Oracle 5.0 Reference Manual page 67

• MySQL 5.0: Older Production release nearing the end of the product lifecycle
MySQL 4.1, 4.0, and 3.23 are old releases that are no longer supported.
See http://www.mysql.com/about/legal/lifecycle/ for information about support policies and schedules.
Normally, if you are beginning to use MySQL for the first time or trying to port it to some system for
which there is no binary distribution, use the most recent General Availability series listed in the
preceding descriptions. All MySQL releases, even those from development series, are checked with
the MySQL benchmarks and an extensive test suite before being issued.
If you are running an older system and want to upgrade, but do not want to take the chance of having
a nonseamless upgrade, you should upgrade to the latest version in the same release series you are
using (where only the last part of the version number is newer than yours). We have tried to fix only
fatal bugs and make only small, relatively "safe" changes to that version.
If you want to use new features not present in the production release series, you can use a version
from a development series. Be aware that development releases are not as stable as production
releases.
We do not use a complete code freeze because this prevents us from making bugfixes and other fixes
that must be done. We may add small things that should not affect anything that currently works in a
production release. Naturally, relevant bugfixes from an earlier series propagate to later series.
If you want to use the very latest sources containing all current patches and bugfixes, you can use one
of our source code repositories (see
Tree"). These are not "releases" as such, but are available as previews of the code on which future
releases are to be based.
The naming scheme in MySQL 5.0 uses release names that consist of three numbers and a suffix; for
example, mysql-5.0.14-rc. The numbers within the release name are interpreted as follows:
• The first number (5) is the major version and describes the file format. All MySQL 5 releases have
the same file format.
• The second number (0) is the release level. Taken together, the major version and release level
constitute the release series number.
• The third number (14) is the version number within the release series. This is incremented for each
new release. Usually you want the latest version for the series you have chosen.
For each minor update, the last number in the version string is incremented. When there are major new
features or minor incompatibilities with previous versions, the second number in the version string is
incremented. When the file format changes, the first number is increased.
Release names also include a suffix to indicates the stability level of the release. Releases within a
series progress through a set of suffixes to indicate how the stability level improves. The possible
suffixes are:
• alpha indicates that the release is for preview purposes only. Known bugs should be documented
in the Release Notes. Most alpha releases implement new commands and extensions. Active
development that may involve major code changes can occur in an alpha release. However, we do
conduct testing before issuing a release.
• beta indicates that the release is appropriate for use with new development. Within beta releases,
the features and compatibility should remain consistent. However, beta releases may contain
numerous and major unaddressed bugs.
No APIs, externally visible structures, or columns for SQL statements will change during future beta,
release candidate, or production releases.
Choosing Which MySQL Distribution to Install
Section 2.17.2, "Installing MySQL from a Development Source
47