MySQL/InnoDB-5.0.2 is released

[Heikki Tuuri]

Hi!

InnoDB is the MySQL table type that supports FOREIGN KEY constraints, 
row-level locking, Oracle-style consistent, non-locking SELECTs, multiple 
tablespaces, and a non-free online hot backup tool.

Release 5.0.2 is a snapshot of the 5.0 development branch of MySQL. 
Unfortunately, this snapshot still contains some critical bugs, like 
http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=5401, which causes MySQL to return wrong 
results if a SELECT uses two indexes at the same time.

InnoDB in MySQL-5.0.2 is almost the same as in the upcoming MySQL-4.1.8 
release. Marko's new compact InnoDB table format did not make it to 5.0.2. 
The new compact table format will be pushed to the 5.0 BitKeeper tree today, 
and it will be included in 5.0.3. The biggest downside of InnoDB when 
compared to MyISAM has been that InnoDB tables take a lot more space than 
MyISAM tables. The new compact InnoDB table format will make InnoDB tables 
substantially smaller.

You can look at the InnoDB roadmap at http://www.innodb.com/todo.php


InnoDB functionality changed from 4.1:

* If you specify the option innodb_locks_unsafe_for_binlog in my.cnf, InnoDB 
no longer in an UPDATE or a DELETE locks rows that do not get updated or 
deleted. This greatly reduces the probability of deadlocks. If you do not 
specify the option, InnoDB locks all rows that the UPDATE or DELETE scans, 
to ensure serializability.

Upgrading to 5.0.2:

* If you have created or used InnoDB tables with TIMESTAMP columns in MySQL 
versions 4.1.0-4.1.3, you have to rebuild those tables when you upgrade to 
MySQL-4.1.4 or later. The storage format in those MySQL versions for a 
TIMESTAMP column was wrong. If you upgrade from 4.0 to 4.1.4 or later, then 
no rebuild of TIMESTAMP tables is needed.

* If you have stored characters < ASCII(32) to non-latin1 non-BINARY indexed 
columns in MySQL versions <= 4.1.2, then you have to rebuild those tables 
after you upgrade to >= 4.1.3. The reason is that the sorting order of those 
characters and the space character changes for some character sets in 4.1.3. 
See the MySQL/InnoDB-4.1.3 changelog for a precise description of the cases 
where you need to rebuild the table. Also MyISAM tables have to be rebuilt 
or repaired in these cases.

* If you have used column prefix indexes on UTF-8 columns or other multibyte 
character set columns in 4.1.0 - 4.1.5, you have to rebuild the tables when 
you upgrade to 4.1.6 or later.

* If you have used accent characters (ASCII codes >= 128) in database names, 
table names, constraint names, or column names in versions < 4.1, you cannot 
upgrade to >= 4.1 directly, because 4.1 uses UTF-8 to store metadata names. 
Use RENAME TABLE to overcome this if the accent character is in the table 
name or the database name, or rebuild the table.

Best regards,

Heikki Tuuri
Innobase Oy
http://www.innodb.com