[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #60037: Differentiate between minimum required MySQL and MariaDB versions

[WordPress Trac]

#60037: Differentiate between minimum required MySQL and MariaDB versions
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 Reporter:  desrosj       |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal        |  Milestone:  6.5
Component:  Database      |    Version:
 Severity:  normal        |   Keywords:  needs-patch
  Focuses:                |
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 Currently, there is only
 [https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.4.1/src/wp-
 includes/version.php#L47 one minimum required version defined] and checked
 against for database software when determining if a server is capable of
 installing and running WordPress. It's currently set at `5.0`, though that
 will hopefully be updated to `5.5` in WordPress 6.5 (see #000000).

 This has worked over the past 12+ years without issue, even though
 WordPress supports running either MySQL or MariaDB. This is due to the
 fact that MariaDB versions previously followed MySQL's numbering scheme
 with each release representing a fully-functional drop-in replacement.

 However, in 2012 this changed when MariaDB jumped from version `5.5` to
 `10.0`, where they have continued to increment from (the current LTS
 version is `10.11`, and current short term support version is `11.2`).

 In the near future when support for any version of MariaDB > 5.5 is
 dropped, this check will become useless, because MySQL 5.7, 8.0, 8.1, etc.
 will always be lower than 10.0, 10.11, 11.0, etc.

 An additional angle to this problem is
 [https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/04/19/status-update-on-the-sqlite-
 project/ a recent proposal to add support for SQLite]. The most recent
 version of that software is `3.44.2`. SQLite is not a drop-in replacement
 in the same way MariaDB is. But with that and other challenges to adding
 support aside, no versions of SQLite would work in WordPress today (even
 with the minimum currently set at `5.0`).

 The relevant code should be updated to ensure that the correct minimum
 version for the current database type is used when checking a server is
 properly equipped to run WordPress.

 Follow up to #60036.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/60037>
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