What is MariaDB 10.1?

MariaDB 10.1 is the current stable version of MariaDB. MariaDB 10.1.8 is a stable/GA release.

For details on upgrading from MariaDB 10.0, see Upgrading from MariaDB 10.0 to 10.1.

The following lists the major new features in MariaDB 10.1:

Implemented Features

Galera

• Galera, a true multi-master solution, is a standard part of MariaDB 10.1.
• Two new Information Schema tables for examining wsrep information, WSREP_MEMBERSHIP and WSREP_STATUS (MDEV-7053)

Encryption

• Table, Tablespace and log Encryption.

Page Compression

• InnoDB/XtraDB Page Compression
• Page compression for FusionIO.

GIS

• Support for Spatial Reference systems for the GIS data (MDEV-60), new REF_SYSTEM_ID column attribute can be used to specify Spatial Reference System ID for columns of spatial data types:
• More functions from the OGC standard added (MDEV-4045):
  • ST_Boundary
  • ST_ConvexHull
  • ST_IsRing
  • ST_PointOnSurface
  • ST_Relate
• INFORMATION_SCHEMA.GEOMETRY_COLUMNS table.
• INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SPATIAL_REF_SYS table.

Syntax

• Consistent support for IF EXISTS, IF NOT EXISTS, and OR REPLACE clauses:
  • CREATE DATABASE (MDEV-7280)
  • CREATE FUNCTION UDF (MDEV-7283)
  • CREATE ROLE (MDEV-7288)
  • CREATE SERVER (MDEV-7285)
  • CREATE USER (MDEV-7288)
  • CREATE VIEW (MDEV-7283)
  • DROP ROLE (MDEV-7288)
  • DROP USER (MDEV-7288)
  • CREATE EVENT and DROP EVENT (MDEV-7281)
  • CREATE INDEX and DROP INDEX (MDEV-7284)
  • CREATE TRIGGER and DROP TRIGGER (MDEV-7286)
• Information Schema plugins can now support SHOW and FLUSH statements. New statements include:
  • SHOW QUERY_RESPONSE_TIME
  • FLUSH QUERY_RESPONSE_TIME
  • SHOW LOCALES
• New columns for the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.APPLICABLE_ROLES and INFORMATION_SCHEMA.VIEWS tables.
• ANALYZE statement provides output that looks like EXPLAIN output, but also is includes data from the query execution (how many rows were actually read, etc).
• EXPLAIN FORMAT=JSON is a re-implementation of similar feature in MySQL 5.6
• ANALYZE FORMAT=JSON produces detailed information about the statement execution
• GET_LOCK() now supports microseconds in the timeout, no longer rounding fractions to the nearest integer (MDEV-4018)
• Compound statements can be used outside of stored programs.
• The number of rows affected by a slow UPDATE or DELETE is now recorded in the slow query log - see also mysql.slow_log Table. (MDEV-4412)
• SQL standards-compliant behavior when dealing with Primary Keys with Nullable Columns.

Optimization

• ORDER BY optimization is improved by several fixes for real-world cases.
• Don't create frm files for temporary tables (MDEV-4260).
• MAX_STATEMENT_TIME can be used to automatically abort long running queries. (MDEV-4427).
• UNION ALL works without usage of a temporary table (MDEV-334). The feature was backported from MySQL 5.7
• Scalability fixes (MDEV-7004). Up to 60% higher throughput in sysbench benchmarks on Power8.
• Make simple queries faster as we call malloc() fewer times.
• Automatic discovery of performance schema tables (simpler mysql_install_db code). (MDEV-4262), Performance Schema tables no longer use .frm files.
• Other Webscale patches (MDEV-6039)
• MDEV-7728 xid cache scalability was significantly improved (by using lock-free hash)

Replication

• Optimistic mode of in-order parallel replication (MDEV-6676)
• domain_id based replication filters - see CHANGE MASTER TO (MDEV-6593)
• Enhanced semisync replication; Wait for at least one slave to acknowledge transaction before committing (MDEV-162).
• Triggers can now be run on the slave for row-based events.
• Dump Thread Enhancements from Google. Makes multiple slave setups faster by allowing concurrent reading of binary log. (MDEV-7257)
• Commits in certain instances in parallel replication complete immediately, avoiding losing throughput when many transactions need conflicting locks. See binlog_commit_wait_count.
• RESET_MASTER is extended with TO # which allows one to specify the number of the first binary log. (MDEV-8469)

Roles

• SET DEFAULT ROLE (MDEV-5210).
• New columns for the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.APPLICABLE_ROLES table.

XtraDB / InnoDB

• Allow up to 64K pages in InnoDB (old limit was 16K) (MDEV-6075).
• The Facebook/Kakao defragmentation patch (see Defragmenting InnoDB Tablespaces) which uses OPTIMIZE TABLE to defragment InnoDB tablespaces).

Variables

For a list of all new variables, see System Variables Added in MariaDB 10.1 and Status Variables Added in MariaDB 10.1. Some of these, and other variable-related changes, include:

• INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SYSTEM_VARIABLES gives information, like description and value origin, for system variables (MDEV-6138).
• MDEV-6858 New server variable enforce_storage_engine
• New status variables to show the number of grants on different objects (see Status Variables Added in MariaDB 10.1)
• Default size of query_alloc_block_size changed from 8192 to 16384 and query_prealloc_size from 8192 to 24576 to avoid the need for simple queries with one join to call my_malloc.
• Added variable default-tmp-storage-engine (From MySQL 5.6) (MDEV-6107).
• SET STATEMENT - set variables for the duration of the query (MDEV-5231). This is a backport of Per-query Variable Statement feature of Percona Server 5.6 (which, in turn, is based in MySQL GSoC 2009 project by Joseph Lukas), with many bugs fixed.
• --mysql56-temporal-format option to use the MySQL-5.6 low level formats to store TIME, DATETIME and TIMESTAMP types. (MDEV-5528)
• mysqld --help --verbose now shows valid variables for ENUM variables. (MDEV-6137)
• MDEV-6981 New status variables to track MASTER_GTID_WAIT time.
• MDEV-7198 New status variable Slave_skipped_errors.
• --silent-startup mysqld option. If specified, mysqld does not print Notes to the error log during startup.

Plugins

• Password validation plugin API (MDEV-6431).
• simple_password_check password validation plugin. It can enforce a minimum password length and guarantee that a password contains at least a specified number of uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, and punctuation characters.
• cracklib_password_check password validation plugin. It only allows passwords that are strong enough to pass CrackLib test. This is the same test that pam_cracklib.so does, installed by default on many Linux distributions.

Security

• Enhance security using special compilation options - MariaDB is now compiled with security hardening options by default. It is an additional protection layer that makes new, yet unknown, security vulnerabilities more difficult to exploit. (MDEV-5730)

Security Vulnerabilities Fixed in MariaDB 10.1

Comparison with MySQL

• System Variable Differences Between MariaDB 10.1 and MySQL 5.6
• System Variable Differences Between MariaDB 10.1 and MySQL 5.7

List of all MariaDB 10.1 releases