MySQL - Quick Installation Overview

The basic commands you must execute to install a MySQL source distribution are:

shell> groupadd mysql

shell> useradd -g mysql mysql

shell> gunzip < mysql-VERSION.tar.gz | tar -xvf -

shell> cd mysql-VERSION

shell> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql

shell> make

shell> make install

shell> scripts/mysql_install_db

shell> chown -R mysql /usr/local/mysql

shell> chgrp -R mysql /usr/local/mysql

shell> /usr/local/mysql/bin/safe_mysqld --user=mysql &

If you start from a source RPM, then do the following:

shell> rpm --rebuild MySQL-VERSION.src.rpm

This will make a binary RPM that you can install.

You can add new users using the bin/mysql_setpermission script if you install the DBI and Msql-Mysql-modules Perl modules.

A more detailed description follows.

Pick the directory under which you want to unpack the distribution, and move into it.

If you are interested in using Berkeley DB tables with MySQL, you will need to obtain a patched version of the Berkeley DB source code. Please read the chapter on Berkeley DB tables before proceeding.

MySQL source distributions are provided as compressed tar archives and have names like `mysql-VERSION.tar.gz', where VERSION is a number like 3.23.33.

Add a user and group for mysqld to run as:

shell> groupadd mysql

shell> useradd -g mysql mysql

These commands add the mysql group, and the mysql user. The syntax for useradd and groupadd may differ slightly on different Unixes. They may also be called adduser and addgroup. You may wish to call the user and group something else instead of mysql.

Unpack the distribution into the current directory:

shell> gunzip < /path/to/mysql-VERSION.tar.gz | tar xvf -

This command creates a directory named `mysql-VERSION'.

Change into the top-level directory of the unpacked distribution:

shell> cd mysql-VERSION

Note that currently you must configure and build MySQL from this top-level directory. You can not build it in a different directory.

Configure the release and compile everything:

shell> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql

shell> make

When you run configure, you might want to specify some options. Run ./configure --help for a list of options. If configure fails, and you are going to send mail to

mysql@lists.mysql.com to ask for assistance, please include any lines from `config.log' that you think can help solve the problem. Also include the last couple of lines of output from configure if configure aborts. Post the bug report using the mysqlbug script.

Install everything:

shell> make install

You might need to run this command as root.

Create the MySQL grant tables (necessary only if you haven't installed MySQL before):

shell> scripts/mysql_install_db

Note that MySQL versions older than Version 3.22.10 started the MySQL server when you run mysql_install_db. This is no longer true!

Change ownership of the installation to the user that you will run mysqld as:

shell> chown -R mysql /usr/local/mysql

shell> chgrp -R mysql /usr/local/mysql

The first command changes the owner attribute of the files to the mysql user, and the second changes the group attribute to the mysql group.

If you would like MySQL to start automatically when you boot your machine, you can copy support-files/mysql.server to the location where your system has its startup files. More information can be found in the support-files/mysql.server script itself.

After everything has been installed, you should initialize and test your distribution:

shell> /usr/local/mysql/bin/safe_mysqld --user=mysql &

If that command fails immediately with mysqld daemon ended then you can find some information in the file `mysql-data-directory/'hostname'.err'. The likely reason is that you already have another mysqld server running.