By Solomon Chang
Maatkit (available at http://www.maatkit.org) makes MySQL easier and safer to manage. It provides simple, predictable ways to do things you cannot otherwise do. It would be nice if these features were included with MySQL, but they are not. That's why Maatkit is now shipping by default with many GNU/Linux distributions such as Debian and CentOS.
You can use Maatkit to prove replication is working correctly, fix corrupted data, automate repetitive tasks, speed up your servers, and much, much more.
And best of all, Maatkit is Free Software so you can modify, inspect, and redistribute it yourself.