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2.4.8.8. Selecting a MySQL Server Type

This section does not apply to MySQL Enterprise Server users.

The following table shows the available servers for Windows in MySQL 5.0.

Binary Description
mysqld-nt Optimized binary for Windows NT, 2000, and XP with support for named pipes
mysqld Optimized binary without named pipe support (for Windows 95/ME)
mysqld-debug Like mysqld-nt, but compiled with full debugging and automatic memory allocation checking

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

Each of the servers in a distribution support the same set of storage engines. The SHOW ENGINES statement displays which engines a given server supports.

All Windows MySQL 5.0 servers have support for symbolic linking of database directories.

MySQL supports TCP/IP on all Windows platforms. The mysqld-nt and mysql-debug servers support named pipes on Windows NT, 2000, XP, and 2003. 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:

  • 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 with shutting down the MySQL server when named pipes were used.

  • Named-pipe connections are allowed only by the mysqld-nt and mysqld-debug 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.