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I'm working on an installer that installs a program to a local machine which accesses a remote MySQL database. What I would like to know is, how closely do I need match the ODBC drivers (myodbc.dll) to the MySQL Server version?

Some of our clients have MySQL Server 3.x and some have 5.x, and I would like the installer to get the Server version and then find the matching driver and install it. Will one driver work for multiple Server versions? Or should I just hard-code a bunch of Server-Driver pairings?

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You are still running 3.x? Isn't that way beyond end of life? –  Zoredache Jan 27 '12 at 5:39
We aren't running it, but some of our clients are stubborn and won't upgrade: "Because if it works why change?". –  Aaron Jan 30 '12 at 15:55
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The biggest change in the mysql client server protocol happened during the changed during the 4.1.1 release. Clients before 4.1.1 will not be able to connect to newer servers.

There certainly are some issues with certain driver pairings. If you are going to continue using ancient unsupported versions in the 3.x series, I suspect you will have issues, and you will probably have to perform internal testing. I am not aware, and cannot find anyone testing this and publishing their results.

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