Re: Request Tracker ( RT ) recommends MySQL

raanders(at)acm(dot)org ("Roderick A. Anderson") writes:
> I've been away from the site and mailing list for better than a year
> so was surprised as all get out that MySQL is ther recommended
> database for RT. The version I installed over four years ago uses
> Pg.
>
> My question is does anyone know why they decided to go with MySQL?
> ( Pg 7.3 or above is an alternative; as is Oracle ). I would ask
> the RT list but don't want to get into any flaming combats and was
> hoping someone here might know ( having risked being charred. )

The application was written specifically for MySQL(tm), and much of the
internals function in a manner optimized for MySQL(tm).

And while the prebuilt installations on FreeBSD, Debian, and Gentoo
allow choosing between MySQL and PostgreSQL (and *possibly* SQLite),
tho the Debian install guide notes that converting from RT2 to RT3
isn't PostgreSQL-friendly...

On both Red Hat and Windows(tm) systems, the "prebuilt" builds are, to
this day, MySQL-specific.
<http://wiki.bestpractical.com/index.cgi?WindowsOSInstallGuide>
<http://wiki.bestpractical.com/index.cgi?RPMInstall>

One of our people did some performance tuning work, and found a number
of queries that could be made *spectacularly* faster for PostgreSQL if
tweaked to be less MySQL(tm)-specific (I surmise that the same changes
would be either helpful or at least not hurtful for Oracle, Informix,
and Sybase, though I can't be sure about SQLite).

Unfortunately, since the tweaks go beyond the SQL capabilities of
MySQL, Best Practical couldn't use the changes.

Considering it from their perspective, historically, RT used to run
only atop MySQL(tm). So any "legacy" users, who used MySQL(tm), are
running that, presumably with some degree of
satisfaction/acquiescence. Doing anything that breaks MySQL(tm)
compatibility would injure those users.

The notion that RT "works best" with MySQL(tm) shouldn't appear
terribly alien. It was indeed designed to "work best" with MySQL(tm),
and the vendor can't afford to change that.

[Note: MySQL is a registered trademark of MySQL AB; Windows is a
trademark of Microsoft Corporation; Oracle, Informix and Sybase are
doubtless also registered trademarks of notable companies containing
the respective strings...]
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