[Mysql-sr-lib-dev] About installation methods

[Giuseppe Maxia]

This is the first thread of the development list, and I want to raise some 
issues,
so that all the members can contribute their thoughts.

Installing stored procedures has three main problems:

1) error checking
Tha main problem, in my opinion is that using a SQL script to install
one or more routines lacks error checking. If an error occurs in a long list of
events and you are not visually scanning what is happening, you may miss some
error messages, and believe that the installation went smoothly.

2) the receiving database
Routines in MYSQL 5 belong to a specific database.
General purpose routines should be kept in a general purpose database. This is
what I do in my system, but it may not be feasible for everybody. Just consider
the many people that use a ISP, which provides just one database per user.
I have heard that databases should be used as namespaces for the different
parts of the GP routine library. While I may agree to this in principle, I need
to stress the difficulty of applying this constraint to the common user.

3) the server settings
If the server is using a binary log (as all of my servers do, for instance), 
installation
can be prevented if the routine is not deterministic. In this case, you should 
enable
the global variable log_bin_trust_function_creators. Again, the normal user can 
have
problems with this.

That said, I can see some solutions:

a) tell the user to get smart and keep using SQL scripts to install stored 
routines.

b) create an installation program to overcome the lack of checking, to determine
in which database to install, and to help the user when a 
log_bin_trust_function_creators
related problem occurs. But this solution introduces one more problem: which 
language
should we use to do that? I know by direct experience that installing a Perl 
script
or a C compiled program in different versions of Linux is quite difficult. 
Doing this
for different operating systems can be a task in itself.

c)Another choice is to do both, with the provision that the smart installation 
program
requires something from the user side (e.g. installing Perl + DBI + DBD::mysql).

Speak your mind about this.

Ciao

Giuseppe

--
Giuseppe Maxia
CTO
http://www.StarData.it
MySQL Certified Professional
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