MySQL Reference Manual for version 4.0.18.

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2.1.2.1 Choosing Which Version of MySQL to Install

The first decision to make is whether you want to use a production (stable) release or a development release. In the MySQL development process, multiple release series co-exist, each at a different stage of maturity:

We don't believe in a complete freeze, as this also leaves out bug fixes and things that "must be done." "Somewhat frozen" means that we may add small things that "almost surely will not affect anything that's already working." Naturally, relevant bugfixes from an earlier series propagate to later series.

The MySQL naming scheme uses release names that consist of three numbers and a suffix, for example, mysql-4.1.0-alpha. The numbers within the release name are is interpreted like this:

For each minor update, the last number in the version string is incremented. When there are major new features or minor incompatibilities with previous versions, the second number in the version string is incremented. When the file format changes, the first number is increased.

Release names also include a suffix to indicates the stability level of the release. Releases within a series progress through a set of suffixes to indicate how the stability level improves. The possible suffixes are:

MySQL uses a naming scheme that is slightly different from most other products. In general, it's relatively safe to use any version that has been out for a couple of weeks without being replaced with a new version within the release series.

All releases of MySQL are run through our standard tests and benchmarks to ensure that they are relatively safe to use. Because the standard tests are extended over time to check for all previously found bugs, the test suite keeps getting better.

Note that all releases have been tested at least with:

An internal test suite
The `mysql-test' directory contains an extensive set of test cases. We run these tests for virtually every server binary. See 21.1.2 MySQL Test Suite for more information about this test suite.

The MySQL benchmark suite
This suite runs a range of common queries. It is also a test to see whether the latest batch of optimizations actually made the code faster. See section 7.1.4 The MySQL Benchmark Suite.

The crash-me test
This test tries to determine what features the database supports and what its capabilities and limitations are. See section 7.1.4 The MySQL Benchmark Suite.

Another test is that we use the newest MySQL version in our internal production environment, on at least one machine. We have more than 100 gigabytes of data to work with.


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