I am migrating from some MySQL 5.1 servers to MySQL 5.6 servers. The MySQL docs are a bit unclear if replication is supported between a 5.1 master and a 5.6 slave, and MySQL's documentation is unclear if this is supported.

In terms of version numbers, MySQL seems to follow the norms for [semantic version](http://semver.org/) numbers

* 5.1 has a "Major version" of 5, and a "release level" of 1.
* 5.6 has a "Major version" of 5, and a "release level" of 6.
* MySQL 4, MySQL 5 and MySQL 6 would all be considered "Major versions".

This is documented at <https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/which-version.html> :

> 
> The naming scheme in MySQL 5.6 uses release names that consist of
>  three numbers and a suffix; for example, mysql-5.6.1-m1. The numbers
>  within the release name are interpreted as follows:
> 
> 
> * The first number (5) is the **major version** and describes the file format. All MySQL 5 releases have the same file format.
> * The second number (6) is the **release level**. Taken together, the major version and release level constitute the release series number.
> 
> 
> 

<https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/replication-compatibility.html> says replication is supported between one major version and the next highest major version. This wording is pretty ambiguous if replication is supported between 5.1 and 5.6.

> 
> MySQL supports replication from one **major version** to the next higher
>  **major version**. For example, you can replicate from a master running
>  MySQL 4.1 to a slave running MySQL 5.0, from a master running **MySQL
>  5.0 to a slave running MySQL 5.1**, and so on.
> 
> 
> 

The [updated 5.7 beta docs](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/replication-compatibility.html) sort of simply that replication is only supported between *release levels*, although the manual uses the term "major version". What do they really mean here?

> 
> MySQL supports replication from one **major version** to the next higher
>  **major version**. For example, you can replicate from a master running
>  MySQL 5.0 to a slave running MySQL 5.1, **from a master running MySQL
>  5.1 to a slave running MySQL 5.5**, and so on.
> 
> 
> 

Is MySQL replication supported between MySQL 5.1 and MySQL 5.6? I understand that MySQL 5.1 is EOL on most platforms, but it's still shipped with RHEL6.