I'd rather not try to support both if the end result is the same, so I'm hijacking this issue as a reminder to replace mysql with mysql2 completely 🙂

Please don't forget about this, the mysql error logs are getting ridiculous. Thanks for all your hard work.

+1 for this feature

I can reveal that I have been using Directus with mysql2 for the past year now in three production environments and have had zero issues so far, if anyone was wondering about possible issues.

I apply it via a hotfix overwrite of some directus files

How are you applying the hotfix? Are you manually editing files in node_modules?

Yeh, from the start I have been using Directus via npm install, since there are so many hot-fixes I need just for different reasons. Here is my full set of hot fixes, most are done for performance optimisations that I have made PRs for, but they are not in Directus yet. So if you only use mysql, then you should be able to use this: Unzip into your root Directus folder (same as where extensions folder is) then run node hot-fix.js

hot-fixes.zip

Nice one thanks will take a look!

A better way to do this is to just run this bash command after install to find/replace (can even execute inside Docker):

sed -i -e 's/Client_MySQL/Client_MySQL2/' node_modules/@directus/api/dist/database/index.js

Also set DB_CLIENT="mysql2" in your .env file.

this issue gains importance. you cannot start directus with actual versions of mysql8....
even if you use: --mysql-native-password=ON on the mysql-container, the default generated user has no "mysql_native_password" auth... so directus is not starting alongside with mysql bigger than 8.3.

this issue gains importance. you cannot start directus with actual versions of mysql8.... even if you use: --mysql-native-password=ON on the mysql-container, the default generated user has no "mysql_native_password" auth... so directus is not starting alongside with mysql bigger than 8.3.

Try this solution. It helped me run the container.
https://stackoverflow.com/a/78447221/4022411

But this issue is really becoming important.

+1 for getting this fixed. Not only is using mysql_native_password less secure, but this is making it increasingly difficult to use MySQL databases with Directus. And since Directus allows you to use it with a preexisting database, the answer isn't always as straightforward as saying 'use another database'...

Based on the suggestion by @fire015, I build this minimal Dockerfile for those using docker.

FROM directus/directus
WORKDIR /directus

#Directus uses pnpm as it's package manager, but the official docker image doesn't come with it installed.
#The current user (node) doesn't have permission to install global packages, so we switch to root and install pnpm.
USER root
RUN npm install -g pnpm@9.0.6 

#We can now switch back to the node user and run our install command to add mysql2 lib.
USER node
RUN pnpm i mysql2

#Then we run the command provided by our friend [fire015](https://github.com/fire015)
RUN sed -i -e 's/Client_MySQL/Client_MySQL2/' node_modules/@directus/api/dist/database/index.js