Support for Multiple Versions of MySQL

imanickam

Good Morning!

I have been using IndigoStack for the past three months to test sites on my Mac. Earlier, when I was working with Windows, I used WampServer. I saw similarity between IndigiStack and WampServer. I liked the fact that we could create/have multiple stacks. Thanks to the developer for creating such a nice product.

Today, I updated IndigoStack to 1.0.0 RC5 and my test sites were not working. What I found out is that no longer MySQL 8.0.33 is available and the port also changed due to the use of MySQL 8.1.

One feature request I could make is to have the ability to choose MySQL servers (e.g., 8.0, 8.1) just like we could choose php versions (e.g., 8.1, 8.2) when we create a new stack. This would give more flexibility to test with various combinations of AMP. In addition, the existing stack would be undisturbed, I think. As MySQL 8.0 would be supported April 30, 2026, I believe that this feature would be a boon to developers.

Thanks.

Indigo

Hi @imanickam 🙂 Thanks for your encouraging words. I think you identify two issues:

a) an issue caused by rc5
b) ability to choose specific MySQL versions

rc5 issue
Sorry to hear rc5 broke your sites! What was the exact error?

To get your stacks up and running as easily as possible I would suggest rebuilding them (right-click the stack name in the left-hand stack listing and choose "Rebuild..."). That will upgrade your stack's installed services. However, as you discovered, a consequence is that it will upgrade MySQL 8.0 to 8.1.

I will need to see if I can replicate your issue with rc5, so any other info you can add will be helpful.

MySQL versions
MySQL is by far the heaviest service we include within the Indigo app bundle (~260 & ~400MB for v5.6 and v8.1 respectively). As such I'd like to avoid shipping more than two versions with Indigo. Long-term it would be awesome to have Indigo download services on-demand, so we could continue offering old versions, but that'll be a long way off. So in the meantime, I've tried to include a pragmatic selection. My thinking with all services is to identify the versions developers typically care about. For example with PHP a developer might know they want v8.2. They won't care if they get 8.2.4 or if it's silently upgraded to 8.2.5. They just want 8.2. With MySQL, it's a little more difficult — on one hand my feeling is that a majority of developers will want the current release of MySQL 8.x, and not really know or care if it's 8.0.x or 8.1.x. On the other hand, 8.1 is a new release, not a minor release of 8.0, and as such not a usual candidate for a silent upgrade.

All that said, in the end, given the constraints we're working within I went with including only 5.6.x and 8.x. That means when a new v5.6 is released, Indigo will bundle it, and when a new v8 is released, whether 8.1 or 8.2 or whatever, Indigo will bundle that.

I'd value everyone's feedback on this strategy.

imanickam

Thanks for replying back.

After the IndigoStack was updated to rc5, the application could not connect to MySQL. When the stack was rebuilt, the port of MySQL Server got changed.

Based on my experience with rc4 update, as a precautionary measure, before updating to rc5, I exported the databases and dropped them.

After the update to rc5, I changed the port to the new one and imported the databases.

My suggestion to support multiple [major] versions of MySQL servers stems from the fact that one could mimic the production environment. For the new versions, they could build a different stack and test the applications.