MySQL Versions

MySQL versions & history

A quick, honest map of which MySQL versions exist, which omp-MySQL supports, and why.

The history (why the version numbers look weird)

• 5.5 (2010), 5.6 (2013), 5.7 (2015) — the long 5.x era. SA-MP-MySQL lived here.
• There is no MySQL 6.x or 7.x. Oracle skipped those numbers entirely. 5.7 went straight to 8.0.
• 8.0 (2018) — a huge release: caching_sha2_password became the default auth, utf8mb4, modern SQL (CTEs, window functions), TLS 1.3.
• 8.4 LTS (2024) — the current Long-Term Support release. The safe pick for production.
• 9.x (2024–2025, "innovation" releases) — newest features, including the VECTOR datatype for AI/similarity search.

What omp-MySQL supports (live-tested)

Each row was tested by driving the real component against that exact server: a TLS connection, a query, a prepared statement, and caching_sha2_password auth.

MySQL	Released	TLS	Query	Prepared stmt	Auth	VECTOR
9.x (tested 9.2.0)	2024–25	✅ 1.3	✅	✅	✅	✅
8.4 LTS ⭐	2024	✅ 1.3	✅	✅	✅	—
8.0 (tested 8.0.46)	2018	✅ 1.3	✅	✅	✅	—
5.7 (tested 5.7.44, minimum)	2015	✅ 1.2	✅	✅	✅	—
5.6 / 5.5	2013/10	❌	—	—	—	—

What this means

• Minimum = 5.7. It's the oldest MySQL whose default build ships TLS (it auto-generates certificates and negotiates TLS 1.2). 8.0+ get TLS 1.3.
• Recommended = 8.4 LTS.
• VECTOR is MySQL 9.0+ only. It's not "broken" on 8.x/5.7 — the datatype simply didn't exist before 9.0. Every other feature works all the way back to 5.7.
• 5.6 / 5.5 fail by design. Their default server has have_ssl = DISABLED — no TLS at all. omp-MySQL is fail-closed, so it refuses the unencrypted link. This is the security model working, not a bug. (If you genuinely must use 5.6, you'd have to configure TLS on the server manually — but please just use a supported version.)

How we test (you can reproduce it)

The repo ships the test tooling under testscripts/:

• connection_probe.cpp — tests just the TLS connect.
• feature_probe.cpp — drives the full path (TLS + query + prepared statement + auth + VECTOR) and prints PASS/FAIL per feature.
• feature_sweep.sh — spins each MySQL version in Docker and runs the probe.

cd testscripts
./feature_sweep.sh 9.2 8.4 8.0 5.7
cat feature-matrix.txt

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