Re: [tlug] MySQL 4.1.15, or MySQL 5.0?

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 07/05/06, Walter Hansen <gandalf@example.com> wrote:

> Yes I very much agree. It's easy to backup, the databases are generally
> in /var/lib/mysql/. I would just copy the whole directory to
> /var/lib/mysqlback/ or something like that. Make sure that's were they
> are first.

Of course, you could also use the mysqldump(1) tool for your backups.
The advantage here is that the output is in plain ol' SQL, so it is
easy to reload a database piecemeal, if necessary. Meaning that if
part of a database (or table or whatever) cannot be reloaded, you can
tweak the SQL manually for that section.

Just backing up /var/lib/mysql gives you the binary datastore, which
is very tough to deal with, unless you are a MySQL developer.

This is not an argument against backing up /var/lib/mysql; that can
serve you very well in the event that you want to rollback to the
previous version because the migration is not going well. I am just
recommending using mysqldump in addition.

> As to the disagreement on php I thought it was rather pointless myself.
> I figured I could post back about it and then you'd post back about and
> so on and so fort, but with nothing really helpful happening. So I just
> left the discussion.

The problem with the discussion is that neither you or Godwin posted
any references to back up your points. I am not a heavy PHP user (heh
heh) myself, but I had lots of discussions with a colleague of mine
who was developing an enterprise genomics portal[1] in PHP (they have
since migrated to Java, mainly because PHP5 was taking too long). He
was a genius OO developer, and a Design Patterns type. The thing he
most often lamented in PHP4 was how he had to add on to the existing
object system, in some rather hackish ways, to allow for the sort of
OO design he needed. He was very excited about PHP5, primarily because
the object system looked like it was being done right. So I do not
think it was an exaggeration on Walter's part to say that OO was the
biggest feature of PHP4.

On the other hand, from Godwin's C- and kernel-hacker perspective, I
can understand how he was non-plussed about the improvements to the OO
system. After all, to C hackers, an object is basically a struct. :)

The point is, Walter, I think the discussion had a positive outcome,
in that Dave apparently read through some of the links that I provided
(which were the result of about ten minutes with Google and PHP.net)
and learned some stuff.

Just be willing to back up your statements with references. That way,
readers can form their own opinions based on the same reading that you
did.

-Josh

[1] http://www.incogen.com/index.php?type=Product&param=GenePort