[debian-mysql] mysql-5.1 or both mysql-5.5/1

[Clint Byrum]

Excerpts from Olaf van der Spek's message of Fri Apr 27 12:47:52 -0700 2012:
> On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 10:26 PM, Nicholas Bamber
> <nicholas at periapt.co.uk> wrote:
> > On 26/04/12 08:38, Jonathan Aquilina wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> To make your life easier Nicholas couldnt you pull the 5.5 packages from
> >> ubuntu and start transitioning using those packages?
> >
> >
> > Jonathan,
> >        I am working on modernizing debian/rules and generally understanding
> > the package and triaging etc. People who know Ubuntu better than I do are
> >  better placed to merge in those changes.
> 
> Hi Nicholas,
> 
> If the current rules work for Ubuntu, why can't they work for Debian?
> 
> IMO 5.5 should be made available in unstable ASAP so more people can test it.
> Releasing without 5.5 would be a shame.
> 

I actually agree. I didn't realize the freeze for wheezy was looming so soon
(I've heard it described as "weeks" away).

We can import the Ubuntu package pretty much as-is with the one exception of
the upstart job (which we can move out of the way easily) and get 5.5.23 into
unstable relatively quickly.

Two paths exist:

* Keeping 5.1 - I am strongly against this. I believe that we are
  already stretched quite thin on this team, and maintaining *two*
  versions of MySQL in a release will just increase our burden even
  further. If we want to do it, the Ubuntu packages will cause problems
  because they build libmysqlclient-dev, mysql-client, mysql-server,
  mysql-testsuite, etc.

* Dropping 5.1 - If we drop 5.1, which is my preference, we should
  upload 5.5 to unstable *ASAP*. We should then start a systematic
  rebuild transition to pick up libmysqlclient18. The Ubuntu packages
  would work perfectly for this, sans upstart job. Then we can simply
  remove MySQL 5.1 and any packages that can't be rebuilt against 5.5.
  The Ubuntu packages handle the breaks/replaces properly as well.

I'll have time to work on MySQL in Debian next week. Have we heard back
from the release team yet on whether we can start this transition?