Dear Maintainer,

Following a recent discussion on debian-devel@[1], there is a plan to dismantle
the default-mysql-* virtual package construct provided by the mysql-defaults
source package. With the recent releases of MySQL 9.7 and MariaDB 12.3, there is
now enough divergence between the two codebases to warrant dismantling this
metapackage in the Forky (Debian 14) cycle.

This is filed with severity 'normal' as this change is not urgent.

We are asking maintainers to drop any dependencies on these virtual packages:
* default-libmysqlclient-dev
* default-mysql-client
* default-mysql-client-core
* default-mysql-server
* default-mysql-server-core

However, how this is handled in is in your discretion based on the details of
how the package is maintained and tested in Debian. There are mainly three
options:

- Direct switch: The most straightforward approach is to switch defaut-mysql-*
  directly to the MariaDB equivalent (libmariadb-dev, libmariadb-dev-compat,
  mariadb-client, mariadb-server, etc). For example 'Recommends: mariadb-server'.

- Dual compatibility: If the package actively supports both engines and you wish
  to keep an alternative runtime path open for users drawing from third-party
  repositories, you can declare an OR dependency. For example
  'Depends: mariadb-client | mysql-client'.

- Specific constraint: If your package does not work with MariaDB, feel free to
  tailor the package relationships to match that constraint. This is however
  very unlikely as all Debian releases in past decade have only shipped with
  MariaDB, and the open source ecosystem has largely shifted to lean towards
  MariaDB.

This change is targeted specifically for the Forky cycle and does not affect any
existing stable releases.

Thank you for your time and your work maintaining pdns in Debian!

[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2026/05/msg00161.html

Hi Otto,

thanks for the heads-up.
[..]

To do that, from src:pdns PoV three things need to be solved:

1) B-D:

Whats the correct Build-Depends equivalent? src:pdns uses a
(comparatively small) libmysqlclient API surface.

2) We'll need an answer to https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2026/05/msg00256.html
as we intend to keep the same source package buildable across Debian
and Ubuntu.

3) We'll need B-D: and D: stanzas that work across bookworm and
newer, as we intend to keep the same source building across these. I
imagine the mariadb and mysql packages might have stayed stable
enough in that timeframe, but please advise if this is really true.

Best,
Chris

Hi,
libmariadb-dev` or `Build-Depends: libmariadb-dev-compat`. Based on
https://github.com/PowerDNS/pdns/blob/36f6762677539abd610f33fc48310bcf39defe05/docs/upgrading.rst#430-to-431
seems PowerDNS has been updated to use `mariadb` directly and no
longer needs the compat shim that provides `mariadb` using the library
name `mysql`.

Because you prefer using the same source everywhere, it probably makes
sense for you to postpone doing major changes until a) Forky freeze is
imminent or b) some other change surfaces that forces you to deal with
compatibility issues immediately.

Based on PowerDNS docs like
https://doc.powerdns.com/authoritative/backends/generic-mysql.html it
seems the DB use in general is very generic and works fully with both
MySQL and MariaDB for now. I don't see any traces of anyone testing it
with MySQL 9.4 or MariaDB 12.3, so the future compatibility situation
remains unknown.

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
pdns, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1137781@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Chris Hofstaedtler <zeha@debian.org> (supplier of updated pdns package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Thu, 28 May 2026 18:52:05 +0200
Source: pdns
Architecture: source
Version: 5.0.5-2
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: pdns packagers <pdns@packages.debian.org>
Changed-By: Chris Hofstaedtler <zeha@debian.org>
Closes: 1137781
Changes:
 pdns (5.0.5-2) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * debian: resolve default-mysql-* to mariadb-* | mysql-* (Closes: #1137781)
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libmysqlclient. I assume upstream also used the compat-libs on RHEL.

Lets see if the meson builds will fare better, once meson lands.

For now src:pdns Build-Depends: libmariadb-dev-compat |
libmysqlclient-dev .

I imagine that means the Ubuntu builds will also switch to
libmariadb, probably not what Ubuntu wanted. But who knows!

Chris