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Chapter 21. Extending MySQL

21.1. MySQL Internals

This chapter describes a lot of things that you need to know when working on the MySQL code. If you plan to contribute to MySQL development, want to have access to the bleeding-edge versions of the code, or just want to keep track of development, follow the instructions in Section 2.16.3, “Installing from the Development Source Tree”. If you are interested in MySQL internals, you should also subscribe to our internals mailing list. This list has relatively low traffic. For details on how to subscribe, please see Section 1.6.1, “MySQL Mailing Lists”. Many MySQL developers at Sun Microsystems, Inc. are on the internals list and we help other people who are working on the MySQL code. Feel free to use this list both to ask questions about the code and to send patches that you would like to contribute to the MySQL project!

21.1.1. MySQL Threads

The MySQL server creates the following threads:

  • Connection manager threads handle client connection requests on the network interfaces that the server listens to. On all platforms, one manager thread handles TCP/IP connection requests. On Unix, this manager thread also handles Unix socket file connection requests. On Windows, a manager thread handles shared-memory connection requests, and another handles named-pipe connection requests. The server does not create threads to handle interfaces that it does not listen to. For example, a Windows server that does not have support for named-pipe connections enabled does not create a thread to handle them.

  • Connection manager threads associate each client connection with a thread dedicated to it that handles authentication and request processing for that connection. Manager threads create a new thread when necessary but try to avoid doing so by consulting the thread cache first to see whether it contains a thread that can be used for the connection. When a connection ends, its thread is returned to the thread cache if the cache is not full.

    For information about tuning the parameters that control thread resources, see Section 7.5.7, “How MySQL Uses Threads for Client Connections”.

  • On a master replication server, connections from slave servers are handled like client connections: There is one thread per connected slave.

  • On a slave replication server, an I/O thread is started to connect to the master server and read updates from it. An SQL thread is started to apply updates read from the master. These two threads run independently and can be started and stopped independently.

  • A signal thread handles all signals. This thread also normally handles alarms and calls process_alarm() to force timeouts on connections that have been idle too long.

  • If InnoDB is used, there will be 4 additional threads by default. Those are file I/O threads, controlled by the innodb_file_io_threads parameter. See Section 13.2.3, “InnoDB Startup Options and System Variables”.

  • If mysqld is compiled with -DUSE_ALARM_THREAD, a dedicated thread that handles alarms is created. This is only used on some systems where there are problems with sigwait() or if you want to use the thr_alarm() code in your application without a dedicated signal handling thread.

  • If the server is started with the --flush_time=val option, a dedicated thread is created to flush all tables every val seconds.

  • Each table for which INSERT DELAYED statements are issued gets its own thread. See Section 12.2.5.2, “INSERT DELAYED Syntax”.

mysqladmin processlist only shows the connection, INSERT DELAYED, and replication threads.

MySQL Enterprise For expert advice on thread management, subscribe to the MySQL Enterprise Monitor. For more information, see http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html.

21.1.2. MySQL Test Suite

The test system that is included in Unix source and binary distributions makes it possible for users and developers to perform regression tests on the MySQL code. These tests can be run on Unix.

You can also write your own test cases. For information about the MySQL Test Framework, including system requirements, see the manual available at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.

The current set of test cases doesn't test everything in MySQL, but it should catch most obvious bugs in the SQL processing code, operating system or library issues, and is quite thorough in testing replication. Our goal is to have the tests cover 100% of the code. We welcome contributions to our test suite. You may especially want to contribute tests that examine the functionality critical to your system because this ensures that all future MySQL releases work well with your applications.

The test system consists of a test language interpreter (mysqltest), a Perl script to run all tests (mysql-test-run.pl), the actual test cases written in a special test language, and their expected results. To run the test suite on your system after a build, type make test from the source root directory, or change location to the mysql-test directory and type ./mysql-test-run.pl. If you have installed a binary distribution, change location to the mysql-test directory under the installation root directory (for example, /usr/local/mysql/mysql-test), and run ./mysql-test-run.pl. All tests should succeed. If any do not, feel free to try to find out why and report the problem if it indicates a bug in MySQL. See Section 1.7, “How to Report Bugs or Problems”.

If one test fails, you should run mysql-test-run.pl with the --force option to check whether any other tests fail.

If you have a copy of mysqld running on the machine where you want to run the test suite, you do not have to stop it, as long as it is not using ports 9306 or 9307. If either of those ports is taken, you should set the MTR_BUILD_THREAD environment variable to an appropriate value, and the test suite will use a different set of ports for master, slave, NDB, and Instance Manager). For example:

shell> export MTR_BUILD_THREAD=31
shell> ./mysql-test-run.pl [options] [test_name]

In the mysql-test directory, you can run an individual test case with ./mysql-test-run.pl test_name.

If you have a question about the test suite, or have a test case to contribute, send an email message to the MySQL internals mailing list. See Section 1.6.1, “MySQL Mailing Lists”. This list does not accept attachments, so you should FTP all the relevant files to: ftp://ftp.mysql.com/pub/mysql/upload/

21.2. Adding New Functions to MySQL

There are three ways to add new functions to MySQL:

Each method of creating compiled functions has advantages and disadvantages:

  • If you write user-defined functions, you must install object files in addition to the server itself. If you compile your function into the server, you don't need to do that.

  • Native functions require you to modify a source distribution. UDFs do not. You can add UDFs to a binary MySQL distribution. No access to MySQL source is necessary.

  • If you upgrade your MySQL distribution, you can continue to use your previously installed UDFs, unless you upgrade to a newer version for which the UDF interface changes. For native functions, you must repeat your modifications each time you upgrade.

Whichever method you use to add new functions, they can be invoked in SQL statements just like native functions such as ABS() or SOUNDEX().

See Section 8.2.3, “Function Name Parsing and Resolution”, for the rules describing how the server interprets references to different kinds of functions.

The following sections describe features of the UDF interface, provide instructions for writing UDFs, discuss security precautions that MySQL takes to prevent UDF misuse, and describe how to add native MySQL functions.

For example source code that illustrates how to write UDFs, take a look at the sql/udf_example.c file that is provided in MySQL source distributions.

21.2.1. Features of the User-Defined Function Interface

The MySQL interface for user-defined functions provides the following features and capabilities:

  • Functions can return string, integer, or real values and can accept arguments of those same types.

  • You can define simple functions that operate on a single row at a time, or aggregate functions that operate on groups of rows.

  • Information is provided to functions that enables them to check the number, types, and names of the arguments passed to them.

  • You can tell MySQL to coerce arguments to a given type before passing them to a function.

  • You can indicate that a function returns NULL or that an error occurred.

21.2.2. Adding a New User-Defined Function

For the UDF mechanism to work, functions must be written in C or C++ (or another language that can use C calling conventions), and your operating system must support dynamic loading. The MySQL source distribution includes a file sql/udf_example.c that defines 5 new functions. Consult this file to see how UDF calling conventions work. UDF-related symbols and data structures are defined in the include/mysql_com.h header file. (You need not include this header file directly because it is included by mysql.h.)

A UDF contains code that becomes part of the running server, so when you write a UDF, you are bound by any and all constraints that otherwise apply to writing server code. For example, you may have problems if you attempt to use functions from the libstdc++ library. Note that these constraints may change in future versions of the server, so it is possible that server upgrades will require revisions to UDFs that were originally written for older servers. For information about these constraints, see Section 2.16.2, “Typical configure Options”, and Section 2.16.4, “Dealing with Problems Compiling MySQL”.

To be able to use UDFs, you need to link mysqld dynamically. Don't configure MySQL using --with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static. If you want to use a UDF that needs to access symbols from mysqld (for example, the metaphone function in sql/udf_example.c that uses default_charset_info), you must link the program with -rdynamic (see man dlopen). If you plan to use UDFs, the rule of thumb is to configure MySQL with --with-mysqld-ldflags=-rdynamic unless you have a very good reason not to.

For each function that you want to use in SQL statements, you should define corresponding C (or C++) functions. In the following discussion, the name “xxx” is used for an example function name. To distinguish between SQL and C/C++ usage, XXX() (uppercase) indicates an SQL function call, and xxx() (lowercase) indicates a C/C++ function call.

Note

When using C++ you can encapsulate your C functions within:

extern "C" { ... }

This will ensure that your C++ function names remain readble in the completed UDF.

The C/C++ functions that you write to implement the interface for XXX() are:

  • xxx() (required)

    The main function. This is where the function result is computed. The correspondence between the SQL function data type and the return type of your C/C++ function is shown here.

    SQL TypeC/C++ Type
    STRINGchar *
    INTEGERlong long
    REALdouble

    It is also possible to declare a DECIMAL function, but currently the value is returned as a string, so you should write the UDF as though it were a STRING function. ROW functions are not implemented.

  • xxx_init() (optional)

    The initialization function for xxx(). It can be used for the following purposes:

    • To check the number of arguments to XXX().

    • To check that the arguments are of a required type or, alternatively, to tell MySQL to coerce arguments to the types you want when the main function is called.

    • To allocate any memory required by the main function.

    • To specify the maximum length of the result.

    • To specify (for REAL functions) the maximum number of decimal places in the result.

    • To specify whether the result can be NULL.

  • xxx_deinit() (optional)

    The deinitialization function for xxx(). It should deallocate any memory allocated by the initialization function.

When an SQL statement invokes XXX(), MySQL calls the initialization function xxx_init() to let it perform any required setup, such as argument checking or memory allocation. If xxx_init() returns an error, MySQL aborts the SQL statement with an error message and does not call the main or deinitialization functions. Otherwise, MySQL calls the main function xxx() once for each row. After all rows have been processed, MySQL calls the deinitialization function xxx_deinit() so that it can perform any required cleanup.

For aggregate functions that work like SUM(), you must also provide the following functions:

  • xxx_clear()

    Reset the current aggregate value but do not insert the argument as the initial aggregate value for a new group.

  • xxx_add()

    Add the argument to the current aggregate value.

MySQL handles aggregate UDFs as follows:

  1. Call xxx_init() to let the aggregate function allocate any memory it needs for storing results.

  2. Sort the table according to the GROUP BY expression.

  3. Call xxx_clear() for the first row in each new group.

  4. Call xxx_add() for each row that belongs in the same group.

  5. Call xxx() to get the result for the aggregate when the group changes or after the last row has been processed.

  6. Repeat 3–5 until all rows has been processed

  7. Call xxx_deinit() to let the UDF free any memory it has allocated.

All functions must be thread-safe. This includes not just the main function, but the initialization and deinitialization functions as well, and also the additional functions required by aggregate functions. A consequence of this requirement is that you are not allowed to allocate any global or static variables that change! If you need memory, you should allocate it in xxx_init() and free it in xxx_deinit().

21.2.2.1. UDF Calling Sequences for Simple Functions

This section describes the different functions that you need to define when you create a simple UDF. Section 21.2.2, “Adding a New User-Defined Function”, describes the order in which MySQL calls these functions.

The main xxx() function should be declared as shown in this section. Note that the return type and parameters differ, depending on whether you declare the SQL function XXX() to return STRING, INTEGER, or REAL in the CREATE FUNCTION statement:

For STRING functions:

char *xxx(UDF_INIT *initid, UDF_ARGS *args,
          char *result, unsigned long *length,
          char *is_null, char *error);

For INTEGER functions:

long long xxx(UDF_INIT *initid, UDF_ARGS *args,
              char *is_null, char *error);

For REAL functions:

double xxx(UDF_INIT *initid, UDF_ARGS *args,
              char *is_null, char *error);

DECIMAL functions return string values and should be declared the same way as STRING functions. ROW functions are not implemented.

The initialization and deinitialization functions are declared like this:

my_bool xxx_init(UDF_INIT *initid, UDF_ARGS *args, char *message);

void xxx_deinit(UDF_INIT *initid);

The initid parameter is passed to all three functions. It points to a UDF_INIT structure that is used to communicate information between functions. The UDF_INIT structure members follow. The initialization function should fill in any members that it wishes to change. (To use the default for a member, leave it unchanged.)

  • my_bool maybe_null

    xxx_init() should set maybe_null to 1 if xxx() can return NULL. The default value is 1 if any of the arguments are declared maybe_null.

  • unsigned int decimals

    The number of decimal digits to the right of the decimal point. The default value is the maximum number of decimal digits in the arguments passed to the main function. For example, if the function is passed 1.34, 1.345, and 1.3, the default would be 3, because 1.345 has 3 decimal digits.

    For arguments that have no fixed number of decimals, the decimals value is set to 31, which is 1 more than the maximum number of decimals allowed for the DECIMAL, FLOAT, and DOUBLE data types.

    A decimals value of 31 is used for arguments in cases such as a FLOAT or DOUBLE column declared without an explicit number of decimals (for example, FLOAT rather than FLOAT(10,3)) and for floating-point constants such as 1345E-3. It is also used for string and other nonnumber arguments that might be converted within the function to numeric form.

    The value to which the decimals member is initialized is only a default. It can be changed within the function to reflect the actual calculation performed. The default is determined such that the largest number of decimals of the arguments is used. If the number of decimals is 31 for even one of the arguments, that is the value used for decimals.

  • unsigned int max_length

    The maximum length of the result. The default max_length value differs depending on the result type of the function. For string functions, the default is the length of the longest argument. For integer functions, the default is 21 digits. For real functions, the default is 13 plus the number of decimal digits indicated by initid->decimals. (For numeric functions, the length includes any sign or decimal point characters.)

    If you want to return a blob value, you can set max_length to 65KB or 16MB. This memory is not allocated, but the value is used to decide which data type to use if there is a need to temporarily store the data.

  • char *ptr

    A pointer that the function can use for its own purposes. For example, functions can use initid->ptr to communicate allocated memory among themselves. xxx_init() should allocate the memory and assign it to this pointer:

    initid->ptr = allocated_memory;
    

    In xxx() and xxx_deinit(), refer to initid->ptr to use or deallocate the memory.

  • my_bool const_item

    xxx_init() should set const_item to 1 if xxx() always returns the same value and to 0 otherwise.

21.2.2.2. UDF Calling Sequences for Aggregate Functions

This section describes the different functions that you need to define when you create an aggregate UDF. Section 21.2.2, “Adding a New User-Defined Function”, describes the order in which MySQL calls these functions.

  • xxx_reset()

    This function is called when MySQL finds the first row in a new group. It should reset any internal summary variables and then use the given UDF_ARGS argument as the first value in your internal summary value for the group. Declare xxx_reset() as follows:

    void xxx_reset(UDF_INIT *initid, UDF_ARGS *args,
                   char *is_null, char *error);
    

    xxx_reset() is not needed or used in MySQL 5.0, in which the UDF interface uses xxx_clear() instead. However, you can define both xxx_reset() and xxx_clear() if you want to have your UDF work with older versions of the server. (If you do include both functions, the xxx_reset() function in many cases can be implemented internally by calling xxx_clear() to reset all variables, and then calling xxx_add() to add the UDF_ARGS argument as the first value in the group.)

  • xxx_clear()

    This function is called when MySQL needs to reset the summary results. It is called at the beginning for each new group but can also be called to reset the values for a query where there were no matching rows. Declare xxx_clear() as follows:

    void xxx_clear(UDF_INIT *initid, char *is_null, char *error);
    

    is_null is set to point to CHAR(0) before calling xxx_clear().

    If something went wrong, you can store a value in the variable to which the error argument points. error points to a single-byte variable, not to a string buffer.

    xxx_clear() is required by MySQL 5.0.

  • xxx_add()

    This function is called for all rows that belong to the same group. You should use it to add the value in the UDF_ARGS argument to your internal summary variable.

    void xxx_add(UDF_INIT *initid, UDF_ARGS *args,
                 char *is_null, char *error);
    

The xxx() function for an aggregate UDF should be declared the same way as for a nonaggregate UDF. See Section 21.2.2.1, “UDF Calling Sequences for Simple Functions”.

For an aggregate UDF, MySQL calls the xxx() function after all rows in the group have been processed. You should normally never access its UDF_ARGS argument here but instead return a value based on your internal summary variables.

Return value handling in xxx() should be done the same way as for a nonaggregate UDF. See Section 21.2.2.4, “UDF Return Values and Error Handling”.

The xxx_reset() and xxx_add() functions handle their UDF_ARGS argument the same way as functions for nonaggregate UDFs. See Section 21.2.2.3, “UDF Argument Processing”.

The pointer arguments to is_null and error are the same for all calls to xxx_reset(), xxx_clear(), xxx_add() and xxx(). You can use this to remember that you got an error or whether the xxx() function should return NULL. You should not store a string into *error! error points to a single-byte variable, not to a string buffer.

*is_null is reset for each group (before calling xxx_clear()). *error is never reset.

If *is_null or *error are set when xxx() returns, MySQL returns NULL as the result for the group function.

21.2.2.3. UDF Argument Processing

The args parameter points to a UDF_ARGS structure that has the members listed here:

  • unsigned int arg_count

    The number of arguments. Check this value in the initialization function if you require your function to be called with a particular number of arguments. For example:

    if (args->arg_count != 2)
    {
        strcpy(message,"XXX() requires two arguments");
        return 1;
    }
    

    For other UDF_ARGS member values that are arrays, array references are zero-based. That is, refer to array members using index values from 0 to args->arg_count – 1.

  • enum Item_result *arg_type

    A pointer to an array containing the types for each argument. The possible type values are STRING_RESULT, INT_RESULT, REAL_RESULT, and DECIMAL_RESULT.

    To make sure that arguments are of a given type and return an error if they are not, check the arg_type array in the initialization function. For example:

    if (args->arg_type[0] != STRING_RESULT ||
        args->arg_type[1] != INT_RESULT)
    {
        strcpy(message,"XXX() requires a string and an integer");
        return 1;
    }
    

    Arguments of type DECIMAL_RESULT are passed as strings, so you should handle them the same way as STRING_RESULT values.

    As an alternative to requiring your function's arguments to be of particular types, you can use the initialization function to set the arg_type elements to the types you want. This causes MySQL to coerce arguments to those types for each call to xxx(). For example, to specify that the first two arguments should be coerced to string and integer, respectively, do this in xxx_init():

    args->arg_type[0] = STRING_RESULT;
    args->arg_type[1] = INT_RESULT;
    

    Exact-value decimal arguments such as 1.3 or DECIMAL column values are passed with a type of DECIMAL_RESULT. However, the values are passed as strings. If you want to receive a number, use the initialization function to specify that the argument should be coerced to a REAL_RESULT value:

    args->arg_type[2] = REAL_RESULT;
    

    Note

    Prior to MySQL 5.0.3, decimal arguments were passed as REAL_RESULT values. If you upgrade to a newer version and find that your UDF now receives string values, use the initialization function to coerce the arguments to numbers as just described.

  • char **args

    args->args communicates information to the initialization function about the general nature of the arguments passed to your function. For a constant argument i, args->args[i] points to the argument value. (See below for instructions on how to access the value properly.) For a nonconstant argument, args->args[i] is 0. A constant argument is an expression that uses only constants, such as 3 or 4*7-2 or SIN(3.14). A nonconstant argument is an expression that refers to values that may change from row to row, such as column names or functions that are called with nonconstant arguments.

    For each invocation of the main function, args->args contains the actual arguments that are passed for the row currently being processed.

    If argument i represents NULL, args->args[i] is a null pointer (0). If the argument is not NULL, functions can refer to it as follows:

    • An argument of type STRING_RESULT is given as a string pointer plus a length, to allow handling of binary data or data of arbitrary length. The string contents are available as args->args[i] and the string length is args->lengths[i]. Do not assume that the string is null-terminated.

    • For an argument of type INT_RESULT, you must cast args->args[i] to a long long value:

      long long int_val;
      int_val = *((long long*) args->args[i]);
      
    • For an argument of type REAL_RESULT, you must cast args->args[i] to a double value:

      double    real_val;
      real_val = *((double*) args->args[i]);
      
    • For an argument of type DECIMAL_RESULT, the value is passed as a string and should be handled like a STRING_RESULT value.

    • ROW_RESULT arguments are not implemented.

  • unsigned long *lengths

    For the initialization function, the lengths array indicates the maximum string length for each argument. You should not change these. For each invocation of the main function, lengths contains the actual lengths of any string arguments that are passed for the row currently being processed. For arguments of types INT_RESULT or REAL_RESULT, lengths still contains the maximum length of the argument (as for the initialization function).

  • char *maybe_null

    For the initialization function, the maybe_null array indicates for each argument whether the argument value might be null (0 if no, 1 if yes).

  • char **attributes

    args->attributes communicates information about the names of the UDF arguments. For argument i, the attribute name is available as a string in args->attributes[i] and the attribute length is args->attribute_lengths[i]. Do not assume that the string is null-terminated.

    By default, the name of a UDF argument is the text of the expression used to specify the argument. For UDFs, an argument may also have an optional [AS] alias_name clause, in which case the argument name is alias_name. The attributes value for each argument thus depends on whether an alias was given.

    Suppose that a UDF my_udf() is invoked as follows:

    SELECT my_udf(expr1, expr2 AS alias1, expr3 alias2);
    

    In this case, the attributes and attribute_lengths arrays will have these values:

    args->attributes[0] = "expr1"
    args->attribute_lengths[0] = 5
    
    args->attributes[1] = "alias1"
    args->attribute_lengths[1] = 6
    
    args->attributes[2] = "alias2"
    args->attribute_lengths[2] = 6
    
  • unsigned long *attribute_lengths

    The attribute_lengths array indicates the length of each argument name.

21.2.2.4. UDF Return Values and Error Handling

The initialization function should return 0 if no error occurred and 1 otherwise. If an error occurs, xxx_init() should store a null-terminated error message in the message parameter. The message is returned to the client. The message buffer is MYSQL_ERRMSG_SIZE characters long, but you should try to keep the message to less than 80 characters so that it fits the width of a standard terminal screen.

The return value of the main function xxx() is the function value, for long long and double functions. A string function should return a pointer to the result and set *length to the length (in bytes) of the return value. For example:

memcpy(result, "result string", 13);
*length = 13;

MySQL passes a buffer to the xxx() function via the result parameter. This buffer is sufficiently long to hold 255 characters, which can be multi-byte characters. The xxx() function can store the result in this buffer if it fits, in which case the return value should be a pointer to the buffer. If the function stores the result in a different buffer, it should return a pointer to that buffer.

If your string function does not use the supplied buffer (for example, if it needs to return a string longer than 255 characters), you must allocate the space for your own buffer with malloc() in your xxx_init() function or your xxx() function and free it in your xxx_deinit() function. You can store the allocated memory in the ptr slot in the UDF_INIT structure for reuse by future xxx() calls. See Section 21.2.2.1, “UDF Calling Sequences for Simple Functions”.

To indicate a return value of NULL in the main function, set *is_null to 1:

*is_null = 1;

To indicate an error return in the main function, set *error to 1:

*error = 1;

If xxx() sets *error to 1 for any row, the function value is NULL for the current row and for any subsequent rows processed by the statement in which XXX() was invoked. (xxx() is not even called for subsequent rows.)

21.2.2.5. Compiling and Installing User-Defined Functions

Files implementing UDFs must be compiled and installed on the host where the server runs. This process is described below for the example UDF file sql/udf_example.c that is included in the MySQL source distribution.

The immediately following instructions are for Unix. Instructions for Windows are given later in this section.

The udf_example.c file contains the following functions:

  • metaphon() returns a metaphon string of the string argument. This is something like a soundex string, but it is more tuned for English.

  • myfunc_double() returns the sum of the ASCII values of the characters in its arguments, divided by the sum of the length of its arguments.

  • myfunc_int() returns the sum of the length of its arguments.

  • sequence([const int]) returns a sequence starting from the given number or 1 if no number has been given.

  • lookup() returns the IP number for a host name.

  • reverse_lookup() returns the host name for an IP number. The function may be called either with a single string argument of the form 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx' or with four numbers.

A dynamically loadable file should be compiled as a sharable object file, using a command something like this:

shell> gcc -shared -o udf_example.so udf_example.c

If you are using gcc with configure and libtool (which is how MySQL is configured), you should be able to create udf_example.so with a simpler command:

shell> make udf_example.la

After you compile a shared object containing UDFs, you must install it and tell MySQL about it. Compiling a shared object from udf_example.c using gcc directly produces a file named udf_example.so. Compiling the shared object using make produces a file named something like udf_example.so.0.0.0 in the .libs directory (the exact name may vary from platform to platform). Copy the shared object to some directory such as /usr/lib that is searched by your system's dynamic (runtime) linker, or add the directory in which you placed the shared object to the linker configuration file (for example, /etc/ld.so.conf).

The dynamic linker name is system-specific (for example, ld-elf.so.1 on FreeBSD, ld.so on Linux, or dyld on Mac OS X). Consult your system documentation for information about the linker name and how to configure it.

On many systems, you can also set the LD_LIBRARY or LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to point at the directory where you have the files for your UDF. The dlopen manual page tells you which variable you should use on your system. You should set this in mysql.server or mysqld_safe startup scripts and restart mysqld.

On some systems, the ldconfig program that configures the dynamic linker does not recognize a shared object unless its name begins with lib. In this case you should rename a file such as udf_example.so to libudf_example.so.

On Windows, you can compile user-defined functions by using the following procedure:

  1. You need to obtain the Bazaar source repository for MySQL 5.0. See Section 2.16.3, “Installing from the Development Source Tree”.

  2. You must obtain the CMake build utility from http://www.cmake.org. (Version 2.4.2 or later is required).

  3. In the source repository, look in the sql directory. There are files named udf_example.def udf_example.c there. Copy both files from this directory to your working directory.

  4. Create a CMake makefile (CMakeLists.txt) with these contents:

    PROJECT(udf_example)
    
    # Path for MySQL include directory
    INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES("c:/mysql/include")
    
    ADD_DEFINITIONS("-DHAVE_DLOPEN")
    ADD_LIBRARY(udf_example MODULE udf_example.c udf_example.def)
    TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(udf_example wsock32)
    
  5. Create the VC project and solution files:

    cmake -G "<Generator>"
    

    Invoking cmake --help shows you a list of valid Generators.

  6. Create udf_example.dll:

    devenv udf_example.sln /build Release
    

After the shared object file has been installed, notify mysqld about the new functions with these statements:

mysql> CREATE FUNCTION metaphon RETURNS STRING SONAME 'udf_example.dll';
mysql> CREATE FUNCTION myfunc_double RETURNS REAL SONAME 'udf_example.dll';
mysql> CREATE FUNCTION myfunc_int RETURNS INTEGER SONAME 'udf_example.dll';
mysql> CREATE FUNCTION sequence RETURNS INTEGER SONAME 'udf_example.dll';
mysql> CREATE FUNCTION lookup RETURNS STRING SONAME 'udf_example.dll';
mysql> CREATE FUNCTION reverse_lookup
    ->        RETURNS STRING SONAME 'udf_example.dll';
mysql> CREATE AGGREGATE FUNCTION avgcost
    ->        RETURNS REAL SONAME 'udf_example.dll';

Functions can be deleted using DROP FUNCTION:

mysql> DROP FUNCTION metaphon;
mysql> DROP FUNCTION myfunc_double;
mysql> DROP FUNCTION myfunc_int;
mysql> DROP FUNCTION sequence;
mysql> DROP FUNCTION lookup;
mysql> DROP FUNCTION reverse_lookup;
mysql> DROP FUNCTION avgcost;

The CREATE FUNCTION and DROP FUNCTION statements update the func system table in the mysql database. The function's name, type and shared library name are saved in the table. You must have the INSERT and DELETE privileges for the mysql database to create and drop functions.

You should not use CREATE FUNCTION to add a function that has previously been created. If you need to reinstall a function, you should remove it with DROP FUNCTION and then reinstall it with CREATE FUNCTION. You would need to do this, for example, if you recompile a new version of your function, so that mysqld gets the new version. Otherwise, the server continues to use the old version.

An active function is one that has been loaded with CREATE FUNCTION and not removed with DROP FUNCTION. All active functions are reloaded each time the server starts, unless you start mysqld with the --skip-grant-tables option. In this case, UDF initialization is skipped and UDFs are unavailable.

If the new function will be referred to in statements that will be replicated to slave servers, you must ensure that every slave server also has the function available. Otherwise, replication will fail on the slaves when they attempt to invoke the function.

21.2.2.6. User-Defined Function Security Precautions

MySQL takes the following measures to prevent misuse of user-defined functions.

You must have the INSERT privilege to be able to use CREATE FUNCTION and the DELETE privilege to be able to use DROP FUNCTION. This is necessary because these statements add and delete rows from the mysql.func table.

UDFs should have at least one symbol defined in addition to the xxx symbol that corresponds to the main xxx() function. These auxiliary symbols correspond to the xxx_init(), xxx_deinit(), xxx_reset(), xxx_clear(), and xxx_add() functions. As of MySQL 5.0.3, mysqld supports an --allow-suspicious-udfs option that controls whether UDFs that have only an xxx symbol can be loaded. By default, the option is off, to prevent attempts at loading functions from shared object files other than those containing legitimate UDFs. If you have older UDFs that contain only the xxx symbol and that cannot be recompiled to include an auxiliary symbol, it may be necessary to specify the --allow-suspicious-udfs option. Otherwise, you should avoid enabling this capability.

UDF object files cannot be placed in arbitrary directories. They must be located in some system directory that the dynamic linker is configured to search. To enforce this restriction and prevent attempts at specifying path names outside of directories searched by the dynamic linker, MySQL checks the shared object file name specified in CREATE FUNCTION statements for path name delimiter characters. As of MySQL 5.0.3, MySQL also checks for path name delimiters in file names stored in the mysql.func table when it loads functions. This prevents attempts at specifying illegitimate path names through direct manipulation of the mysql.func table. For information about UDFs and the runtime linker, see Section 21.2.2.5, “Compiling and Installing User-Defined Functions”.

21.2.3. Adding a New Native Function

To add a new native MySQL function, use the procedure described here, which requires that you use a source distribution. You cannot add native functions to a binary distribution because it is necessary to modify MySQL source code and compile MySQL from the modified source. If you migrate to another version of MySQL (for example, when a new version is released), you must repeat the procedure with the new version.

If the new native function will be referred to in statements that will be replicated to slave servers, you must ensure that every slave server also has the function available. Otherwise, replication will fail on the slaves when they attempt to invoke the function.

To add a new native function, follow these steps to modify source files in the sql directory:

  1. Add one line to lex.h that defines the function name in the sql_functions[] array.

  2. If the function prototype is simple (just takes zero, one, two, or three arguments), add a line to the sql_functions[] array in lex.h that specifies SYM(FUNC_ARGN) as the second argument (where N is the number of arguments the function takes). Also, add a function in item_create.cc that creates a function object. Look at "ABS" and create_funcs_abs() for an example of this.

    If the function prototype is not simple (for example, if it takes a variable number of arguments), you should make two changes to sql_yacc.yy. One is a line that indicates the preprocessor symbol that yacc should define; this should be added at the beginning of the file. The other is an “item” to be added to the simple_expr parsing rule that defines the function parameters. You will need an item for each syntax with which the function can be called. For an example that shows how this is done, check all occurrences of ATAN in sql_yacc.yy.

  3. In item_func.h, declare a class inheriting from Item_num_func or Item_str_func, depending on whether your function returns a number or a string.

  4. In item_func.cc, add one of the following declarations, depending on whether you are defining a numeric or string function:

    double   Item_func_newname::val()
    longlong Item_func_newname::val_int()
    String  *Item_func_newname::Str(String *str)
    

    If you inherit your object from any of the standard items (like Item_num_func), you probably only have to define one of these functions and let the parent object take care of the other functions. For example, the Item_str_func class defines a val() function that executes atof() on the value returned by ::str().

  5. If the function is nondeterministic, include the following statement in the item constructor to indicate that function results should not be cached:

    current_thd->lex->safe_to_cache_query=0;
    

    A function is nondeterministic if, given fixed values for its arguments, it can return different results for different invocations.

  6. You should probably also define the following object function:

    void Item_func_newname::fix_length_and_dec()
    

    This function should at least calculate max_length based on the given arguments. max_length is the maximum number of characters the function may return. This function should also set maybe_null = 0 if the main function can't return a NULL value. The function can check whether any of the function arguments can return NULL by checking the arguments' maybe_null variable. Look at Item_func_mod::fix_length_and_dec for a typical example of how to do this.

All functions must be thread-safe. In other words, do not use any global or static variables in the functions without protecting them with mutexes.

If you want to return NULL from ::val(), ::val_int(), or ::str(), you should set null_value to 1 and return 0.

For ::str() object functions, there are additional considerations to be aware of:

  • The String *str argument provides a string buffer that may be used to hold the result. (For more information about the String type, take a look at the sql_string.h file.)

  • The ::str() function should return the string that holds the result, or (char*) 0 if the result is NULL.

  • All current string functions try to avoid allocating any memory unless absolutely necessary!

21.3. Adding New Procedures to MySQL

In MySQL, you can define a procedure in C++ that can access and modify the data in a query before it is sent to the client. The modification can be done on a row-by-row or GROUP BY level.

We have created an example procedure to show you what can be done.

Additionally, it is a good idea to take a look at mylua. With this you can use the LUA language to load a procedure at runtime into mysqld.

21.3.1. PROCEDURE ANALYSE

ANALYSE([max_elements[,max_memory]])

ANALYSE() is defined in the sql/sql_analyse.cc source file, which serves as an example of how to create a procedure for use with the PROCEDURE clause of SELECT statements. ANALYSE() is built in and is available by default; other procedures can be created using the format demonstrated in the source file.

ANALYSE() examines the result from a query and returns an analysis of the results that suggests optimal data types for each column that may help reduce table sizes. To obtain this analysis, append PROCEDURE ANALYSE to the end of a SELECT statement:

SELECT ... FROM ... WHERE ... PROCEDURE ANALYSE([max_elements,[max_memory]])

For example:

SELECT col1, col2 FROM table1 PROCEDURE ANALYSE(10, 2000);

The results show some statistics for the values returned by the query, and propose an optimal data type for the columns. This can be helpful for checking your existing tables, or after importing new data. You may need to try different settings for the arguments so that PROCEDURE ANALYSE() does not suggest the ENUM data type when it is not appropriate.

The arguments are optional and are used as follows:

  • max_elements (default 256) is the maximum number of distinct values that ANALYSE() notices per column. This is used by ANALYSE() to check whether the optimal data type should be of type ENUM; if there are more than max_elements distinct values, then ENUM is not a suggested type.

  • max_memory (default 8192) is the maximum amount of memory that ANALYSE() should allocate per column while trying to find all distinct values.

21.3.2. Writing a Procedure

For the moment, the only documentation for this is the source.

You can find all information about procedures by examining the following files:

  • sql/sql_analyse.cc

  • sql/procedure.h

  • sql/procedure.cc

  • sql/sql_select.cc

21.4. Debugging and Porting MySQL

This appendix helps you port MySQL to other operating systems. Do check the list of currently supported operating systems first. See Section 2.4.2, “Operating Systems Supported by MySQL Community Server”. If you have created a new port of MySQL, please let us know so that we can list it here and on our Web site (http://www.mysql.com/), recommending it to other users.

Note: If you create a new port of MySQL, you are free to copy and distribute it under the GPL license, but it does not make you a copyright holder of MySQL.

A working POSIX thread library is needed for the server. On Solaris 2.5 we use Sun PThreads (the native thread support in 2.4 and earlier versions is not good enough), on Linux we use LinuxThreads by Xavier Leroy, .

The hard part of porting to a new Unix variant without good native thread support is probably to port MIT-pthreads. See mit-pthreads/README and Programming POSIX Threads (http://www.humanfactor.com/pthreads/).

Up to MySQL 4.0.2, the MySQL distribution included a patched version of Chris Provenzano's Pthreads from MIT (see the MIT Pthreads Web page at http://www.mit.edu/afs/sipb/project/pthreads/ and a programming introduction at http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/proven/IAP_2000/). These can be used for some operating systems that do not have POSIX threads. See Section 2.16.5, “MIT-pthreads Notes”.

It is also possible to use another user level thread package named FSU Pthreads (see http://moss.csc.ncsu.edu/~mueller/pthreads/). This implementation is being used for the SCO port.

See the thr_lock.c and thr_alarm.c programs in the mysys directory for some tests/examples of these problems.

Both the server and the client need a working C++ compiler. We use gcc on many platforms. Other compilers that are known to work are SPARCworks, Sun Forte, Irix cc, HP-UX aCC, IBM AIX xlC_r), Intel ecc/icc and Compaq cxx).

Important

If you are trying to build MySQL 5.1 with icc on the IA64 platform, and need support for MySQL Cluster, you should first ensure that you are using icc version 9.1.043 or later. (For details, see Bug#21875.)

To compile only the client use ./configure --without-server.

There is currently no support for only compiling the server, nor is it likely to be added unless someone has a good reason for it.

If you want/need to change any Makefile or the configure script you also need GNU Automake and Autoconf. See Section 2.16.3, “Installing from the Development Source Tree”.

All steps needed to remake everything from the most basic files.

/bin/rm */.deps/*.P
/bin/rm -f config.cache
aclocal
autoheader
aclocal
automake
autoconf
./configure --with-debug=full --prefix='your installation directory'

# The makefiles generated above need GNU make 3.75 or newer.
# (called gmake below)
gmake clean all install init-db

If you run into problems with a new port, you may have to do some debugging of MySQL! See Section 21.4.1, “Debugging a MySQL Server”.

Note

Before you start debugging mysqld, first get the test programs mysys/thr_alarm and mysys/thr_lock to work. This ensures that your thread installation has even a remote chance to work!

21.4.1. Debugging a MySQL Server

If you are using some functionality that is very new in MySQL, you can try to run mysqld with the --skip-new (which disables all new, potentially unsafe functionality) or with --safe-mode which disables a lot of optimization that may cause problems. See Section B.5.4.2, “What to Do If MySQL Keeps Crashing”.

If mysqld doesn't want to start, you should verify that you don't have any my.cnf files that interfere with your setup! You can check your my.cnf arguments with mysqld --print-defaults and avoid using them by starting with mysqld --no-defaults ....

If mysqld starts to eat up CPU or memory or if it “hangs,” you can use mysqladmin processlist status to find out if someone is executing a query that takes a long time. It may be a good idea to run mysqladmin -i10 processlist status in some window if you are experiencing performance problems or problems when new clients can't connect.

The command mysqladmin debug dumps some information about locks in use, used memory and query usage to the MySQL log file. This may help solve some problems. This command also provides some useful information even if you haven't compiled MySQL for debugging!

If the problem is that some tables are getting slower and slower you should try to optimize the table with OPTIMIZE TABLE or myisamchk. See Chapter 5, MySQL Server Administration. You should also check the slow queries with EXPLAIN.

You should also read the OS-specific section in this manual for problems that may be unique to your environment. See Section 2.19, “Operating System-Specific Notes”.

21.4.1.1. Compiling MySQL for Debugging

If you have some very specific problem, you can always try to debug MySQL. To do this you must configure MySQL with the --with-debug or the --with-debug=full option. You can check whether MySQL was compiled with debugging by doing: mysqld --help. If the --debug flag is listed with the options then you have debugging enabled. mysqladmin ver also lists the mysqld version as mysql ... --debug in this case.

If you are using gcc, the recommended configure line is:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O2" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O2 -felide-constructors \
   -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql \
   --with-debug --with-extra-charsets=complex

This avoids problems with the libstdc++ library and with C++ exceptions (many compilers have problems with C++ exceptions in threaded code) and compile a MySQL version with support for all character sets.

If you suspect a memory overrun error, you can configure MySQL with --with-debug=full, which installs a memory allocation (SAFEMALLOC) checker. However, running with SAFEMALLOC is quite slow, so if you get performance problems you should start mysqld with the --skip-safemalloc option. This disables the memory overrun checks for each call to malloc() and free().

If mysqld stops crashing when you compile it with --with-debug, you probably have found a compiler bug or a timing bug within MySQL. In this case, you can try to add -g to the CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS variables above and not use --with-debug. If mysqld dies, you can at least attach to it with gdb or use gdb on the core file to find out what happened.

When you configure MySQL for debugging you automatically enable a lot of extra safety check functions that monitor the health of mysqld. If they find something “unexpected,” an entry is written to stderr, which mysqld_safe directs to the error log! This also means that if you are having some unexpected problems with MySQL and are using a source distribution, the first thing you should do is to configure MySQL for debugging! (The second thing is to send mail to a MySQL mailing list and ask for help. See Section 1.6.1, “MySQL Mailing Lists”. If you believe that you have found a bug, please use the instructions at Section 1.7, “How to Report Bugs or Problems”.

In the Windows MySQL distribution, mysqld.exe is by default compiled with support for trace files. See also Section 21.4.1.2, “Creating Trace Files”.

21.4.1.2. Creating Trace Files

If the mysqld server doesn't start or if you can cause it to crash quickly, you can try to create a trace file to find the problem.

To do this, you must have a mysqld that has been compiled with debugging support. You can check this by executing mysqld -V. If the version number ends with -debug, it is compiled with support for trace files. (On Windows, the debugging server is named mysqld-debug rather than mysqld as of MySQL 4.1.)

Start the mysqld server with a trace log in /tmp/mysqld.trace on Unix or C:\mysqld.trace on Windows:

shell> mysqld --debug

On Windows, you should also use the --standalone flag to not start mysqld as a service. In a console window, use this command:

C:\> mysqld-debug --debug --standalone

After this, you can use the mysql.exe command-line tool in a second console window to reproduce the problem. You can stop the mysqld server with mysqladmin shutdown.

Note that the trace file become very big! If you want to generate a smaller trace file, you can use debugging options something like this:

mysqld --debug=d,info,error,query,general,where:O,/tmp/mysqld.trace

This only prints information with the most interesting tags to the trace file.

If you make a bug report about this, please only send the lines from the trace file to the appropriate mailing list where something seems to go wrong! If you can't locate the wrong place, you can ftp the trace file, together with a full bug report, to ftp://ftp.mysql.com/pub/mysql/upload/ so that a MySQL developer can take a look at it.

The trace file is made with the DBUG package by Fred Fish. See Section 21.4.3, “The DBUG Package”.

21.4.1.3. Using pdb to create a Windows crashdump

Starting with MySQL 5.0.24 the Program Database files (extension pdb) are included in the Noinstall distribution of MySQL. These files provide information for debugging your MySQL installation in the event of a problem.

The PDB file contains more detailed information about mysqld and other tools that enables more detailed trace and dump files to be created. You can use these with Dr Watson, WinDbg and Visual Studio to debug mysqld.

For more information on PDB files, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 121366. For more information on the debugging options available, see Debugging Tools for Windows.

Dr Watson is installed with all Windows distributions, but if you have installed Windows development tools, Dr Watson may have been replaced with WinDbg, the debugger included with Visual Studio, or the debugging tools provided with Borland or Delphi.

To generate a crash file using Dr Watson, follow these steps:

  1. Start Dr Watson by running drwtsn32.exe interactively using the -i option:

    C:\> drwtsn32 -i
  2. Set the Log File Path to the directory where you want to store trace files.

  3. Make sure Dump All Thread Contexts and Append To Existing Log File.

  4. Uncheck Dump Sumbol Table, Visual Notification, Sound Notification and Create Crash Dump File.

  5. Set the Number of Instructions to a suitable value to capture enough calls in the stacktrace. A value of at 25 should be enough.

Note that the file generated can be very large.

21.4.1.4. Debugging mysqld under gdb

On most systems you can also start mysqld from gdb to get more information if mysqld crashes.

With some older gdb versions on Linux you must use run --one-thread if you want to be able to debug mysqld threads. In this case, you can only have one thread active at a time. It is best to upgrade to gdb 5.1 because thread debugging works much better with this version!

NPTL threads (the new thread library on Linux) may cause problems while running mysqld under gdb. Some symptoms are:

  • mysqld hangs during startup (before it writes ready for connections).

  • mysqld crashes during a pthread_mutex_lock() or pthread_mutex_unlock() call.

In this case, you should set the following environment variable in the shell before starting gdb:

LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.1
export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL

When running mysqld under gdb, you should disable the stack trace with --skip-stack-trace to be able to catch segfaults within gdb.

In MySQL 4.0.14 and above you should use the --gdb option to mysqld. This installs an interrupt handler for SIGINT (needed to stop mysqld with ^C to set breakpoints) and disable stack tracing and core file handling.

It is very hard to debug MySQL under gdb if you do a lot of new connections the whole time as gdb doesn't free the memory for old threads. You can avoid this problem by starting mysqld with thread_cache_size set to a value equal to max_connections + 1. In most cases just using --thread_cache_size=5' helps a lot!

If you want to get a core dump on Linux if mysqld dies with a SIGSEGV signal, you can start mysqld with the --core-file option. This core file can be used to make a backtrace that may help you find out why mysqld died:

shell> gdb mysqld core
gdb>   backtrace full
gdb>   quit

See Section B.5.4.2, “What to Do If MySQL Keeps Crashing”.

If you are using gdb 4.17.x or above on Linux, you should install a .gdb file, with the following information, in your current directory:

set print sevenbit off
handle SIGUSR1 nostop noprint
handle SIGUSR2 nostop noprint
handle SIGWAITING nostop noprint
handle SIGLWP nostop noprint
handle SIGPIPE nostop
handle SIGALRM nostop
handle SIGHUP nostop
handle SIGTERM nostop noprint

If you have problems debugging threads with gdb, you should download gdb 5.x and try this instead. The new gdb version has very improved thread handling!

Here is an example how to debug mysqld:

shell> gdb /usr/local/libexec/mysqld
gdb> run
...
backtrace full # Do this when mysqld crashes

Include the above output in a bug report, which you can file using the instructions in Section 1.7, “How to Report Bugs or Problems”.

If mysqld hangs you can try to use some system tools like strace or /usr/proc/bin/pstack to examine where mysqld has hung.

strace /tmp/log libexec/mysqld

If you are using the Perl DBI interface, you can turn on debugging information by using the trace method or by setting the DBI_TRACE environment variable.

21.4.1.5. Using a Stack Trace

On some operating systems, the error log contains a stack trace if mysqld dies unexpectedly. You can use this to find out where (and maybe why) mysqld died. See Section 5.2.1, “The Error Log”. To get a stack trace, you must not compile mysqld with the -fomit-frame-pointer option to gcc. See Section 21.4.1.1, “Compiling MySQL for Debugging”.

A stack trace in the error log looks something like this:

mysqld got signal 11;
Attempting backtrace. You can use the following information
to find out where mysqld died. If you see no messages after
this, something went terribly wrong...

stack range sanity check, ok, backtrace follows
0x40077552
0x81281a0
0x8128f47
0x8127be0
0x8127995
0x8104947
0x80ff28f
0x810131b
0x80ee4bc
0x80c3c91
0x80c6b43
0x80c1fd9
0x80c1686

You can use the resolve_stack_dump utility to determine where mysqld died by using the following procedure:

  1. Copy the preceding numbers to a file, for example mysqld.stack:

    0x9da402
    0x6648e9
    0x7f1a5af000f0
    0x7f1a5a10f0f2
    0x7412cb
    0x688354
    0x688494
    0x67a170
    0x67f0ad
    0x67fdf8
    0x6811b6
    0x66e05e
    
  2. Make a symbol file for the mysqld server:

    shell> nm -n libexec/mysqld > /tmp/mysqld.sym
    

    If mysqld is not linked statically, use the following command instead:

    shell> nm -D -n libexec/mysqld > /tmp/mysqld.sym
    

    If you want to decode C++ symbols, use the --demangle, if available, to nm. If your version of nm does not have this option, you will need to use the c++filt command after the stack dump has been produced to demangle the C++ names.

  3. Execute the following command:

    shell> resolve_stack_dump -s /tmp/mysqld.sym -n mysqld.stack
    

    If you were not able to include demangled C++ names in your symbol file, process the resolve_stack_dump output using c++filt:

    shell> resolve_stack_dump -s /tmp/mysqld.sym -n mysqld.stack | c++filt
    

    This prints out where mysqld died. If that does not help you find out why mysqld died, you should create a bug report and include the output from the preceding command with the bug report.

    However, in most cases it does not help us to have just a stack trace to find the reason for the problem. To be able to locate the bug or provide a workaround, in most cases we need to know the statement that killed mysqld and preferably a test case so that we can repeat the problem! See Section 1.7, “How to Report Bugs or Problems”.

21.4.1.6. Using Server Logs to Find Causes of Errors in mysqld

Note that before starting mysqld with the general query log enabled, you should check all your tables with myisamchk. See Chapter 5, MySQL Server Administration.

If mysqld dies or hangs, you should start mysqld with the general query log enabled. See Section 5.2.2, “The General Query Log”. When mysqld dies again, you can examine the end of the log file for the query that killed mysqld.

If you use the default general query log file, the log is stored in the database directory as host_name.log In most cases it is the last query in the log file that killed mysqld, but if possible you should verify this by restarting mysqld and executing the found query from the mysql command-line tools. If this works, you should also test all complicated queries that didn't complete.

You can also try the command EXPLAIN on all SELECT statements that takes a long time to ensure that mysqld is using indexes properly. See Section 12.3.2, “EXPLAIN Syntax”.

You can find the queries that take a long time to execute by starting mysqld with the slow query log enabled. See Section 5.2.4, “The Slow Query Log”.

If you find the text mysqld restarted in the error log file (normally named hostname.err) you probably have found a query that causes mysqld to fail. If this happens, you should check all your tables with myisamchk (see Chapter 5, MySQL Server Administration), and test the queries in the MySQL log files to see whether one fails. If you find such a query, try first upgrading to the newest MySQL version. If this doesn't help and you can't find anything in the mysql mail archive, you should report the bug to a MySQL mailing list. The mailing lists are described at http://lists.mysql.com/, which also has links to online list archives.

If you have started mysqld with --myisam-recover, MySQL automatically checks and tries to repair MyISAM tables if they are marked as 'not closed properly' or 'crashed'. If this happens, MySQL writes an entry in the hostname.err file 'Warning: Checking table ...' which is followed by Warning: Repairing table if the table needs to be repaired. If you get a lot of these errors, without mysqld having died unexpectedly just before, then something is wrong and needs to be investigated further. See Section 5.1.2, “Server Command Options”.

It is not a good sign if mysqld did die unexpectedly, but in this case, you should not investigate the Checking table... messages, but instead try to find out why mysqld died.

21.4.1.7. Making a Test Case If You Experience Table Corruption

If you get corrupted tables or if mysqld always fails after some update commands, you can test whether this bug is reproducible by doing the following:

You can also use the script mysql_find_rows to just execute some of the update statements if you want to narrow down the problem.

The preceding discussion applies only to RHEL4. The patch is unnecessary for RHEL5.

21.4.2. Debugging a MySQL Client

To be able to debug a MySQL client with the integrated debug package, you should configure MySQL with --with-debug or --with-debug=full. See Section 2.16.2, “Typical configure Options”.

Before running a client, you should set the MYSQL_DEBUG environment variable:

shell> MYSQL_DEBUG=d:t:O,/tmp/client.trace
shell> export MYSQL_DEBUG

This causes clients to generate a trace file in /tmp/client.trace.

If you have problems with your own client code, you should attempt to connect to the server and run your query using a client that is known to work. Do this by running mysql in debugging mode (assuming that you have compiled MySQL with debugging on):

shell> mysql --debug=d:t:O,/tmp/client.trace

This provides useful information in case you mail a bug report. See Section 1.7, “How to Report Bugs or Problems”.

If your client crashes at some 'legal' looking code, you should check that your mysql.h include file matches your MySQL library file. A very common mistake is to use an old mysql.h file from an old MySQL installation with new MySQL library.

21.4.3. The DBUG Package

The MySQL server and most MySQL clients are compiled with the DBUG package originally created by Fred Fish. When you have configured MySQL for debugging, this package makes it possible to get a trace file of what the program is debugging. See Section 21.4.1.2, “Creating Trace Files”.

This section summaries the argument values that you can specify in debug options on the command line for MySQL programs that have been built with debugging support. For more information about programming with the DBUG package, see the DBUG manual in the dbug directory of MySQL source distributions. It is best to use a recent distribution to get the most updated DBUG manual.

You use the debug package by invoking a program with the --debug="..." or the -#... option.

Most MySQL programs have a default debug string that is used if you don't specify an option to --debug. The default trace file is usually /tmp/program_name.trace on Unix and \program_name.trace on Windows.

The debug control string is a sequence of colon-separated fields as follows:

<field_1>:<field_2>:...:<field_N>

Each field consists of a mandatory flag character followed by an optional “,” and comma-separated list of modifiers:

flag[,modifier,modifier,...,modifier]

The following table shows the currently recognized flag characters.

FlagDescription
dEnable output from DBUG_<N> macros for the current state. May be followed by a list of keywords which selects output only for the DBUG macros with that keyword. An empty list of keywords implies output for all macros.
DDelay after each debugger output line. The argument is the number of tenths of seconds to delay, subject to machine capabilities. For example, -#D,20 specifies a delay of two seconds.
fLimit debugging, tracing, and profiling to the list of named functions. Note that a null list disables all functions. The appropriate d or t flags must still be given; this flag only limits their actions if they are enabled.
FIdentify the source file name for each line of debug or trace output.
iIdentify the process with the PID or thread ID for each line of debug or trace output.
gEnable profiling. Create a file called dbugmon.out containing information that can be used to profile the program. May be followed by a list of keywords that select profiling only for the functions in that list. A null list implies that all functions are considered.
LIdentify the source file line number for each line of debug or trace output.
nPrint the current function nesting depth for each line of debug or trace output.
NNumber each line of debug output.
oRedirect the debugger output stream to the specified file. The default output is stderr.
OLike o, but the file is really flushed between each write. When needed, the file is closed and reopened between each write.
pLimit debugger actions to specified processes. A process must be identified with the DBUG_PROCESS macro and match one in the list for debugger actions to occur.
PPrint the current process name for each line of debug or trace output.
rWhen pushing a new state, do not inherit the previous state's function nesting level. Useful when the output is to start at the left margin.
SDo function _sanity(_file_,_line_) at each debugged function until _sanity() returns something that differs from 0. (Mostly used with safemalloc to find memory leaks)
tEnable function call/exit trace lines. May be followed by a list (containing only one modifier) giving a numeric maximum trace level, beyond which no output occurs for either debugging or tracing macros. The default is a compile time option.

Some examples of debug control strings that might appear on a shell command line (the -# is typically used to introduce a control string to an application program) are:

-#d:t
-#d:f,main,subr1:F:L:t,20
-#d,input,output,files:n
-#d:t:i:O,\\mysqld.trace

In MySQL, common tags to print (with the d option) are enter, exit, error, warning, info, and loop.

21.4.4. Comments about RTS Threads

I have tried to use the RTS thread packages with MySQL but stumbled on the following problems:

They use old versions of many POSIX calls and it is very tedious to make wrappers for all functions. I am inclined to think that it would be easier to change the thread libraries to the newest POSIX specification.

Some wrappers are currently written. See mysys/my_pthread.c for more info.

At least the following should be changed:

pthread_get_specific should use one argument. sigwait should take two arguments. A lot of functions (at least pthread_cond_wait, pthread_cond_timedwait()) should return the error code on error. Now they return -1 and set errno.

Another problem is that user-level threads use the ALRM signal and this aborts a lot of functions (read, write, open...). MySQL should do a retry on interrupt on all of these but it is not that easy to verify it.

The biggest unsolved problem is the following:

To get thread-level alarms I changed mysys/thr_alarm.c to wait between alarms with pthread_cond_timedwait(), but this aborts with error EINTR. I tried to debug the thread library as to why this happens, but couldn't find any easy solution.

If someone wants to try MySQL with RTS threads I suggest the following:

  • Change functions MySQL uses from the thread library to POSIX. This shouldn't take that long.

  • Compile all libraries with the -DHAVE_rts_threads.

  • Compile thr_alarm.

  • If there are some small differences in the implementation, they may be fixed by changing my_pthread.h and my_pthread.c.

  • Run thr_alarm. If it runs without any “warning,” “error,” or aborted messages, you are on the right track. Here is a successful run on Solaris:

    Main thread: 1
    Thread 0 (5) started
    Thread: 5  Waiting
    process_alarm
    Thread 1 (6) started
    Thread: 6  Waiting
    process_alarm
    process_alarm
    thread_alarm
    Thread: 6  Slept for 1 (1) sec
    Thread: 6  Waiting
    process_alarm
    process_alarm
    thread_alarm
    Thread: 6  Slept for 2 (2) sec
    Thread: 6  Simulation of no alarm needed
    Thread: 6  Slept for 0 (3) sec
    Thread: 6  Waiting
    process_alarm
    process_alarm
    thread_alarm
    Thread: 6  Slept for 4 (4) sec
    Thread: 6  Waiting
    process_alarm
    thread_alarm
    Thread: 5  Slept for 10 (10) sec
    Thread: 5  Waiting
    process_alarm
    process_alarm
    thread_alarm
    Thread: 6  Slept for 5 (5) sec
    Thread: 6  Waiting
    process_alarm
    process_alarm
    
    ...
    thread_alarm
    Thread: 5  Slept for 0 (1) sec
    end
    

21.4.5. Differences Between Thread Packages

MySQL is very dependent on the thread package used. So when choosing a good platform for MySQL, the thread package is very important.

There are at least three types of thread packages:

  • User threads in a single process. Thread switching is managed with alarms and the threads library manages all nonthread-safe functions with locks. Read, write and select operations are usually managed with a thread-specific select that switches to another thread if the running threads have to wait for data. If the user thread packages are integrated in the standard libs (FreeBSD and BSDI threads) the thread package requires less overhead than thread packages that have to map all unsafe calls (MIT-pthreads, FSU Pthreads and RTS threads). In some environments (for example, SCO), all system calls are thread-safe so the mapping can be done very easily (FSU Pthreads on SCO). Downside: All mapped calls take a little time and it is quite tricky to be able to handle all situations. There are usually also some system calls that are not handled by the thread package (like MIT-pthreads and sockets). Thread scheduling isn't always optimal.

  • User threads in separate processes. Thread switching is done by the kernel and all data are shared between threads. The thread package manages the standard thread calls to allow sharing data between threads. LinuxThreads is using this method. Downside: Lots of processes. Thread creating is slow. If one thread dies the rest are usually left hanging and you must kill them all before restarting. Thread switching is somewhat expensive.

  • Kernel threads. Thread switching is handled by the thread library or the kernel and is very fast. Everything is done in one process, but on some systems, ps may show the different threads. If one thread aborts, the whole process aborts. Most system calls are thread-safe and should require very little overhead. Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and OSF/1 have kernel threads.

In some systems kernel threads are managed by integrating user level threads in the system libraries. In such cases, the thread switching can only be done by the thread library and the kernel isn't really “thread aware.




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