> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://mariadb.com/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/product-development/mariadb-fault-finding/limitationsdifferences-with-a-mariadb-server-compiled-for-debugging.md).

# Limitations/Differences with a MariaDB Server Compiled for Debugging

{% hint style="info" %}
This page is focused on lower-level development: It contains technical "how-to" documentation for engineers who are actually modifying the MariaDB source code (e.g., compiling for debug, using GDB, and memory leak detection in the code).
{% endhint %}

A MariaDB server configured with `--with-debug=full` has the following differences from a normal MariaDB server:

* You can have maximum of 1000 tables locked at the same time in one statement. (Define `MAX_LOCKS` in mysys/thrlock.c). This is to detect loops in the used lists.
* You can have maximum of 1000 threads locking the same table. (Define `MAX_THREADS` in mysys/thrlock.c). This is to detect loops in the used lists.
* Deadlock detection of mutex will be done at runtime. If wrong mutex handling is found an error will be printed to the error log. (Define `SAFE_MUTEX`)
* Memory overrun/underrun and not freed memory will be reported to the error log (Define `SAFEMALLOC`)
* You can get a trace of what `mysqld` (and most other binaries) is doing by starting it with the `--debug` option. The trace is usually put in `/tmp` or `C:\`

<sub>*This page is licensed: CC BY-SA / Gnu FDL*</sub>

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