[debian-mysql] MySQL server and client virtual packages

[Paul Gevers]

Hi MySQL maintainers,
[CC me on reply, I don't read you e-maillist]

On 01-08-14 11:57, James Page wrote:
> Over the last 6 months, we have introduced a few new MySQL variants
> into Debian and expanded the use of the existing (but never formalized
> AFAICT) virtual-mysql-* virtual packages to supporting switching
> in/out the different variants.
> 
> The wider intent is that all maintainers of packages that depend on
> mysql-server or mysql-client are encouraged to add as alternative
> dependencies the virtual packages virtual-mysql-server[1] or
> virtual-mysql-client[2].
> 
> This will enable the alternative MariaDB and Percona packages to
> satisfy the dependency. MySQL 5.5, MariaDB 5.5 and PXC 5.5 are all
> binary-compatible and most likely to work with any program that
> currently uses MySQL in Debian. If you prefer some of the non-Oracle
> versions of MySQL, you can even default to one of them using syntax
> like for example 'Depends: mariadb-server | virtual-mysql-server'.

I don't know if you are aware of the dbconfig-common package, but it is
a helper package for packages that want to set up a database to store
relevant data. Currently dbconfig-common only supports MySQL from the
list of alternatives.

I am staging already a lot of updates to dbconfig-common in experimental
(because of the freeze) and I do want to add support for the other
alternatives. Do I read your words above correctly that apart from the
name of the binaries, all commands that can be issued to one variant
should be doing the same on the other variant? If that is the case, I
think the fundamental support in dbconfig-common should be really easy:
it just needs to check which variant is installed and call that.

I understand that it is possible that the client of one of the
alternatives communicates with the server of another alternative, is
that correct?

The MySQL server had Debian maintenance configuration in /etc/mysql
which included the username and password to connect to the database to
do Debian maintenance, do the other alternatives apply the same trick
(and can I rely on it for package configuration in the dbconfig-common
package)?

Paul

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