Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Even though MariaDB binaries are recommended for more experienced users,
installing them is not especially difficult. Check the following links for the official
instructions for installing the Linux and Windows binary packages, respectively:
•
https://mariadb.com/kb/en/installing-mariadb-binary-tarballs
•
https://mariadb.com/kb/en/installing-mariadb-windows-zip-
packages
We will also go over how to install MariaDB on Mac OS X. Packages for it are not
supplied by the MariaDB developers, but by a third party.
The choice of which type of package to install is an easy one, just use whichever is
appropriate for your system. If you are on Windows, use the MSI package. If you are
on Ubuntu or Debian, use the APT packages. And if you are on Red Hat, Fedora, or
CentOS, uses the YUM packages.
The next few sections contain instructions for each type, but before we get to that we
need to talk about series. And no, it has nothing to do with baseball, but it does lend
itself to a baseball analogy.
Choosing a MariaDB series
MariaDB development proceeds along multiple development tracks called
series
.
There is a
stable series
and several
maintenance series
. Often, there is also a
development
series. This is similar to the Debian practice of having both a
stable
and
unstable
version.
The development series
The development series of MariaDB is where major new features and capabilities are
introduced. Think of this like minor league baseball where the up and coming future
stars are introduced and are polished and honed to perfection. At any given time,
the quality of the current development release could range from
Alpha
(which has
no guarantees that it will even work reliably) to
Beta
(which is feature complete but
generally needs lots of bug fixing and testing) to
Release Candidate
(which is ready
for general use except for some additional testing and minor bug fixing).
During the development cycle, there will generally be several alpha releases, where
new features are introduced, followed by a couple beta releases where the code
is refined and polished, followed by one or two RC releases where final fixes and
polishing take place. The final step for any development series is when it is declared
stable and moves into the major league stable series.
