Faster online backup with MyISAM driver

Remember the first test of online backup? I tested the new feature, which was performing quite well, compared to mysqldump. OK. Get ready for a surprise.
I tested the native MyISAM driver from the mysql-6.0-backup tree, and I compared the results with the normal backup.

version	backup time	restore time
standard	25.58	79.11
MyISAM driver	4.15	11.53

Please be amazed!
The difference is also visible from the metadata. The standard version says:

select * from mysql.online_backup\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
      backup_id: 1
     process_id: 0
     binlog_pos: 0
    binlog_file: NULL
   backup_state: complete
      operation: backup
      error_num: 0
    num_objects: 8
    total_bytes: 69970045
validity_point_time: 2008-07-07 11:39:04
     start_time: 2008-07-07 11:38:39
      stop_time: 2008-07-07 11:39:04
host_or_server_name: localhost
       username: msandbox
    backup_file: emp.bkp
   user_comment:
        command: backup database employees to 'emp.bkp'
        engines: Default, Snapshot

And the native driver version says:

select * from mysql.online_backup\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
      backup_id: 1
     process_id: 0
     binlog_pos: 0
    binlog_file: NULL
   backup_state: complete
      operation: backup
      error_num: 0
    num_objects: 8
    total_bytes: 335531054
validity_point_time: 2008-07-07 11:32:04
     start_time: 2008-07-07 11:32:00
      stop_time: 2008-07-07 11:32:04
host_or_server_name: localhost
       username: msandbox
    backup_file: emp.bkp
   user_comment:
        command: backup database employees to 'emp.bkp'
        engines: Snapshot, MyISAM

Doesn't it just make you want to rush to download the code at once?
The information about total_bytes is somehow puzzling. The size of the backup file is actually 89 MB for the standard version and 160 MB for the MyISAM driver. Thus, you pay a faster backup and restore with a bigger file. Personally, I can live with that.


As you may suspect, the picture does not have any relationship with backup, but it's cute, isn't it?