Preface

MariaDB is a mature, stable, open source relational database. From its beginning in 2009 as a branch or fork of the MySQL database, to its status today as the default version of that database in most Linux distributions, and the database of choice for many companies large and small, MariaDB has proven that communities of users and developers, working and collaborating together, can do more than a single company could ever do.

MariaDB shares many features and capabilities of its parent database, but like most children it has also surpassed its parent in many ways. The recipes in this book tread some common ground, but they are mostly about the features that are unique to or were introduced first in MariaDB.

The why of certain features is there, to a small degree, but the main emphasis in each recipe is on the what and the how. The information you need to know to actually do something always trumps the theory behind it.

As part of the growing library of MariaDB-specific books from Packt Publishing and other publishers, the goal of this book is to give you a practical, hands-on experience with this powerful, feature-rich database.