod_auth_mysql against one
        version and PHP against another, and then enable both in Apache,
        you get a nice fat crash. Also, the bundled library didn't
        always play well with the installed server version. The most
        obvious symptom of this being disagreement over where to find
        the mysql.socket Unix domain socket file. 
        
      * Maintenance was somewhat lax and it was falling further and
        further behind the released version. 
        
      * Future versions of the library are under the GPL and thus we
        don't have an upgrade path since we cannot bundle a GPL'ed
        library in a BSD/Apache-style licensed project. A clean break in
        PHP 5 seemed like the best option. 
        
This won't actually affect that many people. Unix users, at least the
ones who know what they are doing, tend to always build PHP against
their system's libmyqlclient library simply by doing --with-mysql=/usr
when building PHP. Windows users may enable the extension php_mysql.dll
inside php.ini. Also, copy libmySQL.dll into the appropriate
%SYSTEMROOT% directory, just like you do with every other bundled DLL
from the dll directory. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I particularly like the part:

<<Unix users, at least the ones who know what they are doing, tend to
always build PHP against their system's libmyqlclient library simply by
doing --with-mysql=/usr when building PHP.>>

Hugs, RUi

-- 
+ No matter how much you do, you never do enough -- unknown
+ Whatever you do will be insignificant,
| but it is very important that you do it -- Gandhi
+ So let's do it...?

Please AVOID sending me WORD, EXCEL or POWERPOINT attachments.
See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
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