SQL Clients#

Dolt ships with a built in MySQL compatible server. To start the server for your Dolt database, you run dolt sql-server in the repository directory. The dolt sql-server command starts a MySQL compatible server for the Dolt database on port 3306 with no authentication. The database name is the name of the repository directory but with dashes (-) replaced with underscores (_). So dolt-test repository name would become dolt_test database name. See this documentation for more configuration details.

Once a server is running, any MySQL client should be able to connect to Dolt SQL Server in the exact same way it connects to a standard MySQL database. For instance, if you are running a Dolt sql-server locally, you can connect to it with the MySQL client mysql like so:

$ mysql -u root
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 2
Server version: 5.7.9-Vitess

Copyright (c) 2000, 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql>

We explicitly support the programmatic clients outlined in this document through integration testing. Tests are run on GitHub pull requests to Dolt in a Ubuntu environment in a Docker container. If you would like another MySQL compatible client supported and tested, please let us know.

The test code linked to below is a good way to get started connecting to a Dolt SQL server if you are not familiar how to connect to MySQL in your language of choice. The code establishes a connection, runs some simple queries, verifies the output comes back as expected, and closes the connection.

⚠️ Disclaimer: This is a recommendation based on our testing with Dolt. While the MySQL and MariaDB connector libraries are largely similar, we recommend using the MySQL connectors. They are more thoroughly tested with Dolt, whereas the MariaDB connectors have some known quirks, such as silently stripping certain SQL join hint comments.

Python#

We currently support multiple Python MySQL connectors, including mysql.connector, pymysql, and mariadb. These are all fully written in Python, however, the MariaDB connector does build from the C connector.

mysql.connector#

• Official Client documentation
• Python mysql.connector test code

pymysql#

• Official Client documentation
• Python pymysql test code

mariadb#

• Official Client documentation
• Python mariadb test code

SQLAlchemy#

We also support the SQLAlchemy library. SQLAlchemy requires a connector that is specified in the connection string. Choose one of the supported connectors listed above, and then pass that to the SQLAlchemy connection string, as in the snippet taken from the connector test below:

conn_string_base = "mysql+mysqlconnector://"

engine = create_engine(conn_string_base +
                       "{user}@127.0.0.1:{port}/{db}".format(user=user,
                                                             port=port,
                                                             db=db)

• Offical Library documentation
• Python SQLAlchemy test code
• In depth Dolt <> SQLAlchemy guide with Examples

Node#

We support the standard mysql Node library as well as the mariadb connector.

mysql#

• Official Client documentation
• Node MySQL test code

mariadb#

• Official Client documentation
• Node MariaDB test code

Java#

We support multiple Java MySQL connectors, including mysql-connector-j, mariadb-java-client, and r2dbc-mariadb.

mysql-connector-j#

• Official Client Documentation
• Java mysql-connector test code

mariadb-java-client#

• Official Client Documentation
• Java mariadb-java-client test code

r2dbc-mariadb#

• Official Client Documentation
• Java r2dbc-mariadb test code

C#

We support libmysqlclient distributed by MySQL, the MariaDB Connector/C, and the MariaDB ODBC connector. For the tests, we apt-get install -y libmysqlclient-dev and compile against the dynamic binaries.

libmysqlclient#

• Official Client Documentation
• C libmysqlclient test code

MariaDB Connector/C#

• Official Client Documentation
• C MariaDB Connector/C test code

MariaDB ODBC#

• Official Client Documentation
• C MariaDB ODBC test code

C++#

We support mysql-connector-cpp and mariadb-connector-cpp. We build these connectors through the available packages in MariaDB download page or Debian’s apt-get.

mysql-connector-cpp#

• Official Client Documentation
• C++ mysql-connector-cpp test code

mariadb-connector-cpp#

• Official Client Documentation
• C++ mariadb-connector-cpp test code

Dotnet#

We support MySQL.Data.MySqlClient distributed by MySQL and the asynchronous MySqlConnector. We tested the client using .NET 9.0 SDK.

MySQL.Data.MySqlClient#

• Official Client Documentation
• MySql.Data test code

MySQLConnector#

• Official Client Documentation
• MySqlConnector test code

Perl#

We support the DBD::mysql and DBD::MariaDB packages that implement DBI for MySQL. These connectors rely on libmysqlclient or MariaDB Connector/C.

DBD::mysql#

• Official Client Documentation
• DBD::mysql test code

DBD::MariaDB#

• Official Client Documentation
• DBD::MariaDB test code

PHP#

We support the built-in mysqli extension and PDO API for connecting to MySQL.

• Official mysqli Client Documentation

• mysqli test code

• Official PDO Client Documentation

• PDO test code

Go#

We support multiple Go MySQL clients, including go-sql-driver/mysql (the standard MySQL driver for the database/sql package) and go-mysql.

go-sql-driver/mysql#

• Official Client Documentation
• go-sql-driver/mysql test code

go-mysql#

• Official Client Documentation
• go-mysql test code

Ruby#

We support the native ruby/mysql library and the native mysql2 library. The mysql/ruby package uses the MySQL C API and has not been ported to MySQL client version 8. Thus, we do not support mysql/ruby.

mysql2#

• Official Client Documentation
• mysql2 test code

ruby/mysql#

• Official Client Documentation
• ruby/mysql test code

R#

We support the legacy RMySQL and newer RMariaDB R clients. Both implement DBI and require either libmysqlclient or MariaDBConnector/C.

• RMySQL Official Client Documentation

• RMYSQL test code

• RMariaDB Official Client Documentation

• RMariaDB test code

There is also an open-source, third-party wrapper for working with Dolt, called DoltR. This tool is well-maintained by EcoHealth Alliance and provides an easy way to work with local or remote Dolt databases from within R Studio.

• Getting Started with DoltR
• DoltR on GitHub

Rust#

We support the mysql crate in Rust.

• Official Client Documentation
• Rust test code

Elixir#

We support multiple Elixir MySQL clients, including MyXQL (a native Elixir MySQL driver) and mysql-otp (an Erlang MySQL driver usable from Elixir).

MyXQL#

• Official Client Documentation
• Elixir MyXQL test code

mysql-otp#

• Official Client Documentation
• Elixir mysql-otp test code

Swift#

We support the Perfect-MariaDB connector for Swift, which provides MariaDB/MySQL connectivity using the MariaDB Connector/C library.

• Official Client Documentation
• Swift Perfect-MariaDB test code