MariaDB client — Stack Guide

Stack guide — MariaDB client

Connect to MariaDB from your application

MariaDB is a full relational database server. The client libraries — libmariadb and connectors for every language — let your application query, insert, and manage data. This page covers the runtime side: connecting from C, Python, PHP, Perl, and Node.js.

For server deployment — starting the daemon, securing the installation, creating users, and configuring InnoDB — see the Database stack guide.

C client

libmariadb

The MariaDB C connector is installed as a system library. Include the headers and link with -lmariadb:

#include <mysql.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    MYSQL *conn = mysql_init(NULL);
    if (conn == NULL) {
        fprintf(stderr, "mysql_init() failed\n");
        return 1;
    }

    if (mysql_real_connect(conn, "localhost", "myapp",
            "<app-user-password>", "myapp", 0, NULL, 0) == NULL) {
        fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", mysql_error(conn));
        mysql_close(conn);
        return 1;
    }

    if (mysql_query(conn, "SELECT name, email FROM users")) {
        fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", mysql_error(conn));
    } else {
        MYSQL_RES *result = mysql_store_result(conn);
        MYSQL_ROW row;
        while ((row = mysql_fetch_row(result))) {
            printf("%s - %s\n", row[0], row[1]);
        }
        mysql_free_result(result);
    }

    mysql_close(conn);
    return 0;
}

Compile with:

gcc -O3 -march=x86-64-v3 -o /usr/local/bin/myapp myapp.c $(pkg-config --cflags --libs mariadb)

The mysql_config helper is also available:

gcc -O3 -march=x86-64-v3 -o /usr/local/bin/myapp myapp.c $(mysql_config --cflags --libs)

Man page: man mysql. API reference: mariadb.com/kb.

Python

PyMySQL

Install PyMySQL in your virtual environment:

python3 -m venv /usr/local/venvs/myapp
source /usr/local/venvs/myapp/bin/activate
pip install pymysql

import pymysql

conn = pymysql.connect(
    host='localhost',
    user='myapp',
    password='<app-user-password>',
    database='myapp',
    charset='utf8mb4',
    cursorclass=pymysql.cursors.DictCursor
)

try:
    with conn.cursor() as cur:
        cur.execute('SELECT name, email FROM users')
        for row in cur:
            print(f"{row['name']} - {row['email']}")
finally:
    conn.close()

For async applications, use aiomysql with asyncio.

PHP

PDO and mysqli

PHP 8.5 ships with both pdo_mysql and mysqli extensions. PDO with named parameters is the recommended API:

<?php
$pdo = new PDO(
    'mysql:host=localhost;dbname=myapp;charset=utf8mb4',
    'myapp',
    '<app-user-password>',
    [
        PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
        PDO::ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE => PDO::FETCH_ASSOC,
        PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES => false,
    ]
);

$stmt = $pdo->prepare(
    'SELECT name, email FROM users WHERE email LIKE :domain'
);
$stmt->execute(['domain' => '%@example.com']);

foreach ($stmt as $row) {
    echo $row['name'] . " - " . $row['email'] . "\n";
}

See PHP 8.5 for extension details and configuration.

Perl

DBD::MariaDB

Install the DBI driver via CPAN:

cpan> install DBD::MariaDB

use DBI;
use strict;
use warnings;

my $dbh = DBI->connect(
    'DBI:MariaDB:database=myapp;host=localhost;mysql_enable_utf8mb4=1',
    'myapp',
    '<app-user-password>',
    { RaiseError => 1, PrintError => 0 }
) or die $DBI::errstr;

my $sth = $dbh->prepare(
    'SELECT name, email FROM users WHERE email LIKE ?'
);
$sth->execute('%@example.com');

while (my $row = $sth->fetchrow_hashref) {
    print "$row->{name} - $row->{email}\n";
}

$sth->finish;
$dbh->disconnect;

Node.js

mysql2

Install the mysql2 package:

npm install -g mysql2

import mysql from 'mysql2/promise';

const conn = await mysql.createConnection({
  host: 'localhost',
  user: 'myapp',
  password: '<app-user-password>',
  database: 'myapp',
  charset: 'utf8mb4'
});

const [rows] = await conn.execute(
  'SELECT name, email FROM users WHERE email LIKE ?',
  ['%@example.com']
);

for (const row of rows) {
  console.log(row.name + ' - ' + row.email);
}

await conn.end();

The mysql2/promise API returns native promises. Use it with async/await for clean error handling.

Database stack guide Runtime stack