Oracle (MySQL):
major Release Candidate General Availability
8.0 2017-09-21 8.0.3 2018-04-19 8.0.11
5.7 2015-04-08 5.7.7 2015-10-21 5.7.9
5.6 2012-09-29 5.6.7 2013-02-05 5.6.10
5.5 2010-09-13 5.5.6 2010-12-03 5.5.8
5.1 2007-09-24 5.1.22 2008-11-14 5.1.30
5.0 2005-09-22 5.0.13
MariaDB:
MAJOR VERSION GA DATE 5 YEAR BOUNDARY DATE
MariaDB Database 5.1 Feb 2010 Feb 2015
MariaDB Database 5.2 Nov 2010 Nov 2015
MariaDB Database 5.3 Feb 2012 Mar 2017
MariaDB Database 5.5 Apr 2012 Mar 2020
MariaDB Database 10.0 Mar 2014 Mar 2019
MariaDB Database 10.1 Oct 2015 Oct 2020
MariaDB Database 10.2.40 May 2017 May 2022
MariaDB Database 10.3.31 May 2018 May 2023
MariaDB Database 10.4.21 Jun 2019 Jun 2024
MariaDB Database 10.5.12 Jun 2020 Jun 2025
MariaDB Database 10.6.4 Jul 2021 Jul 2026 LTS (switching to Linux-like)
MariaDB Database 10.7.? Feb 2022 Feb 2023
MariaDB Database 10.8.? May 2022 May 2023
You can try to use a mysqldump
on a different major version, but there may be incompatibilities.
Note that an "old" mysqldump may not understand a "new" db, but it is more likely that a "new" mysqldump will correctly read "old" data.
Some notable incompatibilities:
TYPE --> ENGINE (4.1?)
fractional seconds (new in 5.6.4 / 10.0)
VISIBLE indexes (8.0)
The 8.0 mysqldump apparently insists on including the default, but "new" option of VISIBLE
. This makes a mess when moving a dump (of any version) taken by the mysqldump for 8.0 and loading that dump on any MySQL/MariaDB other than MySQL 8.0.
You may notice comments like this: This allows the dumps to (mostly) work across any version:
/*!50100 PARTITION BY ... */
That says "5.1 and newer can handle it, but if the target version is older than 5.1, treat this as a comment." Caveat: since the MariaDB numbering diverged from MySQL, this style of comment somethings screws up.
I'm asking if it would create a problem in the future, when I will need to move to a newer version. If that's the case, then I need to take it into account today and use a different approach, as specified in that linked question.
They will always allow dumping from one version to the next major version. It is a major way to upgrade. Skipping a version may cause hiccups, but even that rarely causes trouble.