Table of Contents
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聽2.9.3, 鈥淚nstalling from the Development Source Tree鈥. 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聽1.7.1, 鈥淢ySQL Mailing Lists鈥. All developers at MySQL AB
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!
The MySQL server creates the following threads:
One thread manages TCP/IP file connection requests and creates a new dedicated thread to handle the authentication and SQL statement processing for each connection. (On Unix, this thread also manages Unix socket file connection requests.) On Windows, a similar thread manages shared-memory connection requests, and a thread manages named-pipe connection requests. Every client connection has its own thread, although the manager threads try to avoid creating threads by consulting the thread cache first to see whether a cached thread can be used for a new connection.
On a master replication server, slave server connections are 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.
The 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 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=
option, a dedicated thread is created to flush all tables
every val
val
seconds.
Each table for which INSERT DELAYED
statements are issued gets its own thread.
If the event scheduler is active, there is one thread for the scheduler, and a thread for each event currently running.
mysqladmin processlist only shows the
connection, INSERT DELAYED
, replication
threads, and event threads.
MySQL Enterprise For expert advice on thread management subscribe to the MySQL Network Monitoring and Advisory Service. For more information see, http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html.
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.
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 shell 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, you should try to find out why and
report the problem if it indicates a bug in MySQL. See
Section聽1.8, 鈥淗ow to Report Bugs or Problems鈥.
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 edit
mysql-test-run.pl and change the values of
the master or slave port to one that is available.
In the mysql-test
directory, you can run an
individual test case with ./mysql-test-run
test_name
.
You can use the mysqltest language to write your own test cases. This is documented in the MySQL Test Framework manual, available at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.
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聽1.7.1, 鈥淢ySQL Mailing Lists鈥. This list does not accept
attachments, so you should FTP all the relevant files to:
ftp://ftp.mysql.com/pub/mysql/upload/
MySQL 5.1 and up supports a plugin API that allows the loading and unloading of server components at runtime, without restarting the server. Currently, the plugin API supports creation of full-text parser plugins. Such a plugin can be used to replace or augment the built-in full-text parser. For example, a plugin can parse text into words using rules that differ from those used by the built-in parser. This can be useful if you need to parse text with characteristics different from those expected by the built-in parser.
The plugin interface is intended as the successor to the older user-defined function (UDF) interface. The plugin interface eventually will include an API for creating UDFs, and it is intended this plugin UDF API will replace the older non-plugin UDF API. After that point, it will be possible for UDFs to be revised for use as plugin UDFs so that they can take advantage of the better security and versioning capabilities of the plugin API. Eventually, support for the older UDF API will be phased out.
The plugin interface requires the plugin
table
in the mysql
database. This table is created as
part of the MySQL installation process. If you are upgrading from
an older version to MySQL 5.1, you should run the
mysql_upgrade command to create this table. See
Section聽5.5.7, 鈥mysql_upgrade 鈥 Check Tables for MySQL Upgrade鈥.
In some respects, the plugin API is similar to the older user-defined function (UDF) API that it supersedes, but the plugin API has several advantages over the older interface:
The plugin framework is extendable to accommodate different kinds of plugins.
Some aspects of the plugin API are common to all types of plugins, but the API also allows for type-specific interface elements so that different types of plugins can be created. A plugin with one purpose can have an interface most appropriate to its own requirements and not the requirements of some other plugin type.
Although only the interface for full-text parser plugins is implemented currently, others can be added, such as an interface for UDF plugins.
The plugin API includes versioning information.
The version information included in the plugin API enables a plugin library and each plugin that it contains to be self-identifying with respect to the API version that was used to build the library. If the API changes over time, the version numbers will change, but a server can examine a given plugin library's version information to determine whether it supports the plugins in the library.
There are two types of version numbers. The first is the version for the general plugin framework itself. Each plugin library includes this kind of version number. The second type of version applies to individual plugins. Each specific type of plugin has a version for its interface, so each plugin in a library has a type-specific version number. For example, library containing a full-text parsing plugin has a general plugin API version number, and the plugin has a version number specific to the full-text plugin interface.
Plugin security is improved relative to the UDF interface.
The older interface for writing non-plugin UDFs allowed libraries to be loaded from any directory searched by the system's dynamic linker, and the symbols that identified the UDF library were relatively non-specific. The newer rules are more strict. A plugin library must be installed in a specific dedicated directory for which the location is controlled by the server and cannot be changed at runtime. Also, the library must contain specific symbols that identify it as a plugin library. The server will not load something as a plugin if it was not built as a plugin.
The newer plugin interface eliminates the security issues of the older UDF interface. When a UDF plugin type is implemented, that will allow non-plugin UDFs to be brought into the plugin framework and the older interface to be phased out.
The plugin implementation includes the following components:
Source files (the locations given indicate where the files are found in a MySQL source distribution):
include/mysql/plugin.h
exposes the
public plugin API. This file should be examined by anyone
who wants to write a plugin library.
sql/sql_plugin.h
and
sql/sql_plugin.cc
comprise the internal
plugin implementation. These files need not be consulted by
plugin writers. They may be of interest for those who want
to know more about how the server handles plugins.
System table:
The plugin
table in the
mysql
database lists each installed
plugin and is required for plugin use. For new MySQL
installations, this table is created during the installation
process. If you are upgrading from a version older than
MySQL 5.1, you should run mysql_upgrade
to update your system tables and create the
plugin
table (see
Section聽5.5.7, 鈥mysql_upgrade 鈥 Check Tables for MySQL Upgrade鈥).
SQL statements:
INSTALL PLUGIN
registers a plugin in the
plugin
table and loads the plugin code.
UNINSTALL PLUGIN
unregisters a plugin
from the plugin
table and unloads the
plugin code.
The WITH PARSER
clause for full-text
index creation associates a full-text parser plugin with a
given FULLTEXT
index.
SHOW PLUGINS
displays information about
known plugins. The PLUGINS
table in
INFORMATION_SCHEMA
also contains plugin
information.
System variable:
plugin_dir
indicates the location of the
directory where all plugins must be installed. The value of
this variable can be specified at server startup with a
--plugin_dir=
option.
path
MySQL has a built-in parser that it uses by default for full-text operations (parsing text to be indexed, or parsing a query string to determine the terms to be used for a search). For full-text processing, 鈥parsing鈥 means extracting words from text or a query string based on rules that define which character sequences make up a word and where word boundaries lie.
When parsing for indexing purposes, the parser passes each word to the server, which adds it to a full-text index. When parsing a query string, the parser passes each word to the server, which accumulates the words for use in a search.
The parsing properties of the built-in full-text parser are
described in Section聽12.8, 鈥淔ull-Text Search Functions鈥. These properties
include rules for determining how to extract words from text.
The parser is influenced by certain system variables such as
ft_min_word_len
and
ft_max_word_len
that cause words shorter or
longer to be excluded, and by the stopword list that identifies
common words to be ignored.
The plugin API enables you to provide a full-text parser of your own so that you have control over the basic duties of a parser. A parser plugin can operate in either of two roles:
The plugin can replace the built-in parser. In this role, the plugin reads the input to be parsed, splits it up into words, and passes the words to the server (either for indexing or for word accumulation).
One reason to use a parser this way is that you need to use different rules from those of the built-in parser for determining how to split up input into words. For example, the built-in parser considers the text 鈥case-sensitive鈥 to consist of two words 鈥case鈥 and 鈥sensitive,鈥 whereas an application might need to treat the text as a single word.
The plugin can act in conjunction with the built-in parser
by serving as a front end for it. In this role, the plugin
extracts text from the input and passes the text to the
parser, which splits up the text into words using its normal
parsing rules. In particular, this parsing will be affected
by the ft_
system variables and the stopword list.
xxx
One reason to use a parser this way is that you need to
index content such as PDF documents, XML documents, or
.doc
files. The built-in parser is not
intended for those types of input but a plugin can pull out
the text from these input sources and pass it to the
built-in parser.
It is also possible for a parser plugin to operate in both roles. That is, it could extract text from non-plaintext input (the front end role), and also parse the text into words (thus replacing the built-in parser).
A full-text plugin is associated with full-text indexes on a
per-index basis. That is, when you install a parser plugin
initially, that does not cause it to be used for any full-text
operations. It simply becomes available. For example, a
full-text parser plugin becomes available to be named in a
WITH PARSER
clause when creating individual
FULLTEXT
indexes. To create such an index at
table-creation time, do this:
CREATE TABLE t ( doc CHAR(255), FULLTEXT INDEX (doc) WITH PARSER my_parser );
Or you can add the index after the table has been created:
ALTER TABLE t ADD FULLTEXT INDEX (doc) WITH PARSER my_parser;
The only SQL change for associating the parser with the index is
the WITH PARSER
clause. Searches are
specified as before, with no changes needed for queries.
When you associate a parser plugin with a
FULLTEXT
index, the plugin is required for
using the index. If the parser plugin is dropped, any index
associated with it becomes unusable. Any attempt to use it a
table for which a plugin is not available results in an error,
although DROP TABLE
is still possible.
INSTALL PLUGINplugin_name
SONAME 'plugin_library
'
This statement installs a plugin.
plugin_name
is the name of the plugin
as defined in the plugin declaration structure contained in the
library file. Plugin name case sensitivity is determined by the
host system filename semantics.
plugin_library
is the name of the
shared library that contains the plugin code. The name includes
the filename extension (for example,
libmyplugin.so
or
libmyplugin.dylib
).
The shared library must be located in the plugin directory (that
is, the directory named by the plugin_dir
system variable). The library must be in the plugin directory
itself, not in a subdirectory. By default,
plugin_dir
is the directory named by the
pkglibdir
configuration variable, but it can
be changed by setting the value of plugin_dir
at server startup. For example, set its value in a
my.cnf
file:
[mysqld]
plugin_dir=/path/to/plugin/directory
If the value of plugin_dir
is a relative
pathname, it is taken to be relative to the MySQL base directory
(the value of the basedir
system variable).
INSTALL PLUGIN
adds a line to the
mysql.plugin
table that describes the
plugin
. This table contains the plugin name
and library filename.
INSTALL PLUGIN
also loads and initializes the
plugin code to make the plugin available for use. A plugin is
initialized by executing its initialization function, which
handles any setup that the plugin must perform before it can be
used.
To use INSTALL PLUGIN
, you must have the
INSERT privilege
for the
mysql.plugin
table.
At server startup, the server loads and initializes any plugin
that is listed in the mysql.plugin
table.
This means that a plugin is installed with INSTALL
PLUGIN
only once, not every time the server starts.
Plugin loading at startup does not occur if the server is
started with the --skip-grant-tables
option.
When the server shuts down, it executes the deinitialization function for each plugin that is loaded so that the plugin has a change to perform any final cleanup.
To remove a plugin entirely, use the UNINSTALL
PLUGIN
statement:
To see what plugins are installed, use the SHOW
PLUGIN
statement.
If you recompile a plugin library and need to reinstall it, you can use either of the following procedures:
Use UNINSTALL PLUGIN
to uninstall all
plugins in the library, install the new plugin library file
in the plugin directory, and then use INSTALL
PLUGIN
to install all plugins in the library. This
procedure has the advantage that it can be used without
stopping the server. However, if the plugin library contains
many plugins, you must issue many INSTALL
PLUGIN
and UNINSTALL PLUGIN
statements.
Alternatively, stop the server, install the new plugin library file in the plugin directory, and then restart the server.
UNINSTALL PLUGIN plugin_name
This statement removes an installed plugin. You cannot uninstall a plugin if any table that uses it is open.
plugin_name
must be the name of some
plugin that is listed in the mysql.plugin
table. The server executes the plugin's deinitialization
function and removes the row for the plugin from the
mysql.plugin
table, so that subsequent server
restarts will not load and initialize the plugin.
UNINSTALL PLUGIN
does not remove the plugin's
shared library file.
To use UNINSTALL PLUGIN
, you must have the
DELETE
privilege for the
mysql.plugin
table.
Plugin removal has implications for the use of associated
tables. For example, if a full-text parser plugin is associated
with a FULLTEXT
index on the table,
uninstalling the plugin makes the table unusable. Any attempt to
access the table results in an error. The table cannot even be
opened, so you cannot drop an index for which the plugin is
used. This means that uninstalling a plugin is something to do
with care unless you do not care about the table contents. If
you are uninstalling a plugin with no intention of reinstalling
it later and you care about the table contents, you should dump
the table with mysqldump and remove the
WITH PARSER
clause from the dumped
CREATE TABLE
statement so that you can reload
the table later. If you do not care about the table,
DROP TABLE
can be used even if any plugins
associated with the table are missing.
This section describes the general and type-specific parts of
the plugin API. It also provides a step-by-step guide to
creating a plugin library. For example plugin source code, see
the plugin/fulltext
directory of a MySQL
source distribution.
You can write plugins in C or C++ (or another language that can use C calling conventions). Plugins are loaded and unloaded dynamically, so your operating system must support dynamic loading and you must have compiled mysqld dynamically (not statically).
A plugin contains code that becomes part of the running server,
so when you write a plugin, 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. These constraints
may change in future versions of the server, so it is possible
that server upgrades will require revisions to plugins that were
originally written for older servers. For information about
these constraints, see Section聽2.9.2, 鈥淭ypical configure Options鈥, and
Section聽2.9.4, 鈥淒ealing with Problems Compiling MySQL鈥.
Every plugin must have a general plugin declaration. The
declaration corresponds to the
st_mysql_plugin
structure in the
plugin.h
file:
struct st_mysql_plugin { int type; /* the plugin type (a MYSQL_XXX_PLUGIN value) */ void *info; /* pointer to type-specific plugin descriptor */ const char *name; /* plugin name */ const char *author; /* plugin author (for SHOW PLUGINS) */ const char *descr; /* general descriptive text (for SHOW PLUGINS ) */ int license; /* the plugin license (PLUGIN_LICENSE_XXX) */ int (*init)(void *); /* the function to invoke when plugin is loaded */ int (*deinit)(void *);/* the function to invoke when plugin is unloaded */ unsigned int version; /* plugin version (for SHOW PLUGINS) */ struct st_mysql_show_var *status_vars; void * __reserved1; /* placeholder for system variables */ void * __reserved2; /* placeholder for config options */ };
The st_mysql_plugin
structure is common to
every type of plugin. Its members should be filled in as
follows:
type
The plugin type. This must be one of the plugin-type
values from plugin.h
. For a full-text
parser plugin, the type
value is
MYSQL_FTPARSER_PLUGIN
.
info
A pointer to the descriptor for the plugin. Unlike the general plugin declaration structure, this descriptor's structure depends on the particular type of plugin. Each descriptor has a version number that indicates the API version for that type of plugin, plus any other members needed. The descriptor for full-text plugins is described in Section聽26.2.5.2, 鈥淭ype-Specific Plugin Structures and Functions鈥.
name
The plugin name. This is the name that will be listed in
the plugin
table and by which you refer
to the plugin in SQL statements such as INSTALL
PLUGIN
and UNINSTALL PLUGIN
.
author
The plugin author. This can be whatever you like.
desc
A general description of the plugin. This can be whatever you like.
license
The plugin license type. The value can be one of
PLUGIN_LICENSE_PROPRIETARY
,
PLUGIN_LICENSE_GPL
, or
PLUGIN_LICENSE_BSD
.
init
A once-only initialization function. This is executed when
the plugin is loaded, which happens for INSTALL
PLUGIN
or, for plugins listed in the
plugin
table, at server startup. The
function takes no arguments. It returns zero for success
and non-zero for failure. If an init
function is unneeded for a plugin, it can be specified as
0.
deinit
A once-only deinitialization function. This is executed
when the plugin is unloaded, which happens for
UNINSTALL PLUGIN
or, for plugins listed
in the plugin
table, at server
shutdown. The function takes no arguments. It returns zero
for success and non-zero for failure. If a
deinit
function is unneeded for a
plugin, it can be specified as 0.
version
The plugin version number. When the plugin is installed,
this value can be retrieved from the
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PLUGINS
table. The
value includes major and minor numbers. If you write the
value as a hex constant, the format is
0x
,
where MMNN
MM
and
NN
are the major and minor numbers,
respectively. For example, 0x0302
represents version 3.2.
status_vars
A pointer to a structure for status variables associated
with the plugin, or 0 if there are no such variables. When
the plugin is installed, these variables are displayed in
the output of the SHOW STATUS
statement.
__reserved1
,
__reserved2
These are placeholders for the future. Currently, they
should be set to NULL
.
The init
and deinit
functions in the general plugin declaration are invoked only
when loading and unloading the plugin. They have nothing to do
with use of the plugin such as happens when an SQL statement
causes the plugin to be invoked.
The status_vars
member, if not 0, points to
an array of st_mysql_show_var
structures,
each of which describes one status variable, followed by a
structure with all members set to 0. The
st_mysql_show_var
structure has this
definition:
struct st_mysql_show_var { const char *name; char *value; enum enum_mysql_show_type type; };
When the plugin is installed, the plugin name and the
name
value are joined with an underscore to
form the name displayed by SHOW STATUS
.
The following table shows the allowable status variable
type
values and what the corresponding
variable should be:
Type | Meaning |
SHOW_BOOL | Pointer to a boolean variable |
SHOW_INT | Pointer to an integer variable |
SHOW_LONG | Pointer to a long integer variable |
SHOW_LONGLONG | Pointer to a longlong integer variable |
SHOW_CHAR | A string |
SHOW_CHAR_PTR | Pointer to a string |
SHOW_ARRAY | Pointer to another st_mysql_show_var array |
SHOW_FUNC | Pointer to a function |
For the SHOW_FUNC
type, the function is
called and fills in its out
parameter,
which then provides information about the variable to be
displayed. The function has this calling sequence:
#define SHOW_VAR_FUNC_BUFF_SIZE 1024 typedef int (*mysql_show_var_func) (void *thd, struct st_mysql_show_var *out, char *buf);
Plugins should consider the thd
parameter
to be read-only.
In the st_mysql_plugin
structure that
defines a plugin's general declaration, the
info
member points to a type-specific
plugin descriptor. For a full-text parser plugin, the
descriptor corresponds to the
st_mysql_ftparser
structure in the
plugin.h
file:
struct st_mysql_ftparser { int interface_version; int (*parse)(MYSQL_FTPARSER_PARAM *param); int (*init)(MYSQL_FTPARSER_PARAM *param); int (*deinit)(MYSQL_FTPARSER_PARAM *param); };
As shown by the structure definition, the descriptor has a
version number
(MYSQL_FTPARSER_INTERFACE_VERSION
for
full-text parser plugins) and contains pointers to three
functions. The init
and
deinit
members should point to a function
or be set to 0 if the function is not needed. The
parse
member must point to the function
that performs the parsing.
A full-text parser plugin is used in two different contexts, indexing and searching. In both contexts, the server calls the initialization and deinitialization functions at the beginning and end of processing each SQL statement that causes the plugin to be invoked. However, during statement processing, the server calls the main parsing function in context-specific fashion:
For indexing, the server calls the parser for each column value to be indexed.
For searching, the server calls the parser to parse the
search string. The parser might also be called for rows
processed by the statement. In natural language mode,
there is no need for the server to call the parser. For
boolean mode phrase searches or natural language searches
with query expansion, the parser is used to parse column
values for information that is not in the index. Also, if
a boolean mode search is done for a column that has no
FULLTEXT
index, the built-in parser
will be called. (Plugins are associated with specific
indexes. If there is no index, no plugin is used.)
Note that the plugin declaration in the plugin library descriptor has initialization and deinitialization functions, and so does the plugin descriptor to which it points. These pairs of functions have different purposes and are invoked for different reasons:
For the plugin declaration in the plugin library descriptor, the initialization and deinitialization functions are invoked when the plugin is loaded and unloaded.
For the plugin descriptor, the initialization and deinitialization functions are invoked per SQL statement for which the plugin is used.
Each interface function named in the plugin descriptor should
return zero for success or non-zero for failure, and each of
them receives an argument that points to a
MYSQL_FTPARSER_PARAM
structure containing
the parsing context. The structure has this definition:
typedef struct st_mysql_ftparser_param { int (*mysql_parse)(struct st_mysql_ftparser_param *, char *doc, int doc_len); int (*mysql_add_word)(struct st_mysql_ftparser_param *, char *word, int word_len, MYSQL_FTPARSER_BOOLEAN_INFO *boolean_info); void *ftparser_state; void *mysql_ftparam; struct charset_info_st *cs; char *doc; int length; int flags; enum enum_ftparser_mode mode; } MYSQL_FTPARSER_PARAM;
Note: The definition shown is current as of MySQL 5.1.12. It is incompatible with versions of MySQL 5.1 older than 5.1.12.
The structure members are used as follows:
mysql_parse
A pointer to a callback function that invokes the server's
built-in parser. Use this callback when the plugin acts as
a front end to the built-in parser. That is, when the
plugin parsing function is called, it should process the
input to extract the text and pass the text to the
mysql_parse
callback.
The first parameter for this callback function should be
the param
value itself:
param->mysql_parse(param, ...);
A front end plugin can extract text and pass it all at once to the built-in parser, or it can extract and pass text to the built-in parser a piece at a time. However, in this case, the built-in parser treats the pieces of text as though there are implicit word breaks between them.
mysql_add_word
A pointer to a callback function that adds a word to a
full-text index or to the list of search terms. Use this
callback when the parser plugin replaces the built-in
parser. That is, when the plugin parsing function is
called, it should parse the input into words and invoke
the mysql_add_word
callback for each
word.
The first parameter for this callback function should be
the param
value itself:
param->mysql_add_word(param, ...);
ftparser_state
This is a generic pointer. The plugin can set it to point to information to be used internally for its own purposes.
mysql_ftparam
This is set by the server. It is passed as the first
argument to the mysql_parse
or
mysql_add_word
callback.
cs
A pointer to information about the character set of the text, or 0 if no information is available.
doc
A pointer to the text to be parsed.
length
The length of the text to be parsed, in bytes.
flags
Parser flags. This is zero if there are no special flags.
Currently, the only non-zero flag is
MYSQL_FTFLAGS_NEED_COPY
, which means
that mysql_add_word()
must save a copy
of the word (that is, it cannot use a pointer to the word
because the word is in a buffer that will be overwritten.)
This member was added in MySQL 5.1.12.
This flag might be set or reset by MySQL before calling
the parser plugin, by the parser plugin itself, or by the
mysql_parse()
function.
mode
The parsing mode. This value will be one of the folowing constants:
MYSQL_FTPARSER_SIMPLE_MODE
Parse in fast and simple mode, which is used for indexing and for natural language queries. The parser should pass to the server only those words that should be indexed. If the parser uses length limits or a stopword list to determine which words to ignore, it should not pass such words to the server.
MYSQL_FTPARSER_WITH_STOPWORDS
Parse in stopword mode. This is used in boolean searches for phrase matching. The parser should pass all words to the server, even stopwords or words that are outside any normal length limits.
MYSQL_FTPARSER_FULL_BOOLEAN_INFO
Parse in boolean mode. This is used for parsing
boolean query strings. The parser should recognize not
only words but also boolean-mode operators and pass
them to the server as tokens via the
mysql_add_word
callback. To tell
the server what kind of token is being passed, the
plugin needs to fill in a
MYSQL_FTPARSER_BOOLEAN_INFO
structure and pass a pointer to it.
If the parser is called in boolean mode, the
param->mode
value will be
MYSQL_FTPARSER_FULL_BOOLEAN_INFO
. The
MYSQL_FTPARSER_BOOLEAN_INFO
structure that
the parser uses for passing token information to the server
looks like this:
typedef struct st_mysql_ftparser_boolean_info { enum enum_ft_token_type type; int yesno; int weight_adjust; bool wasign; bool trunc; /* These are parser state and must be removed. */ byte prev; byte *quot; } MYSQL_FTPARSER_BOOLEAN_INFO;
The parser should fill in the structure members as follows:
type
The token type. This should be one of values shown in the following table:
Type | Meaning |
FT_TOKEN_EOF | End of data |
FT_TOKEN_WORD | A regular word |
FT_TOKEN_LEFT_PAREN | The beginning of a group or subexpression |
FT_TOKEN_RIGHT_PAREN | The end of a group or subexpression |
FT_TOKEN_STOPWORD | A stopword |
yesno
Whether the word must be present for a match to occur. 0 means that the word is optional but increases the match relevance if it is present. Values larger than 0 mean that the word must be present. Values smaller than 0 mean that the word must not be present.
weight_adjust
A weighting factor that determines how much a match for
the word counts. It can be used to increase or decrease
the word's importance in relevance calculations. A value
of zero indicates no weight adjustment. Values greater
than or less than zero mean higher or lower weight,
respectively. The examples at
Section聽12.8.1, 鈥淏oolean Full-Text Searches鈥, that use the
<
and >
operators illustrate how weighting works.
wasign
The sign of the weighting factor. A negative value acts
like the ~
boolean-search operator,
which causes the word's contribution to the relevance to
be negative.
trunc
Whether matching should be done as if the boolean-mode
*
truncation operator had been given.
Plugins should not use the prev
and
quot
members of the
MYSQL_FTPARSER_BOOLEAN_INFO
structure.
This section provides a step-by-step procedure for creating a
plugin library. It shows how to develop a library that
contains a full-text parsing plugin named
simple_parser
. This plugin performs parsing
based on simpler rules than those used by the MySQL built-in
full-text parser: Words are non-empty runs of whitespace
characters.
Each plugin library has the following contents:
A plugin library descriptor that indicates the version number of the general plugin API that the library uses and that contains a general declaration for each plugin in the library.
Each plugin general declaration contains information that is common to all types of plugin: A value that indicates the plugin type; the plugin name, author, description, and license type; and pointers to the initialization and deinitialization functions that the server invokes when it loads and unloads the plugin.
The plugin general declaration also contains a pointer to a type-specific plugin descriptor. The structure of these descriptors can vary from one plugin type to another, because each type of plugin can have its own API. A plugin descriptor contains a type-specific API version number and pointers to the functions that are needed to implement that plugin type. For example, a full-text parser plugin has initialization and deinitialization functions, and a main parsing function. The server invokes these functions when it uses the plugin to parse text.
The plugin library contains the interface functions that are referenced by the library descriptor and by the plugin descriptors.
The easiest way to follow the instructions in this section is
to use the source code in the
plugin/fulltext
directory of a MySQL
source distribution. The instructions assume that you make a
copy of that directory and use it to build the plugin library.
To make a copy of the directory, use the following commands,
which assume that the MySQL source tree is in a directory
named mysql-5.1
under your
current directory:
shell>mkdir fulltext_plugin
shell>cp mysql-5.1/plugin/fulltext/* fulltext_plugin
If you are copying files from a BitKeeper source tree,
cp will display an error message about the
SCCS
directory, which you can ignore.
After copying the source files, use the following procedure to create a plugin library:
Change location into the
fulltext_plugin
directory:
shell> cd fulltext_plugin
The plugin source file should include the header files
that the plugin library needs. The
plugin.h
file is required, and the
library might require other files as well. For example:
#include <stdlib.h> #include <ctype.h> #include <mysql/plugin.h>
Set up the plugin library file descriptor.
Every plugin library must include a library descriptor that must define two symbols:
_mysql_plugin_interface_version_
specifies the version number of the general plugin
framework. This is given by the
MYSQL_PLUGIN_INTERFACE_VERSION
symbol, which is defined in the
plugin.h
file.
_mysql_plugin_declarations_
defines
an array of plugin declarations, terminated by a
declaration with all members set to 0. Each
declaration is an instance of the
st_mysql_plugin
structure (also
defined in plugin.h
). There must
be one of these for each plugin in the library.
If the server does not find these two symbols in a library, it does not accept it as a legal plugin library and rejects it with an error. This prevents use of a library for plugin purposes unless it was built specifically as a plugin library.
The standard (and most convenient) way to define the two
required symbols is by using the
mysql_declare_plugin
and
mysql_declare_plugin_end
macros from
the plugin.h
file:
mysql_declare_plugin
... one or more plugin declarations here ...
mysql_declare_plugin_end;
For example, the library descriptor for a library that
contains a single plugin named
simple_parser
looks like this:
mysql_declare_plugin { MYSQL_FTPARSER_PLUGIN, /* type */ &simple_parser_descriptor, /* descriptor */ "simple_parser", /* name */ "MySQL AB", /* author */ "Simple Full-Text Parser", /* description */ PLUGIN_LICENSE_GPL, /* plugin license */ simple_parser_plugin_init, /* init function (when loaded) */ simple_parser_plugin_deinit,/* deinit function (when unloaded) */ 0x0001, /* version */ simple_status /* status variables */ } mysql_declare_plugin_end;
For a full-text parser plugin, the type must be
MYSQL_FTPARSER_PLUGIN
. This is the
value that identifies the plugin as being legal for use in
a WITH PARSER
clause when creating a
FULLTEXT
index. (No other plugin type
is legal for this clause.)
The mysql_declare_plugin
and
mysql_declare_plugin_end
macros are
defined in plugin.h
like this:
#ifndef MYSQL_DYNAMIC_PLUGIN #define __MYSQL_DECLARE_PLUGIN(NAME, VERSION, PSIZE, DECLS) \ int VERSION= MYSQL_PLUGIN_INTERFACE_VERSION; \ int PSIZE= sizeof(struct st_mysql_plugin); \ struct st_mysql_plugin DECLS[]= { #else #define __MYSQL_DECLARE_PLUGIN(NAME, VERSION, PSIZE, DECLS) \ int _mysql_plugin_interface_version_= MYSQL_PLUGIN_INTERFACE_VERSION; \ int _mysql_sizeof_struct_st_plugin_= sizeof(struct st_mysql_plugin); \ struct st_mysql_plugin _mysql_plugin_declarations_[]= { #endif #define mysql_declare_plugin(NAME) \ __MYSQL_DECLARE_PLUGIN(NAME, \ builtin_ ## NAME ## _plugin_interface_version, \ builtin_ ## NAME ## _sizeof_struct_st_plugin, \ builtin_ ## NAME ## _plugin) #define mysql_declare_plugin_end ,{0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0}}
One point to note about those definitions is that the
_mysql_plugin_interface_version_
symbol
is defined only if the
MYSQL_DYNAMIC_PLUGIN
symbol is defined.
This means that you'll need to provide
-DMYSQL_DYNAMIC_PLUGIN
as part of the
compilation command when you build the plugin.
When the macros are used as just shown, they expand to the
following code, which defines both of the required symbols
(_mysql_plugin_interface_version_
and
_mysql_plugin_declarations_
):
int _mysql_plugin_interface_version_= MYSQL_PLUGIN_INTERFACE_VERSION; struct st_mysql_plugin _mysql_plugin_declarations_[]= { { MYSQL_FTPARSER_PLUGIN, /* type */ &simple_parser_descriptor, /* descriptor */ "simple_parser", /* name */ "MySQL AB", /* author */ "Simple Full-Text Parser", /* description */ PLUGIN_LICENSE_GPL, /* plugin license */ simple_parser_plugin_init, /* init function (when loaded) */ simple_parser_plugin_deinit,/* deinit function (when unloaded) */ 0x0001, /* version */ simple_status /* status variables */ } ,{0,0,0,0,0,0,00,0} };
The preceding example declares a single plugin in the
library descriptor, but it is possible to declare multiple
plugins. List the declarations one after the other between
mysql_declare_plugin
and
mysql_declare_plugin_end
, separated by
commas.
MySQL plugins can be written in C or C++ (or another
language that can use C calling conventions). One feature
of C++ is that you can use non-constant variables to
initialize global structures. However, if you write a C++
plugin, you should not use this feature. Members of
structures such as the st_mysql_plugin
structure should be initialized with constant variables.
See the discussion at the end of this section that
describes some legal and illegal initializers for plugins.
Set up the plugin descriptor.
Each plugin declaration in the library descriptor points
to a type-specific descriptor for the corresponding
plugin. In the simple_parser
declaration, that descriptor is indicated by
&simple_parser_descriptor
. The
descriptor specifies the version number for the full-text
plugin interface (as given by
MYSQL_FTPARSER_INTERFACE_VERSION
), and
the plugin's parsing, initialization, and deinitialization
functions:
static struct st_mysql_ftparser simple_parser_descriptor= { MYSQL_FTPARSER_INTERFACE_VERSION, /* interface version */ simple_parser_parse, /* parsing function */ simple_parser_init, /* parser init function */ simple_parser_deinit /* parser deinit function */ };
Set up the plugin interface functions.
The general plugin declaration in the library descriptor
names the initialization and deinitialization functions
that the server should invoke when it loads and unloads
the plugin. For simple_parser
, these
functions do nothing but return zero to indicate that they
succeeded:
static int simple_parser_plugin_init(void) { return(0); } static int simple_parser_plugin_deinit(void) { return(0); }
Because those functions do not actually do anything, you could omit them and specify 0 for each of them in the plugin declaration.
The type-specific plugin descriptor for
simple_parser
names the initialization,
deinitialization, and parsing functions that the server
invokes when the plugin is used. For
simple_parser
, the initialization and
deinitialization functions do nothing:
static int simple_parser_init(MYSQL_FTPARSER_PARAM *param) { return(0); } static int simple_parser_deinit(MYSQL_FTPARSER_PARAM *param) { return(0); }
Here too, because those functions do nothing, you could omit them and specify 0 for each of them in the plugin descriptor.
The main parsing function,
simple_parser_parse()
, acts as a
replacement for the built-in full-text parser, so it needs
to split text into words and pass each word to the server.
The parsing function's first argument is a pointer to a
structure that contains the parsing context. This
structure has a doc
member that points
to the text to be parsed, and a length
member that indicates how long the text is. The simple
parsing done by the plugin considers non-empty runs of
whitespace characters to be words, so it identifies words
like this:
static int simple_parser_parse(MYSQL_FTPARSER_PARAM *param) { char *end, *start, *docend= param->doc + param->length; for (end= start= param->doc;; end++) { if (end == docend) { if (end > start) add_word(param, start, end - start); break; } else if (isspace(*end)) { if (end > start) add_word(param, start, end - start); start= end + 1; } } return(0); }
As the parser finds each word, it invokes a function
add_word()
to pass the word to the
server. add_word()
is a helper function
only; it is not part of the plugin interface. The parser
passes the parsing context pointer to
add_word()
, as well as a pointer to the
word and a length value:
static void add_word(MYSQL_FTPARSER_PARAM *param, char *word, size_t len) { MYSQL_FTPARSER_BOOLEAN_INFO bool_info= { FT_TOKEN_WORD, 0, 0, 0, 0, ' ', 0 }; param->mysql_add_word(param, word, len, &bool_info); }
For boolean-mode parsing, add_word()
fills in the members of the bool_info
structure as described in
Section聽26.2.5.2, 鈥淭ype-Specific Plugin Structures and Functions鈥.
Set up the status variables, if there are any. For the
simple_parser
plugin, the following
status variable array sets up one status variable with a
value that is static text, and another with a value that
is stored in a long integer variable:
long number_of_calls= 0; struct st_mysql_show_var simple_status[]= { {"static", (char *)"just a static text", SHOW_CHAR}, {"called", (char *)&number_of_calls, SHOW_LONG}, {0,0,0} };
When the plugin is installed, the plugin name and the
name
value are joined with an
underscore to form the name displayed by SHOW
STATUS
. For the array just shown, the resulting
status variable names are
simple_parser_static
and
simple_parser_called
. This convention
means that you can easily display the variables for a
plugin using its name:
mysql> SHOW STATUS LIKE 'simple_parser%';
+----------------------+--------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+----------------------+--------------------+
| simple_parser_static | just a static text |
| simple_parser_called | 0 |
+----------------------+--------------------+
Compile the plugin library as a shared library and install it in the plugin directory.
Note: As mentioned
earlier, be sure to specify
-DMYSQL_DYNAMIC_PLUGIN
as part of the
compilation command when you build the plugin.
The procedure for compiling shared objects varies from
system to system. If you build your library using the GNU
autotools, libtool should be able to
generate the correct compilation commands for your system.
If the library is named mypluglib
, you
should end up with a shared object file that has a name
something like libmypluglib.so
. (The
filename might have a different extension on your system.)
To use the autotools, you'll need to make a few changes to
the configuration files at this point to enable the plugin
to be compiled and installed. Assume that your MySQL
distribution is installed at a base directory of
/usr/local/mysql
and that its header
files are located in the include
directory under the base directory.
Edit Makefile.am
, which should look
something like this:
#Makefile.am example for a plugin pkglibdir=$(libdir)/mysql INCLUDES= -I$(top_builddir)/include -I$(top_srcdir)/include #noinst_LTLIBRARIES= mypluglib.la pkglib_LTLIBRARIES= mypluglib.la mypluglib_la_SOURCES= plugin_example.c mypluglib_la_LDFLAGS= -module -rpath $(pkglibdir) mypluglib_la_CFLAGS= -DMYSQL_DYNAMIC_PLUGIN
The mypluglib_la_CFLAGS
line takes care
of passing the -DMYSQL_DYNAMIC_PLUGIN
flag to the compilation command.
Adjust the INCLUDES
line to specify the
pathname to the installed MySQL header files. Edit it to
look like this:
INCLUDES= -I/usr/local/mysql/include
Make sure that the noinst_LTLIBRARIES
line is commented out or remove it. Make sure that the
pkglib_LTLIBRARIES
line is not
commented out; it enables the make
install command.
Set up the files needed for the configure command, invoke it, and run make:
shell>autoreconf --force --install --symlink
shell>./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
shell>make
The --prefix
option to
configure indicates the MySQL base
directory under which the plugin should be installed. You
can see what value to use for this option with
SHOW VARIABLES
:
mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'basedir';
+---------------+------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+---------------+------------------+
| base | /usr/local/mysql |
+---------------+------------------+
The location of the plugin directory where you should
install the library is given by the
plugin_dir
system variable. For
example:
mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'plugin_dir';
+---------------+----------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+---------------+----------------------------+
| plugin_dir | /usr/local/mysql/lib/mysql |
+---------------+----------------------------+
To install the plugin library, use make:
shell> make install
Verify that make install installed the plugin library in the proper directory. After installing it, make sure that the library permissions allow it to be executed by the server.
Register the plugin with the server.
The INSTALL PLUGIN
statement causes the
server to list the plugin in the plugin
table and to load the plugin code from the library file.
Use that statement to register
simple_parser
with the server, and then
verify that the plugin is listed in the
plugin
table:
mysql>INSTALL PLUGIN simple_parser SONAME 'libmypluglib.so';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT * FROM mysql.plugin;
+---------------+-----------------+ | name | dl | +---------------+-----------------+ | simple_parser | libmypluglib.so | +---------------+-----------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
Try the plugin.
Create a table that contains a string column and associate
the parser plugin with a FULLTEXT
index
on the column:
mysql>CREATE TABLE t (c VARCHAR(255),
->FULLTEXT (c) WITH PARSER simple_parser);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
Insert some text into the table and try some searches. These should verify that the parser plugin treats all non-whitespace characters as word characters:
mysql>INSERT INTO t VALUES
->('latin1_general_cs is a case-sensitive collation'),
->('I\'d like a case of oranges'),
->('this is sensitive information'),
->('another row'),
->('yet another row');
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.02 sec) Records: 5 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0 mysql>SELECT c FROM t;
+-------------------------------------------------+ | c | +-------------------------------------------------+ | latin1_general_cs is a case-sensitive collation | | I'd like a case of oranges | | this is sensitive information | | another row | | yet another row | +-------------------------------------------------+ 5 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT MATCH(c) AGAINST('case') FROM t;
+--------------------------+ | MATCH(c) AGAINST('case') | +--------------------------+ | 0 | | 1.2968142032623 | | 0 | | 0 | | 0 | +--------------------------+ 5 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT MATCH(c) AGAINST('sensitive') FROM t;
+-------------------------------+ | MATCH(c) AGAINST('sensitive') | +-------------------------------+ | 0 | | 0 | | 1.3253291845322 | | 0 | | 0 | +-------------------------------+ 5 rows in set (0.01 sec) mysql>SELECT MATCH(c) AGAINST('case-sensitive') FROM t;
+------------------------------------+ | MATCH(c) AGAINST('case-sensitive') | +------------------------------------+ | 1.3109166622162 | | 0 | | 0 | | 0 | | 0 | +------------------------------------+ 5 rows in set (0.01 sec) mysql>SELECT MATCH(c) AGAINST('I\'d') FROM t;
+--------------------------+ | MATCH(c) AGAINST('I\'d') | +--------------------------+ | 0 | | 1.2968142032623 | | 0 | | 0 | | 0 | +--------------------------+ 5 rows in set (0.01 sec)
Note how neither 鈥case鈥 nor 鈥insensitive鈥 match 鈥case-insensitive鈥 the way that they would for the built-in parser.
MySQL plugins can be written in C or C++ (or another language
that can use C calling conventions). One feature of C++ is
that you can use non-constant variables to initialize global
structures. However, if you write a C++ plugin, you should not
use this feature. Members of structures such as the
st_mysql_plugin
structure should be
initialized with constant variables. The
simple_parser
descriptor shown earlier is
allowable in a C++ plugin because it satisfies that
requirement:
mysql_declare_plugin { MYSQL_FTPARSER_PLUGIN, /* type */ &simple_parser_descriptor, /* descriptor */ "simple_parser", /* name */ "MySQL AB", /* author */ "Simple Full-Text Parser", /* description */ PLUGIN_LICENSE_GPL, /* plugin license */ simple_parser_plugin_init, /* init function (when loaded) */ simple_parser_plugin_deinit,/* deinit function (when unloaded) */ 0x0001, /* version */ simple_status /* status variables */ } mysql_declare_plugin_end;
Here is another valid way to write the descriptor. It uses constant variables to indicate the plugin name, author, and description:
const char *simple_parser_name = "simple_parser"; const char *simple_parser_author = "MySQL AB"; const char *simple_parser_description = "Simple Full-Text Parser"; mysql_declare_plugin { MYSQL_FTPARSER_PLUGIN, /* type */ &simple_parser_descriptor, /* descriptor */ simple_parser_name, /* name */ simple_parser_author, /* author */ simple_parser_description, /* description */ PLUGIN_LICENSE_GPL, /* plugin license */ simple_parser_plugin_init, /* init function (when loaded) */ simple_parser_plugin_deinit,/* deinit function (when unloaded) */ 0x0001, /* version */ simple_status /* status variables */ } mysql_declare_plugin_end;
However, the following descriptor is invalid. It uses structure members to indicate the plugin name, author, and description, but structures are not considered constant initializers in C++:
typedef struct { const char *name; const char *author; const char *description; } plugin_info; plugin_info parser_info = { "simple_parser", "MySQL AB", "Simple Full-Text Parser" }; mysql_declare_plugin { MYSQL_FTPARSER_PLUGIN, /* type */ &simple_parser_descriptor, /* descriptor */ parser_info.name, /* name */ parser_info.author, /* author */ parser_info.description, /* description */ PLUGIN_LICENSE_GPL, /* plugin license */ simple_parser_plugin_init, /* init function (when loaded) */ simple_parser_plugin_deinit,/* deinit function (when unloaded) */ 0x0001, /* version */ simple_status /* status variables */ } mysql_declare_plugin_end;
There are two ways to add new functions to MySQL:
You can add functions through the user-defined function (UDF)
interface. User-defined functions are compiled as object files
and then added to and removed from the server dynamically
using the CREATE FUNCTION
and DROP
FUNCTION
statements. See
Section聽26.3.2, 鈥CREATE FUNCTION
Syntax鈥.
You can add functions as native (built-in) MySQL functions. Native functions are compiled into the mysqld server and become available on a permanent basis.
Each method 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()
.
Another way to add functions is by creating stored functions. These are written using SQL statements rather than by compiling object code. The syntax for writing stored functions is described in Chapter聽18, Stored Procedures and Functions.
See Section聽9.2.4, 鈥淔unction Name Parsing and Resolution鈥, 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.
The MySQL interface for user-defined functions provides the following features and capabilities:
Functions can return string, integer, or real values.
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 and types 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.
CREATE [AGGREGATE] FUNCTIONfunction_name
RETURNS {STRING|INTEGER|REAL|DECIMAL} SONAMEshared_library_name
A user-defined function (UDF) is a way to extend MySQL with a
new function that works like a native (built-in) MySQL function
such as ABS()
or CONCAT()
.
function_name
is the name that should
be used in SQL statements to invoke the function. The
RETURNS
clause indicates the type of the
function's return value. DECIMAL
is a legal
value after RETURNS
, but currently
DECIMAL
functions return string values and
should be written like STRING
functions.
shared_library_name
is the basename
of the shared object file that contains the code that implements
the function. The file must be located in the plugin directory.
This directory is given by the value of the
plugin_dir
system variable.
(Note: This a change in MySQL
5.1. For earlier versions of MySQL, the shared object can be
located in any directory that is searched by your system's
dynamic linker.)
To create a function, you must have the
INSERT
and privilege for the
mysql
database. This is necessary because
CREATE FUNCTION
adds a row to the
mysql.func
system table that records the
function's name, type, and shared library name. If you do not
have this table, you should run the
mysql_upgrade command to create it. See
Section聽5.5.7, 鈥mysql_upgrade 鈥 Check Tables for MySQL Upgrade鈥.
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.
For instructions on writing user-defined functions, see Section聽26.3.4, 鈥淎dding a New User-Defined Function鈥. For the UDF mechanism to work, functions must be written in C or C++ (or another language that can use C calling conventions), your operating system must support dynamic loading and you must have compiled mysqld dynamically (not statically).
An AGGREGATE
function works exactly like a
native MySQL aggregate (summary) function such as
SUM
or COUNT()
. For
AGGREGATE
to work, your
mysql.func
table must contain a
type
column. If your
mysql.func
table does not have this column,
you should run the mysql_upgrade program to
create it (see Section聽5.5.7, 鈥mysql_upgrade 鈥 Check Tables for MySQL Upgrade鈥).
DROP FUNCTION function_name
This statement drops the user-defined function (UDF) named
function_name
.
To drop a function, you must have the DELETE
privilege for the mysql
database. This is
because DROP FUNCTION
removes a row from the
mysql.func
system table that records the
function's name, type, and shared library name.
For the UDF mechanism to work, functions must be written in C or
C++ 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. 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聽2.9.2, 鈥淭ypical configure Options鈥, and
Section聽2.9.4, 鈥淒ealing with Problems Compiling MySQL鈥.
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 鈥xxx鈥 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.
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 Type | C/C++ Type |
STRING | char * |
INTEGER | long long |
REAL | double |
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()
(required in
5.1)
Reset the current aggregate value but do not insert the argument as the initial aggregate value for a new group.
xxx_add()
(required)
Add the argument to the current aggregate value.
MySQL handles aggregate UDFs as follows:
Call xxx_init()
to let the aggregate
function allocate any memory it needs for storing results.
Sort the table according to the GROUP BY
expression.
Call xxx_clear()
for the first row in
each new group.
Call xxx_add()
for each new row that
belongs in the same group.
Call xxx()
to get the result for the
aggregate when the group changes or after the last row has
been processed.
Repeat 3-5 until all rows has been processed
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()
.
This section describes the different functions that you need to define when you create a simple UDF. Section聽26.3.4, 鈥淎dding a New User-Defined Function鈥, 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.
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.
This section describes the different functions that you need to define when you create an aggregate UDF. Section聽26.3.4, 鈥淎dding a New User-Defined Function鈥, 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:
char *xxx_reset(UDF_INIT *initid, UDF_ARGS *args, char *is_null, char *error);
xxx_reset()
is not needed or used in
MySQL 5.1, 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:
char *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
5.1.
xxx_add()
This function is called for all rows that belong to the
same group, except for the first row. You should use it to
add the value in the UDF_ARGS
argument
to your internal summary variable.
char *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 non-aggregate UDF.
See Section聽26.3.4.1, 鈥淯DF Calling Sequences for Simple Functions鈥.
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 non-aggregate UDF. See
Section聽26.3.4.4, 鈥淯DF Return Values and Error Handling鈥.
The xxx_reset()
and
xxx_add()
functions handle their
UDF_ARGS
argument the same way as functions
for non-aggregate UDFs. See Section聽26.3.4.3, 鈥淯DF Argument Processing鈥.
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.
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; }
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 like
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;
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 non-constant 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 non-constant 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 non-constant
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]
. You
should not assume that strings are 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).
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
*result
and *length
to
the contents and length of the return value. For example:
memcpy(result, "result string", 13); *length = 13;
The result
buffer that is passed to the
xxx()
function is 255 bytes long. If your
result fits in this, you don't have to worry about memory
allocation for results.
If your string function needs to return a string longer than
255 bytes, you must allocate the space for it 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聽26.3.4.1, 鈥淯DF Calling Sequences for Simple Functions鈥.
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.)
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's 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
hostname.
reverse_lookup()
returns the hostname
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 the
server's plugin directory and name it
udf_example.so
. This directory is given
by the value of the plugin_dir
system
variable. (Note: This a
change in MySQL 5.1. For earlier versions of MySQL, the shared
object can be located in any directory that is searched by
your system's dynamic linker.)
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:
You need to obtain the BitKeeper source repository for MySQL 5.1. See Section聽2.9.3, 鈥淚nstalling from the Development Source Tree鈥.
You must obtain the CMake build utility from http://www.cmake.org. (Version 2.4.2 or later is required).
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.
Create a CMake makefile
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)
Create the VC project and solution files:
cmake -G "<Generator>"
Invoking cmake --help shows you a list of valid Generators.
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.so';
mysql>CREATE FUNCTION myfunc_double RETURNS REAL SONAME 'udf_example.so';
mysql>CREATE FUNCTION myfunc_int RETURNS INTEGER SONAME 'udf_example.so';
mysql>CREATE FUNCTION lookup RETURNS STRING SONAME 'udf_example.so';
mysql>CREATE FUNCTION reverse_lookup
->RETURNS STRING SONAME 'udf_example.so';
mysql>CREATE AGGREGATE FUNCTION avgcost
->RETURNS REAL SONAME 'udf_example.so';
Functions can be deleted using DROP
FUNCTION
:
mysql>DROP FUNCTION metaphon;
mysql>DROP FUNCTION myfunc_double;
mysql>DROP FUNCTION myfunc_int;
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.
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.
mysqld also 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 the server's plugin directory. This
directory is given by the value of the
plugin_dir
system variable.
(Note: This a change in MySQL
5.1. For earlier versions of MySQL, the shared object can be
located in any directory that is searched by your system's
dynamic linker.)
The procedure for adding a new native function is described here. Note that you cannot add native functions to a binary distribution because the procedure involves modifying MySQL source code. You must compile MySQL yourself from a source distribution. Also note that if you migrate to another version of MySQL (for example, when a new version is released), you need to repeat the procedure with the new version.
To add a new native MySQL function, follow these steps:
Add one line to lex.h
that defines the
function name in the sql_functions[]
array.
If the function prototype is simple (just takes zero, one,
two or three arguments), you should in
lex.h
specify
SYM(FUNC_ARG
(where N
)N
is the number of
arguments) as the second argument in the
sql_functions[]
array and add a function
that creates a function object in
item_create.cc
. Take a look at
"ABS"
and
create_funcs_abs()
for an example of
this.
If the function prototype is complicated (for example, if it
takes a variable number of arguments), you should add two
lines to sql_yacc.yy
. One indicates the
preprocessor symbol that yacc should
define (this should be added at the beginning of the file).
Then define the function parameters and add an
鈥item鈥 with these parameters to the
simple_expr
parsing rule. For an example,
check all occurrences of ATAN
in
sql_yacc.yy
to see how this is done.
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.
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()
.
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. You can take a 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, don't 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 some
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!
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.
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, we recommend that you take a look at
mylua
. With this you can use the LUA language
to load a procedure at runtime into mysqld.
analyse([
max_elements
[,max_memory
]])
This procedure is defined in the
sql/sql_analyse.cc
file. It examines the
result from a query and returns an analysis of the results that
suggests optimal data types for each column. 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
.
max_memory
(default 8192) is the
maximum amount of memory that analyse
should allocate per column while trying to find all distinct
values.