Using a hands-on approach, this section provides the tools you need to explore and extend the MySQL system. It introduces you to how the MySQL code can be modified and explains how you can use the system as an embedded database system. Chapter 5 reviews debugging skills and techniques that help make development easy and less prone to failure. It presents several debugging techniques, along with the pros and cons of each. Chapter 6 contains a tutorial on how to embed the MySQL system in enterprise applications. Chapter 7 presents the most popular modification to the MySQL code. You’ll learn how to modify SQL commands to add new parameters and functions, and how to add new SQL commands. Chapter 8 is a tour of the high availability components of MySQL. You’ll learn how to extend MySQL for use in your own custom, high-availability solution. Chapter 9 presents a tutorial on building authentication plugins for creating your own authentication mechanism for connecting to MySQL. Chapter 10 examines the MySQL pluggable storage-engine capability, complete with examples and projects that permit you to build a sample storage engine.