MariaDB 10.9 is a preview release of the popular open source database server and is considered alpha level code (pronounced: Not for production). It offers a glimpse of the evolution of the product and introduces some new features, at least for MariaDB. Since I took a peek at the MySQL 8.0.28 release notes recently, it is time to see what MariaDB announced (https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mdb-1090-rn/) for their next release. My own comments are in italics and do not reflect anyone else’s opinion.
The 10.9 server is offered in a few varieties, ala the old MySQL Labs releases where you can try some of the new features. This allows them to independently develop the new features without having to integrate them too. This iteration has four choices.
You have a few choices for testing new MariaDB features to choose from for this alpha version of the database.
The TL;DR
The TL;DR synopsis is that there is a lot of work being done on MariaDB and this is a first glimpse of what will become 10.9 and as such you probably will want to wait to download and evaluate unless one of the highlights below catches your fancy. There is nothing here that seems revolutionary but it is the first step of an evolutionary process for the MariaDB 10.9 server.
The New Stuff
JSON_OVERLAPS() is a new function that returns true if there is any commonality between two JSON documents. And JSON_PATH() gets both range notation and negative indexes. This will be interesting to contrast the long-existing MySQL versions.
SHOW EXPLAIN adds a JSON formatted output and EXPLAIN FOR CONNECTION gains syntax support for SHOW EXPLAIN.
Write to the redo log can be written asynchronously. Might want to test his under simulated duress just in case as the redo log looks like a good thing to keep synchronous. But this may work ‘well enough’ in most cases.
Better GTID filtering for uses of mysqlbinlog by adding the –do-domain-ids, –ignore-domain-ids, and –ignore-server-ids options. This should be handy for point-in-time recovery.
Local temporary tables now appear in information_schema.tables.table_type.
The merger of the old to old_mode sql variable. Hopefully, there will be no realy_old_mode in the future.
There is a Vault Key Management Plugin for Hashicorp’s vault.
There is now a JSON file interface to wsrep node state / SST progress logging. Apparently, Codership is adding a new feature to Galera cluster nodes to allow access to some wsrep status variables from a dedicated JSON file, that then can be read by an external monitoring tool. Or a human for that matter. I probably will not want to be that human.
The innodb_log_file_size to be changed dynamically. Handy and long desired.
Please send comments and questions to the author.
