Learning Mysql

to other associated software—for example, the version of PHP that the application uses;
you must think carefully about the implications of an upgrade before diving in.
Before deciding to upgrade, read the release notes for the new version in particular,
note any changes marked as an incompatible change You can find a complete set of release notes under the “MySQL Change History section of the MySQL manual (http:
//dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/news.html). For example, you may find that support for something that you need is no longer available in the new version, or that you need to carryout certain steps before you start the new server with your existing data. You should also read the Upgrading MySQL” section of the MySQL manual (http://dev
.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/upgrade.html). Note that these links point to the latest version of the manual (5.1) available at the time of writing.
In this book, we don’t describe how to changeover from a non-MySQL database server,
such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, or Oracle. The MySQL Migration
Toolkit is a graphical tool that helps you through the process of moving your data over to MySQL. You can download this program as as part of the MySQL GUI Tools Bundle from the MySQL AB downloads page at http://dev.mysql.com/downloads.
Should I Upgrade to MySQL 5.1?
At the time of writing, MySQL 5.1 is in beta testing this means that it’s available for easy use and testing, but that it’s best to avoid using it for mission-critical production sites. You can download and install MySQL 5.1 using the same procedures discussed in this chapter for the Generally Available versions. Probably the most interesting new features in MySQL 5.1 are its powerful text search capabilities, improved support for
XML data, and optimizations for applications where the server must handle very high loads with very high reliability. It’s likely that you won’t need these features fora considerable time after beginning to use MySQL, and you can complete all the examples in this book with any version of the MySQL server newer than 4.1.0 onwards.
How to Upgrade
We have seen in this chapter that different installation approaches place the MySQL
program and datafiles indifferent locations. For example, a MySQL AB RPM installs the MySQL program files and the data directory under the /usr/local/mysql directory,
while a package provided by a Linux distribution typically places the MySQL program files in the /usr/bin directory, and the datafiles in the /var/lib/mysql directory. Upgrading a MySQL server installs new versions of the program files but will not affect your datafiles.
The best way to ensure a trouble-free upgrade is to use the same approach as that used to install the original server because the installation process can upgrade the existing program files, and the new server will know whereto find your datafiles. Alternatively,

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