MariaDB Windows Builds

Always-fresh MariaDB binaries for Windows x64 — compiled in CI from every new upstream release,
in three instruction-set flavours: AVX2, AVX and a universal baseline.

Releases · How it works · XAMPP guide · Troubleshooting · FAQ

This repository turns the latest MariaDB source release into ready-to-run Windows x64 binaries, automatically:

• 🔄 Version-agnostic, never goes stale. A version checker resolves the newest upstream release at run time (rolling/preview tarballs included — those are not even git-tagged upstream). When MariaDB 13.2, 14, 15 … ships, this repo builds it without a single change.
• 🧮 Three codegen flavours per release — AVX2, AVX and a universal SSE2 baseline, so there is a build for every CPU made since 2003.
• 📦 Portable ZIP packages — an unpacked, ready-to-run tree (bin/, data/, share/, lib/ …). No installer needed; drop-in friendly for XAMPP. An MSI can be produced on demand.
• ✅ Smoke-tested before publishing — every package is booted in CI, queried, and shut down cleanly. A build that doesn't start never reaches the Releases page.
• 🔐 SHA-256 verified sources & published checksums — tarballs are checked against MariaDB's official checksum API; every release ships SHA256SUMS.txt.
• 🗓️ Fully automatic — a weekly check (Mon 02:30 UTC) picks up brand-new upstream releases; manual dispatch can build any series (11.8, 12.3, …) or exact version at any time.
• 🩺 Debug symbols included — *-debugsymbols.zip with PDBs accompanies every flavour.

coreinfo -v

Every release vX.Y.Z contains one portable ZIP per flavour, plus symbols and checksums:

Releases for preview/RC upstream versions (e.g. the 13.1 rolling series) are flagged as GitHub pre-releases; the Latest badge always points to the newest stable/LTS build.

Works with any XAMPP that ships MariaDB (e.g. C:\xampp\mysql). Adjust paths to your layout.

1. Stop MySQL/MariaDB in the XAMPP Control Panel and back up your data directory (C:\xampp\mysql\data → data_backup).
2. Download the flavour you want from Releases and unzip it.
3. Copy the zip's bin, share, lib (and data only for a fresh start) over C:\xampp\mysql\ — replace existing files.
4. If your XAMPP panel expects the classic name, copy bin\mariadbd.exe to bin\mysqld.exe (both work identically).
5. Start MariaDB. If it starts clean → done. If you see Incorrect definition of table mysql.event errors → follow the fix below before using the server.

You replaced old XAMPP binaries with a new MariaDB and the log shows:

[ERROR] Incorrect definition of table mysql.event: expected column 'definer' at position 3 to have type varchar(, found type char(141).
[ERROR] mariadbd.exe: Event Scheduler: An error occurred when initializing system tables.
[ERROR] mariadbd.exe: An error occurred when loading data from the table mysql.event. System triggers not loaded
[ERROR] Aborting

This is not a build defect. The binaries are fine — the data directory is old. XAMPP ships a much older MariaDB series, whose system tables (mysql.event, mysql.user, …) predate the current schema. New MariaDB auto-upgrades system tables on first start, but when the old layout is too far behind (or partially patched), the server refuses to start rather than risk corrupting your privileges. Official binaries behave exactly the same.

From your MariaDB bin folder (e.g. C:\xampp\mysql\bin), with XAMPP's MySQL stopped:

:: 1) start a temporary server that tolerates the old system tables
mariadbd.exe --console --skip-grant-tables --event-scheduler=DISABLED

:: 2) in a SECOND terminal, same folder — run the system-table upgrade
mariadb-upgrade.exe --force -h 127.0.0.1 -P 3306 -u root

:: 3) shut the temporary server down
mariadb-admin.exe -h 127.0.0.1 -P 3306 -u root shutdown

:: 4) start normally (XAMPP panel or: mariadbd.exe --console)

mariadb-upgrade.exe ships in every package published here. It rewrites mysql.* tables to the current schema, creates the missing event columns, installs the system triggers and repairs mysql.gtid_slave_pos ("doesn't exist in engine").

1. Rename C:\xampp\mysql\data → data_old.
2. Copy the pristine data\ folder from the release ZIP into C:\xampp\mysql\.
3. Start MariaDB — it boots instantly with a clean system database.
4. Re-import your data: mariadb.exe -u root < your_dump.sql (if you have a dump from the old install; otherwise boot the old XAMPP binaries against data_old once and mariadb-dump it).

Honest numbers, no marketing:

• OLTP / general queries: ±0–3% — InnoDB's hot paths (CRC32C checksums via PCLMUL, memcpy) are runtime-dispatched already and don't change.
• Hash & SIMD-friendly paths: the real AVX2 payoff — xxHash (XXH3/XXH64/XXH128) compiles to a true AVX2 backend, helping hash joins, GROUP BY hashing, bulk loads, checksums.
• Haswell/Broadwell (2013–2015): minor AVX2 turbo-clock penalty possible under sustained SIMD load; typically still net-positive.
• Whole-package consistency: server and all plugins/clients share one instruction set — no mixed-flavour crashes.
• Want more? PGO+LTCG is on the roadmap (see FAQ) — benchmark your workload before committing.

 ┌──────────────┐   ┌───────────────────────────────┐   ┌──────────────────┐
 │   resolve    │──▶│  build (3-way matrix, ~25 m)  │──▶│     release      │
 │              │   │                               │   │                  │
 │ mirror index │   │ download+verify source        │   │ tag vX.Y.Z       │
 │ rest-api     │   │ bison bridge · cmake · MSVC   │   │ notes+checksums  │
 │ dedupe check │   │ /arch:AVX2|AVX|— (RwDInfo)    │   │ upload assets    │
 └──────────────┘   │ win_package → ZIPs            │   └──────────────────┘
                    │ flags audit · smoke boot      │
                    └───────────────────────────────┘

1. resolve — the version checker: scrapes the MariaDB mirror index (rolling releases like 13.1.x exist only as tarballs there, not as git tags) and the downloads.mariadb.org REST API for status, release name and the official SHA-256. If a release for the newest version already exists here (and force is not set), the run exits green without wasting compute.
2. build — a 3-job matrix (AVX2 / AVX / generic) on windows-latest: downloads and checksum-verifies the source, sets up the Bison toolchain, configures with CMake (Visual Studio generator auto-detected, x64), compiles RelWithDebInfo with the flavour's /arch: flag, runs the official win_package target, audits the recorded compiler flags, then boots the packaged server and answers a query before anything is uploaded.
3. release — creates tag vX.Y.Z and a GitHub Release with all flavours, *-debugsymbols.zip, SHA256SUMS.txt and BUILD_INFO.txt; Preview/RC versions are flagged as pre-releases.

Triggers:

Prerequisites: Visual Studio 2022+ with Desktop development with C++, CMake ≥ 3.25, Chocolatey.

# Bison (MariaDB's Windows build needs it; winflexbison + a name bridge)
choco install -y winflexbison3
$t = 'C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\winflexbison3\tools'
Copy-Item "$t\win_bison.exe" "$t\bison.exe"; Copy-Item "$t\win_flex.exe" "$t\flex.exe"

# Source (adjust version)
$v = '13.1.0'
curl.exe -fLo src.tar.gz "https://archive.mariadb.org/mariadb-$v/source/mariadb-$v.tar.gz"
tar -xzf src.tar.gz; mv mariadb-$v src; cd src

# Configure + build (pick your flavour flag: /arch:AVX2, /arch:AVX, or none for generic)
cmake -S . -B bld -A x64 `
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo `
  "-DCMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELWITHDEBINFO=/O2 /Ob1 /DNDEBUG /arch:AVX2" `
  "-DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELWITHDEBINFO=/O2 /Ob1 /DNDEBUG /arch:AVX2" `
  "-DBISON_EXECUTABLE=$t\bison.exe" "-DFLEX_EXECUTABLE=$t\flex.exe"
cmake --build bld --config RelWithDebInfo --parallel
cmake --build bld --config RelWithDebInfo --target win_package

win_package leaves two zips in bld\ — the portable distribution and debug symbols.

• MariaDB is GPL-2.0; binaries built here inherit it. Sources for every release: the exact upstream tarball, linked by version and checksum in each release's notes (e.g. archive.mariadb.org/mariadb-<version>/source/).
• This repository's own scripts and docs are MIT (see LICENSE).
• No warranty. Preview series (13.x) are development rolling releases — treat them as such.
• Bugs in MariaDB itself → MariaDB Jira; build/pipeline issues here → Issues.