Using MariaDB with MySQL Sandbox

A few days back MariaDB announced their first GA release (see Released: MariaDB 5.1.42), so it is time to start testing it and there is not better way to test any MySQL version in a control environment other than MySQL Sandbox. However Sandbox relies on the fact that the tarball and tarball target directory are prefixed with mysql, which is not true with MariaDB. So here are the 2 tricks I had to use to make it work out of the box.

These steps are explained to create a single sandbox, the tips can be extrapolated to any other configuration. Also, I am trying to avoid renaming any files and/or directories as to leave the packages as close to the original as possible.

Step 1: Use A Symlink For The Tarball

The make_sandbox script will then think it's manipulating a MySQL tarball. Assuming that the default directory is where you have the tarball:

ln -sv mariadb-5.1.42-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz mysql-5.1.42-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz
make_sandbox /home/gnarvaja/Downloads/mysql-5.1.42-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz --sandbox_directory=maria_5.1.42

Make the adjustments needed to your own platform and version.

The make_sanbox run is going to fail since it expects a subdirectory named ./mysql-5.1.42-Linux-x86_64 which doesn't exist since we used a MariaDB tarball.

Step 2: Use A Symlink For The MariaDB Binaries Directory

For the same reason as above, now create a symlink for the directory to where the tarball was extracted and re-run make_sandbox:

ln -sv mariadb-5.1.42-Linux-x86_64 mysql-5.1.42-Linux-x86_64
make_sandbox /home/gnarvaja/Downloads/mysql-5.1.42-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz --sandbox_directory=maria_5.1.42

Remember to always include the --sandbox_directory option to avoid name conflicts in case you want to compare MariaDB with the corresponding MySQL release.

This time the installation will succeed and you'll be ready to start your testing.

Conclusion

I tried to install using the original tarball name using different options and the process failed with different error messages. I looked into the make_sandbox code and I saw some dependencies that would've taken me some time to figure out and fix. This method can be considered a hack, but it gets you up and running in no time.

Giusseppe, if you happen to see this blog, I'll be glad to test a patch when you have it.