Thanks for reporting, but it is not so simple as I thought.

First thing one would try would be compiling against the recent version of readline. However, since version 6.x it is GPLv3+, so we cannot use it because mariadb is GPLv2 only.

Another option is to use libedit, which is a non-GPL alternative to readline, but support for libedit in mariadb seems to be unmaintained and the mariadb code needs to be fixed first.

I also thought of a temporary solution, i.e. to build against compat-readline5, but it also does not work fine and we get compiling errors.

To sum it up, we are not able to just stop bundle it right now. We will work on fixing issues with libedit and start compiling against it asap, but it may take some time.

If we find that fixing it would be a long term issue, we will ask FESCO for temporary exception.

This might be related/helpful, but I've not looked deeper into it:
https://github.com/webscalesql/webscalesql-5.6/commit/49273e52fb5f1e608225f73c2deee0e94962db8c

(In reply to Honza Horak from comment #2)
> This might be related/helpful, but I've not looked deeper into it:
> https://github.com/webscalesql/webscalesql-5.6/commit/
> 49273e52fb5f1e608225f73c2deee0e94962db8c

Unfortunately, that patch forces the mariadb to build with system readline and drop bundled libedit. As stated before, it is not applicable because of the GPLv2 vs. GPLv3+ license conflict.

community-mysql is using libedit since 5.6, I haven't looked deep into it, but it might help to explore how it is done there.

The community-mysql could help, but unfortunately the transition would not be easy. The main problem I'm running into is the client (mysql) app, which in the mysql.cc file contains declarations of various readline functions. When I try to use the modified community-mysql cmake files and force system libedit on mariadb, the client fails to link due to undefined references to said functions.

I will contact the upstream and asks for help, but from my POV it seems that in order to use any libedit with mariadb, the client code would have to be fixed/updated first.

MariaDB issue link: https://mariadb.atlassian.net/browse/MDEV-6755

According to [1], this issue is fixed in upcoming 5.5.40 and 10.0.14 versions of mariadb. I suggest waiting for those versions.

[1] https://mariadb.atlassian.net/browse/MDEV-6755?focusedCommentId=60435&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel#comment-60435

mariadb-10.0.14-4.fc21 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 21.
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/mariadb-10.0.14-4.fc21

Package mariadb-10.0.14-4.fc21:
* should fix your issue,
* was pushed to the Fedora 21 testing repository,
* should be available at your local mirror within two days.
Update it with:
# su -c 'yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing mariadb-10.0.14-4.fc21'
as soon as you are able to.
Please go to the following url:
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2014-12200/mariadb-10.0.14-4.fc21
then log in and leave karma (feedback).

The fix in 10.0.14-4 is incomplete: it fails to do the "rm -r cmd-line-utils" or equivalent in %prep to remove the bundled library code. This was noted in the initial comment; it is a must per the packaging guidelines:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Treatment_Of_Bundled_Libraries#Packages_with_Bundled_Libraries

mariadb-10.0.14-4.fc21 has been pushed to the Fedora 21 stable repository.  If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.

Reopening due to comment 10, feel free to close+clone as another bug if you prefer that approach instead.

(In reply to Ville Skyttä from comment #12)
> Reopening due to comment 10, feel free to close+clone as another bug if you
> prefer that approach instead.

Thanks for notice, Fedora Update System should let it be now, so we should be fine with this bug.

Now it should be fixed properly in mariadb-10.0.14-6.fc21.

(In reply to Honza Horak from comment #1) 
> First thing one would try would be compiling against the recent version of
> readline. However, since version 6.x it is GPLv3+, so we cannot use it
> because mariadb is GPLv2 only.

I think this is a mistake , GPLv2 only is "linkable" with GPLv3+  but result will be GPLv2 and GPLv3+ .

mariadb is GPLv2 only and use a copy of readline under GPLv2 that is fine. We can use mariadb with readline GPLv3+ but the final License will be GPLv2 and GPLv3+ . 

Can I block this bug with FE-Legal tracker bug 182235 and reopen this bug  ?

Reference: 

http://gplv3.fsf.org/rms-why.html

" Keeping a program under GPLv2 won't create problems. "