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2.3.9 Starting the Server for the First Time »
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2.3.8. Selecting a MySQL Server Type

Starting with MySQL 3.23.38, the Windows distribution includes both the normal and the MySQL-Max server binaries.

Up through the early releases of MySQL 4.1, the servers included in Windows distributions are named like this:

Binary Description
mysqld Compiled with full debugging and automatic memory allocation checking, and InnoDB and BDB tables.
mysqld-opt Optimized binary. From version 4.0 on, InnoDB is enabled. Before 4.0, this server includes no transactional table support.
mysqld-nt Optimized binary for Windows NT, 2000, and XP with named-pipe support.
mysqld-max Optimized binary with InnoDB and BDB support.
mysqld-max-nt Like mysqld-max, but compiled with named-pipe support.

We have found that the server with the most generic name (mysqld) is the one that many users are likely to choose by default. However, that is also the server that results in the highest memory and CPU use due to the inclusion of full debugging support. The server named mysqld-opt is a better general-use server choice to make instead if you do not need debugging support and do not want the maximal feature set offered by the -max servers or named pipe support offered by the -nt servers.

To make it less likely that the debugging server would be chosen inadvertently, some name changes were made from MySQL 4.1.2 to 4.1.4: mysqld has been renamed to mysqld-debug and mysqld-opt has been renamed to mysqld. Thus, the server that includes debugging support indicates that in its name, and the server named mysqld is an efficient default choice. The other servers still have their same names. The resulting servers are named like this:

Binary Description
mysqld-debug Compiled with full debugging and automatic memory allocation checking, and InnoDB and BDB tables.
mysqld Optimized binary with InnoDB support.
mysqld-nt Optimized binary for Windows NT, 2000, and XP with support for named pipes.
mysqld-max Optimized binary with support for InnoDB and BDB tables.
mysqld-max-nt Like mysqld-max, but compiled with support for named pipes.

The name changes were not both instituted at the same time. If you have MySQL 4.1.2 or 4.1.3, it might be that you have a server named mysqld-debug but not one named mysqld. In this case, you should have a server mysqld-opt, which you should choose as your default server unless you need maximal features, named pipes, or debugging support.

All of the preceding binaries are optimized for modern Intel processors, but should work on any Intel i386-class or higher processor.

As of MySQL 4.0, all Windows servers have support for symbolic linking of database directories. Before MySQL 4.0, only the debugging and Max server versions include this feature.

MySQL supports TCP/IP on all Windows platforms. MySQL servers on Windows support named pipes as indicated in the following list. However, the default is to use TCP/IP regardless of platform. (Named pipes are slower than TCP/IP in many Windows configurations.)

Use of named pipes is subject to these conditions:

  • Starting from MySQL 3.23.50, named pipes are enabled only if you start the server with the --enable-named-pipe option. It is necessary to use this option explicitly because some users have experienced problems shutting down the MySQL server when named pipes were used.

  • Named-pipe connections are allowed only by the mysqld-nt or mysqld-max-nt servers, and only if the server is run on a version of Windows that supports named pipes (NT, 2000, XP, 2003).

  • These servers can be run on Windows 98 or Me, but only if TCP/IP is installed; named-pipe connections cannot be used.

  • These servers cannot be run on Windows 95.

Note

Most of the examples in this manual use mysqld as the server name. If you choose to use a different server, such as mysqld-nt, make the appropriate substitutions in the commands that are shown in the examples.


User Comments

Posted by Gauron Kolas on May 11 2009 7:07am[Delete] [Edit]

"Named pipes are slower than TCP/IP in many Windows configurations"? Which "configurations"? If connecting to a DB on localhost, it should be faster. Please clarify.

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