php5 + mysql's mysql variant

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Mar 14, 2007, at 19:05, Marco Battistella wrote:

> I have made a small variant for the installation of php5.
> This variant allows the use of the mysql4 binary that can be  
> downloaded form the mysql site. I have been using that for longer  
> than i have be using darwinports so it made sense to me to install  
> php5 this way, i don't know if it can be of any use to anybody else  
> or if it makes any sense to include it in the distribution...  
> Tested on Mac OS X 10.3.9 Sever.
>
> variant mymysql4 conflicts mysql3 mysql4 mysql5 {
>     configure.args-delete   --without-mysql
>     configure.args-append   --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql
> }

I am one of the maintainers of the php5 port. I am reluctant to  
include such an option, because it is MacPorts philosophy to use its  
own libraries unless there is a very good reason not to. See the FAQ:

http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/macports/wiki/ 
FAQ#WhyisMacPortsusingitsownlibraries

You can continue to use your mysql.com MySQL server and command-line  
client if you like. php5 will be able to access it (unless, I  
believe, you are using PDO, which seems to be a PHP bug). However, in  
order to compile with mysql5 support, the mysql5 port will be  
installed. This should not be a problem. It should not interfere with  
your mysql.com MySQL installation in any way.

If this is unsatisfactory, please let me know.

Finally, I would even encourage you to use the MacPorts MySQL server  
instead of the one provided by mysql.com, because mysql.com has  
ceased providing free up-to-date binaries; the binaries you can get  
from mysql.com are now several versions old. This means you will not  
get security updates or any other updates from mysql.com without  
paying for it. But if you compile from source yourself, or do it more  
easily with MacPorts, you will.

And, looking at the mysql.com web site, I see that I'm wrong again.  
They are providing the current version 5.0.37 in binary form now. But  
for several versions they were not providing binaries and it was  
unclear what their continued plan was.