Re: eWeek Poll: Which database is most critical to your

Here is the documentation about MySQL's new Query Cache. I think that it
would be helpful, as they indicate, for dynamic web sites, such as Slashdot.
There are hundreds or maybe thousands of queries in between added comments
and there are probably only a few common combinations of
threshold/nesting/sort.

MySQL Query Cache
=================

From version 4.0.1, `MySQL server' features a `Query Cache'. When in
use, the query cache stores the text of a `SELECT' query together with
the corresponding result that is sent to a client. If another
identical query is received, the server can then retrieve the results
from the query cache rather than parsing and executing the same query
again.

The query cache is extremely useful in an environment where (some)
tables don't change very often and you have a lot of identical queries.
This is a typical situation for many web servers that use a lot of
dynamic content.

Following are some performance data for the query cache (We got these
by running the MySQL benchmark suite on a Linux Alpha 2x500 MHz with
2GB RAM and a 64MB query cache):

* If you want to disable the query cache code set
`query_cache_size=0'. By disabling the query cache code there is
no noticeable overhead.

* If all of the queries you're preforming are simple (such as
selecting a row from a table with one row); but still differ so
that the queries can not be cached, the overhead for having the
query cache active is 13%. This could be regarded as the worst
case scenario. However, in real life, queries are much more
complicated than our simple example so the overhead is normally
significantly lower.

* Searches after one row in a one row table is 238% faster. This
can be regarded as close to the minimum speedup to be expected for
a query that is cached.

How The Query Cache Operates
----------------------------

Queries are compared before parsing, thus

SELECT * FROM TABLE

and

Select * from table

are regarded as different queries for query cache, so queries need to
be exactly the same (byte for byte) to be seen as identical. In
addition, a query may be seen as different if for instance one client
is using a new communication protocol format or another character set
than another client.

Queries that uses different databases, uses different protocol versions
or the uses different default character sets are considered different
queries and cached separately.

The cache does work for `SELECT CALC_ROWS ...' and `SELECT FOUND_ROWS()
...' type queries because the number of found rows is also stored in
the cache.

If a table changes (`INSERT', `UPDATE', `DELETE', `TRUNCATE', `ALTER'
or `DROP TABLE|DATABASE'), then all cached queries that used this table
(possibly through a `MRG_MyISAM' table!) become invalid and are removed
from the cache.

Currently all `InnoDB' tables are invalidated on `COMMIT', in the
future this will be changed so only tables changed in the transaction
cause the corresponding cache entries to be invalidated.

A query cannot be cached if it contains one of the functions:
*Function* *Function* *Function* *Function*
`User Defined `CONNECTION_ID' `FOUND_ROWS' `GET_LOCK'
Functions'
`RELEASE_LOCK' `LOAD_FILE' `MASTER_POS_WAIT' `NOW'
`SYSDATE' `CURRENT_TIMESTAMP'`CURDATE' `CURRENT_DATE'
`CURTIME' `CURRENT_TIME' `DATABASE' `ENCRYPT' (with
one parameter)
`LAST_INSERT_ID' `RAND' `UNIX_TIMESTAMP' `USER'
(without
parameters)
`BENCHMARK'

Nor can a query be cached if it contains user variables, if it is of
the form `SELECT ... IN SHARE MODE' or of the form `SELECT * FROM
AUTOINCREMENT_FIELD IS NULL' (to retrieve last insert id - ODBC work
around).

However, `FOUND ROWS()' will return the correct value, even if the
preceding query was fetched from the cache.

Queries that don't use any tables or if the user has a column privilege
for any of the involved tables are not cached.

Before a query is fetched from the query cache, MySQL will check that
the user has SELECT privilege to all the involved databases and tables.
If this is not the case, the cached result will not be used.

Query Cache Configuration
-------------------------

The query cache adds a few `MySQL' system variables for `mysqld' which
may be set in a configuration file, on the command line when starting
`mysqld'.

* `query_cache_limit' Don't cache results that are bigger than this.
(Default 1M).

* `query_cache_size' The memory allocated to store results from old
queries. If this is 0, the query cache is disabled (default).

* `query_cache_startup_type' This may be set (only numeric) to
*Option* *Description*
0 (OFF, don't cache or retrieve results)
1 (ON, cache all results except `SELECT
SQL_NO_CACHE ...' queries)
2 (DEMAND, cache only `SELECT SQL_CACHE ...'
queries)

Inside a thread (connection), the behaviour of the query cache can be
changed from the default. The syntax is as follows:

`SQL_QUERY_CACHE_TYPE = OFF | ON | DEMAND' `SQL_QUERY_CACHE_TYPE = 0
| 1 | 2'

*Option* *Description*
0 or OFF Don't cache or retrieve results.
1 or ON Cache all results except `SELECT SQL_NO_CACHE
...' queries.
2 or DEMAND Cache only `SELECT SQL_CACHE ...' queries.

By default `SQL_QUERY_CACHE_TYPE' depends on the value of
`query_cache_startup_type' when the thread was created.

Query Cache Options in `SELECT'
-------------------------------

There are two possible query cache related parameters that may be
specified in a `SELECT' query:

*Option* *Description*
`SQL_CACHE' If `SQL_QUERY_CACHE_TYPE' is `DEMAND', allow the
query to be cached. If `SQL_QUERY_CACHE_TYPE'
is `ON', this is the default. If
`SQL_QUERY_CACHE_TYPE' is `OFF', do nothing.
`SQL_NO_CACHE' Make this query non-cachable, don't allow this
query to be stored in the cache.

Query Cache Status and Maintenance
----------------------------------

With the `FLUSH QUERY CACHE' command you can defragment the query cache
to better utilise its memory. This command will not remove any queries
from the cache. `FLUSH TABLES' also flushes the query cache.

The `RESET QUERY CACHE' command removes all query results from the
query cache.

You can monitor query cache performance in `SHOW STATUS':

*Variable* *Description*
`Qcache_queries_in_cache'Number of queries registered in the cache.
`Qcache_inserts' Number of queries added to the cache.
`Qcache_hits' Number of cache hits.
`Qcache_not_cached' Number of non-cached queries (not cachable, or
due to `SQL_QUERY_CACHE_TYPE').
`Qcache_free_memory' Amount of free memory for query cache.
`Qcache_total_blocks' Total number of blocks in query cache.
`Qcache_free_blocks' Number of free memory blocks in query cache.

Total number of queries = `Qcache_inserts' + `Qcache_hits' +
`Qcache_not_cached'.

The query cache uses variable length blocks, so `Qcache_total_blocks'
and `Qcache_free_blocks' may indicate query cache memory fragmentation.
After `FLUSH QUERY CACHE' only a single (big) free block remains.

Note: Every query needs a minimum of two blocks (one for the query text
and one or more for the query results). Also, every table that is used
by a query needs one block, but if two or more queries use same table
only one block needs to be allocated.