> What’s the current compatibility situation between MySQL and MariaDB? Would the OSS client be able to connect to Oracle-provided MySQL server software? And if there are issues, would we be able to fix them in Airflow?
As explained above - for two years CI and PROD images of Airflow use MariaDB client. There were zero issues reported about compatibility. On Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 12:37 PM Tzu-ping Chung via dev < [email protected]> wrote: > What’s the current compatibility situation between MySQL and MariaDB? > Would the OSS client be able to connect to Oracle-provided MySQL server > software? And if there are issues, would we be able to fix them in Airflow? > > > > > On 23 Oct 2025, at 18:25, Jarek Potiuk <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hello Everyone, > > > > *TL;DR; I would like to propose complete dropping of MySQL "Oracle > > published" client libraries from our container images.* > > > > Two years ago [1] - we switched to MariaDB clients by default because of > a > > very convoluted (and plain wrong) approach of Oracle for their Apt > > repositories and we are back to the situation we faced 2 years ago. > > > > We protected (nicely) against total disaster (where I had to manually > build > > and push 100 of our broken images during the weekend) and switched to > > MariaDB by default. We still left the option to build the image with > MySQL > > client and we still run it in our CI - this is how we found tonight > > that the problem is back, Luckily all that is needed is we need to drop > the > > optional support we have for MySQL images described in [2]. It requires > the > > users who wish to use MySQL client to build the images using our > > Dockerfiles with specific build arguments. We kept it for compatibility > and > > convenience of those who would have to use the clients. We never heard > back > > from anyone if they are using or not - it's very likely, it's used > > extremely rarely (if at all). > > > > The problem is (and you can find many articles, stack overflow issues, > blog > > posts about it) that Oracle uses a very convoluted and wrong way of > making > > their apt packages available - they sign their packages and repos with > > expiring keys. No other company I know is using this, this is against > > debian recommendations and every two years it causes the same problem - > the > > old packages are not installable, images released in the past that have > > their repos added are blocked from installing **anything** (i.e. apt > > install fails to install anything unless you remove oracle's repos and > > keys) > > > > Just to be clear - this is (so far) not a problem for the server side of > > MySQL. We are ok with our tests where MySQL is used as a server - because > > we can use images they publish to run the servers) and MariaDB clients > work > > well with those. But for MySQL clients - every 2 years (it's already the > > 3rd time it happened) it makes our images and dockerfiles broken - and > our > > users who want to use the clients - scrambling to install those. > > > > To add to that - when it happens, Oracle is surprised. Always. No > > exception. It happened tonight and as of tonight, you have no way > > installing the packages at all (even if you somehow get hold of the new > > key) because their repos are signed with old, expired keys - 2 years ago > it > > took them almost a week to fix it and the bug created [3] was created > where > > I - among others explained them the problem they had and what solution > they > > can apply. > > > > They ignored it. Today the story repeated itself. MySQL clients stopped > > installing - because they are signed by expired keys and their repo is > also > > signed by the same expired key. They have learned nothing and did not fix > > the problem. They will have another sh**tstom coming and will scramble to > > fix it again. > > > > But I do not wish our community (and me particularly) to be part of it > any > > more - my proposal is to simply drop that option and let the users be on > > their own if they want to use MySQL client. > > > > I will proceed with removing it now in a PR (completely) so that we fix > our > > failing canary builds and If no-one objects, I will call for LAZY > CONSENSUS > > and will not revert the change. > > > > J. > > > > [1] Lazy consensus from 2023 > > https://lists.apache.org/thread/rxbyxg11jg7y35k8om0f8wgb2l9h459l > > [2] Optional support for MySQL clients > > > https://airflow.apache.org/docs/docker-stack/build.html#building-images-with-mysql-client > > [3] Bug from 2 years ago - https://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=113432 > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > >
