MariaDB

MariaDB support with MySQL-compatible dialect plus MariaDB-specific features like native UUID, RETURNING, and INET4/INET6 types.

Overview

MariaDB is a MySQL-compatible database that has diverged with its own features. While scythe previously treated MariaDB as a MySQL alias, v0.6.0 adds dedicated MariaDB manifests to support MariaDB-specific types and syntax that differ from MySQL. MariaDB backends use the same drivers as MySQL but with MariaDB-aware type resolution.

Engine alias

scythe.toml

[[sql]]
engine = "mariadb"

Note: mariadb was previously an alias for MySQL. In v0.6.0+, engine = "mariadb" selects MariaDB-specific backend manifests for the four backends that have one (see below). Parsing and type inference are unaffected: the parser resolves mariadb to the same SqlDialect::MySQL as mysql (crates/scythe-core/src/dialect.rs), so nullability and type analysis are byte-identical to MySQL.

Supported backends

MariaDB uses the same drivers as MySQL. Only four backends have a dedicated MariaDB manifest; the rest accept engine = "mariadb" but load the same manifest as engine = "mysql":

Backend	Language	Driver	Manifest
rust-sqlx	Rust	sqlx (MySQL driver)	MariaDB-specific
go-database-sql	Go	database/sql	MariaDB-specific
java-jdbc	Java	JDBC (MariaDB Connector/J)	MariaDB-specific
kotlin-jdbc	Kotlin	JDBC (MariaDB Connector/J)	MariaDB-specific
python-aiomysql	Python	aiomysql	MySQL (shared)
typescript-mysql2	TypeScript	mysql2	MySQL (shared)
csharp-mysqlconnector	C#	MySqlConnector	MySQL (shared)
elixir-myxql	Elixir	MyXQL	MySQL (shared)
ruby-mysql2	Ruby	mysql2 gem	MySQL (shared)
php-pdo	PHP	PDO (mysql driver)	MySQL (shared)

java-r2dbc and kotlin-r2dbc also have dedicated MariaDB manifests but are not listed above because neither backend supports MSSQL or Oracle either – see their supported_engines list (postgresql, mysql, mariadb, sqlite).

Configuration

scythe.toml

[[sql]]
name = "main"
engine = "mariadb"
schema = ["schema.sql"]
queries = ["queries/"]

[[sql.gen]]
backend = "python-aiomysql"
output = "src/generated"

Differences from MySQL

Feature	MySQL	MariaDB
UUID type	Not native (use CHAR(36))	Native UUID type (10.7+)
RETURNING	Not supported	Supported on INSERT/DELETE (10.5+)
INET4 / INET6	Not supported	Native network address types (10.10+)
Sequences	Not supported	CREATE SEQUENCE (10.3+)
Temporal tables	Not supported	System-versioned tables (10.3+)
JSON	Native JSON type	Alias for LONGTEXT with JSON validation

Type mapping table

MariaDB Type	Neutral Type	Notes
INT / INTEGER	int32
BIGINT	int64
SMALLINT	int16
TINYINT	int16
MEDIUMINT	int32
FLOAT	float32
DOUBLE	float64
DECIMAL / NUMERIC	decimal
TINYINT UNSIGNED / SMALLINT UNSIGNED	int16	Same-width signed neutral type
MEDIUMINT UNSIGNED / INT UNSIGNED	int32	Same-width signed neutral type
BIGINT UNSIGNED	int64	Same-width signed neutral type
VARCHAR / CHAR / TEXT	string
BOOLEAN / BOOL	bool
BLOB / BINARY / VARBINARY	bytes
UUID	uuid	MariaDB 10.7+ native UUID
DATE	date
TIME	time
DATETIME	datetime
TIMESTAMP	datetime
JSON	json	Alias for LONGTEXT in MariaDB
ENUM(...)	enum::{table}_{column}	Registered as a catalog enum, same as MySQL

INET4 and INET6 have no type mapping. A column declared with either fails code generation.

UNSIGNED integer columns map to the same-width signed neutral type – there is no dedicated unsigned neutral type, and BIGINT UNSIGNED has no wider type to widen to. Values near the top of the unsigned range (for example, above i16::MAX for SMALLINT UNSIGNED or above i64::MAX for BIGINT UNSIGNED) need application-level handling in the generated code. This applies to MariaDB because it resolves to the same SqlDialect::MySQL type-resolution path as MySQL.

Placeholder syntax

MariaDB uses ? positional placeholders, same as MySQL:

SELECT id, name FROM users WHERE id = ?;

Notes

• Native UUID – MariaDB 10.7+ has a native UUID type stored as 16 bytes internally. Scythe maps this to the uuid neutral type, unlike MySQL where CHAR(36) maps to string.
• RETURNING support – MariaDB supports RETURNING on INSERT and DELETE statements (10.5+). Scythe generates :one and :many return handling for these queries.
• INET types unsupported – INET4 and INET6 are native MariaDB types (10.10+), but scythe has no type mapping for them yet. A column declared with either fails code generation.
• JSON handling – MariaDB’s JSON type is an alias for LONGTEXT with JSON check constraint. Type mapping is identical to MySQL.
• Inline ENUM – like MySQL, an inline ENUM(...) column is registered as a catalog enum named {table}_{column} and resolves to enum::{table}_{column}, not a bare string.