License does apply not to the *protocol as such*.  But license applies to *the implementation of the protocol in code*, such as the C-API.

Oracle's API (and connectors) are GPL-licensed (or rather dual-licensed: GPL or commercial)
MariaDB' s API and connectors are LGPL-licensed. See for instance https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb/client-libraries/client-library-for-c/ "The client library is LGPL licensed.".

MariaDB's C-API is based on the old MySQL C-API version 3.23 (that was also LGPL licensed) with further developments independent of Oracle added to it. We have been using it for several years now and were invovled in it from an early stage (probably nobody filed as many bug reports as we did). I'd say current state is 99% perfection (we still have 2 small issues with it)

The protocol is documented here http://dev.mysql.com/doc/internals/en/client-server-protocol.html.  The MariaDB API implements it with exceptions
* some old and obscure parameters to myql_options() have been omitted (at least they were in the beginning - I am not sure if it is stll the case.
* no support for the Windows authentication protocol (that lets you login to MySQL on Windows with your Windows authentication details)
* somewhat different implementation for the 'full-text pluin' (used for LDAP authenticaton etc.)


-- Peter
-- Webyog (and thus this is not an official reply from MariaDB)




On Sun, Dec 7, 2014 at 1:40 AM, AskMonty KB <noreply@askmonty.org> wrote:
Hello,

A new question has been asked in "Geographic Features" by massimo.manca.pn. Please answer it at http://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-clientserver-tcp-protocol/ as the person asking the question may not be subscribed to the mailing list.

--------------------------------
Hi,
I am interested to interface embedded boards to MariaDB data bases. Actually I made some trials with Mysql and a LPC1769 based board. I am quite satisfied, the results are very good but there is a problem with the license of the Mysql TCP protocol that is released under GPL so... there is a problem to work with closed source applications.

1. I would like to know if client/server protocol is the same for MariaDB and MySql
2. I would like to know if client/server protocol for MariaDB is under GPL or LGPL
3. Is there any documentation about client/server protocol for MariaDB?

Thank you very much and thank you also to fork MariaDB from MySQL, it is a better product.

Massimo
--------------------------------

To view or answer this question please visit: http://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-clientserver-tcp-protocol/

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