A couple of questions re:Mysql, MariaDB

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jan 28, 2019, at 06:21, S. L. Garwood wrote:

> Do the MacPorts maintainers have a recommendation whether to imbed MySQL or MariaDB in an application? I am porting a medium size SQL lookup application for SOHO use on a Mac Mini and am free to choose (as long as the API stays compatible). It appears that at this time (Jan 2019) that the MariaDB port is behind a bit. (MariaDB is 10.2 vs current 10.3 from MariaDB site and MySQL is 5.7.17 vs 8+ from Oracle.
> I like MariaDB and its open source philosophy - not so sure about committing to an Oracle product (MySQL). I also have had some crashes while testing using MySQL on Mojave that appear to be of the ‘branch to nowhere’ type (this is using MySQL 5.7.17. Are there any plans by the maintainer to move to 5.7.25)?
> 
> I don’t need a flame war over the relative merits of each. 
> I’ve used them both and know the pluses and minuses. Just looking for input since this is the one time I can freely pick one. After this it will be too expensive to move. 
> What are the feelings of the maintainers regarding the long term feasibility of MySQL vis-a-vis MacPorts?

MySQL was sold to Sun in 2008, but then Sun was sold to Oracle in 2009. This displeased the original developer of MySQL, who then forked it to make MariaDB. If Oracle's involvement concerns you, following the original developer over to MariaDB makes sense. That's probably what I would do if I were using one of these products today. 

But I'm not, and I haven't followed their development. I'm not informed about the ways MariaDB and MySQL have diverged over the years. But it sounds like you are. In that case, if one or the other has a feature you need, go with that. 

You may know that there is another MySQL fork called Percona, and we have a port for that as well. 

From the MacPorts side, it makes no difference. The MySQL/MariaDB/Percona ports are set up in similar ways and the recent versions should hopefully all work on recent versions of macOS. 

Unfortunately as you've noticed the ports are out of date, and the maintainer has not been seen in awhile; therefore we are planning to remove him as maintainer. There are open tickets for these issues. We probably need someone new to volunteer to update and maintain these ports.