The document outlines the development of a unified command line tool for MariaDB, codenamed 'Narwhal', designed to simplify the user experience for both DBAs and developers by providing a modular framework that integrates various tools within the MariaDB stack. Currently in early technical preview, it features multi-window support, modern SQL prompt enhancements, and various output formats, with plans for additional capabilities and improved user interfaces in the future. MariaDB aims to deliver a versatile and powerful utility that caters to both beginners and advanced users, enhancing productivity across its products.

1. MariaDB Enterprise
Tools
Andrew Hutchings
Software Engineering Manager
MariaDB Corporation
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2. About Me
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● Andrew (LinuxJedi) Hutchings
● Previously Lead Engineer / Manager for
MariaDB ColumnStore
● Many years of experience in database, cloud
and web technologies
● Co-author of MySQL 5.1 Plugin Development
● Twitter: @LinuxJedi
● EMail: linuxjedi@mariadb.com

3. Intended Audience
● DBAs who use command line tools
● Or really anyone who uses command line tools
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4. The Problem...
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● MariaDB’s growing suite of products each has its own set of tools to use
● Some of the tools have different interfaces
● Several of the tools have not had many changes in years
● DBA tools that MariaDB do not have equivalents of yet also have different
interfaces

5. The Idea
● A unified utility that encompases the entire MariaDB stack
● Modular design so extra tools can be added
● Easy / inviting to use for beginners and power users
● Newer features that MariaDB clients should have had long ago
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The Solution - Codename Narwhal

7. What is it?
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● A unified command line framework for Linux, Windows and macOS
○ The “Swiss Army Knife” of MariaDB
● Designed from the ground up to be easy to use
○ Run from your laptop (or on-prem server) to connect to multiple servers and cloud
○ Wizard driven, help screens, extensive documentation
○ Many advanced features for power users
● High-performance non-blocking core
● Extendable using modular interface
○ Can also execute external tools as modules
● Developed from the ground-up by MariaDB Corporation

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9. Target Users
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● DBAs / RDBAs & Developers
● MariaDB field engineers (using MariaDB Tools on site)
● DevOps / SRE
● From beginner to expert

10. Project Status
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11. Project Status
● Early technical preview stage
● Multi-window support
● Plugin architecture created
● SQL Prompt and ‘top’-like module created
● Builds and runs in macOS and Linux
● User and module developer documentation written
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Menu bar
Current DB
name in
prompt
Precise
execution
time
Bold column
names (only for
terminal output)
Unicode table
layout
characters
Host / port,
shows
padlock for
SSL
User authenticated as Current character set (UTF-8
default) Current table layout type
Indicator for
terminal / file
output
Current
delimiter
Status bar

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Current Features - Core
● Entirely event driven asynchronous core
● Handles multiple SQL connections simultaneously in a single thread
● Multi-window capable
● Multiple possible table layouts
● Unicode from the ground-up (but can fall-back to ASCII)
○ Powerline support too
● Mouse support (scrolling only for now)
● Connection URL support (mariadb://user@hostname/database)
● SSL certification verification by default

14. Current Features - Core - Table Layouts
● ASCII - Like the traditional client
● Unicode - A more fancy output
● CSV - For direct input into other tools
● Vertical - Like using “G” in the traditional client
● Markdown - For directly creating tables in documents
● JSON - Can be used for building REST requests
● Many more possible
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15. Current Features - SQL Prompt
● Smarter query processing, no need for a delimiter for single line queries
● Easier to understand query history search
● Modular command parser
○ New commands are simple to add
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16. Current Features - Module API
● Well documented API for modules
● Currently written in C
● Gives functionality for
○ Window manipulation
○ Async SQL queries
○ Command parsing
○ General utilities
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17. Current Features - Top Module
● Similar to Linux / Unix ‘top’ command
● Shows live usage statistics for a MariaDB server
● Shows processlist
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18. The Future
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19. Planned Features - Core
● Help improvements
● UI improvements to aid users
● Full mouse support
● Windows support
● Connection details manager
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20. Planned Features - SQL Watch Module
● A module to execute a single query repeatedly and watch for changes
○ New rows
○ Modified rows
● Can be useful to see state changes in status variables or live changes to parts
of tables
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21. Planned Features - Shell Exec Wizard
● Provides a form to execute an external application
○ mariabackup as an example
● Uses a simple configuration file to map form details to executable options
● Output renders inside the UI
○ Interactive input may also be possible later
● Makes it extremely easy to add extra features just with configuration files
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22. Planned Features - Command Modules
● Modules that a user can run with a single command
○ They execute something
○ Echo to screen if needed
○ Then return
● Can take zero or more parameters
● Executed by just typing in the command name in SQL Prompt with any
parameters
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23. Planned Features - SQL Prompt
● Autocomplete suggestions
● Live syntax highlighting
● More commands
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24. Planned Features - Backup
● A multi-threaded warm backup module
○ Think the regular dump tool but many times faster
○ Uses transaction snapshots
○ Possibly also use replication stream to get the data between start and end of
snapshot
● A hot backup (snapshot) module
○ Implementation details to be decided
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25. Planned Features - SkySQL
● Simple user interface to create and manage SkySQL instances
● A new instance could automatically be stored in the connection list
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26. More Features?
● MariaDB’s tools, ColumnStore tools, Xpand’s tools, MaxScale’s tools, etc...
● Database browser? Replication visualisations? Split window view?
● We are open to suggestions
● This is a modular core, we can do a lot with it
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27. Demo Time
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28. Summary
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● We are building a simple unified DBA tool for the entire MariaDB stack
● Expect more about this tool in the coming months as we complete the first
release

29. Thank You!
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