Aria is a
storage engine
A database engine (or storage engine) is the underlying software component that a database management system (DBMS) uses to create, read, update and delete (CRUD) data from a database. Most database management systems include their own application ...
for the
MariaDB
MariaDB is a community-developed, commercially supported fork of the MySQL relational database management system (RDBMS), intended to remain free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. Development is led by some of the ori ...
and
MySQL
MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database ...
relational database management systems. Its goal is to make a crash-safe alternative to
MyISAM
MyISAM was the default storage engine for the MySQL relational database management system versions prior to 5.5 released in December 2009. It is based on the older ISAM code, but it has many useful extensions.
Filesystem
Each MyISAM table is ...
. It is not
transactional.
Aria has been in development since 2007 and was first announced by
Michael "Monty" Widenius on his blog. Aria is used for internal temporary tables in
MariaDB
MariaDB is a community-developed, commercially supported fork of the MySQL relational database management system (RDBMS), intended to remain free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. Development is led by some of the ori ...
, a community-developed branch of the MySQL database led by Widenius. Aria is not shipped with MySQL or
Percona Server.
The Maria project is hosted on
Launchpad.
Aria was initially named "Maria", as a reference to Monty's youngest child.
It was renamed Aria in 2010 to avoid confusion with the main database it is developed for, MariaDB. Chris Tooley, who won a contest to suggest the name, wrote, "Aria is Maria without the 'M'; also it is a pleasant
musical term
A variety of musical terms are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian, in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special mus ...
."
Features
Aria is very similar to MyISAM, but its purpose is to be a crash-safe alternative to MyISAM.
Aria does not support
foreign keys and, currently, transactions.
Aria supports:
*
Fulltext
In text retrieval, full-text search refers to techniques for searching a single computer-stored document or a collection in a full-text database. Full-text search is distinguished from searches based on metadata or on parts of the original texts ...
indexes;
*
OpenGIS data types;
*
Virtual column In relational databases a virtual column is a table column whose value is automatically computed using other columns values, or another deterministic expression. Virtual columns are defined of SQL:2003 as Generated Column, and are only implemented ...
s.
Files structure
Non-partitioned Aria tables consist of three physical files:
* table_name.frm
* table_name.MAD
* table_name.MAI
The .frm file contains the table definition (this file exists for all storage engines which write data to disk). The .MAD file contains the data. The .MAI file contains the indexes.
Formats
Three table formats are available for Aria tables:
* PAGE;
* FIXED;
* DYNAMIC.
PAGE is the only format available for "transactional" tables. It makes Aria tables crash-safe.
FIXED and DYNAMIC are the same formats used by MyISAM, and have been mainly implemented for compatibility. However, MyISAM's COMPRESSED format is not available in Aria.
In order to set the table format, one can use the ROW_FORMAT option in a CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE command.
See also
*
Falcon
Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene.
Adult falcons ...
*
InnoDB
InnoDB is a storage engine for the database management system MySQL and MariaDB. Since the release of MySQL 5.5.5 in 2010, it replaced MyISAM as MySQL's default table type. It provides the standard ACID-compliant transaction features, along ...
*
MyISAM
MyISAM was the default storage engine for the MySQL relational database management system versions prior to 5.5 released in December 2009. It is based on the older ISAM code, but it has many useful extensions.
Filesystem
Each MyISAM table is ...
*
XtraDB
Percona XtraDB is a storage engine for the MariaDB and Percona Server databases, and is intended as a drop-in replacement to InnoDB, which is the default engine in MySQL
MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDB ...
References
External links
Aria in the MariaDB KnowledgeBase
- written by Michael Widenius
Ulf Michael Widenius (often called Monty; born 3 March 1962, in Helsinki, Finland) is the main author of the original version of the open source MySQL database, a founding member of the MySQL AB company and CTO of the MariaDB Corporation AB. ...
(founder of MySQL AB)
Maria: The new MySQL Storage Engine
at Google Videos
Google Search (also known simply as Google) is a search engine provided by Google. Handling more than 3.5 billion searches per day, it has a 92% share of the global search engine market. It is also the most-visited website in the world.
The ...
- A talk given by Michael Widenius
Database engines
MySQL
MariaDB
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