MySQL Database: Choosing The Right Version Of MySQL

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

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

Normally, if you are beginning to use MySQL for the first time or trying to port it to some system for which there is no binary distribution, we recommend going with the production release series. Currently this is MySQL 4.1. All MySQL releases, even those from development series, are checked with the MySQL benchmarks and an extensive test suite before being issued.

If you are running an old system and want to upgrade, but don't want to take the chance of having a non-seamless upgrade, you should upgrade to the latest version in the same release series you are using (where only the last part of the version number is newer than yours). We have tried to fix only fatal bugs and make small, relatively safe changes to that version.

If you want to use new features not present in the production release series, you can use a version from a development series. Note that development releases are not as stable as production releases.

If you want to use the very latest sources containing all current patches and bugfixes, you can use one of our BitKeeper repositories. These are not ``releases'' as such, but are available as previews of the code on which future releases are based.