
2.16. Installing MySQL from Generic Binaries on Other Unix-Like
Systems

   Oracle provides a set of binary distributions of MySQL. These
   include binary distributions in the form of compressed tar files
   (files with a .tar.gz extension) for a number of platforms, as
   well as binaries in platform-specific package formats for selected
   platforms.

   This section covers the installation of MySQL from a compressed
   tar file binary distribution. For other platform-specific package
   formats, see the other platform-specific sections. For example,
   for Windows distributions, see Section 2.10, "Installing MySQL on
   Microsoft Windows."

   To obtain MySQL, see Section 2.5, "How to Get MySQL."

   MySQL compressed tar file binary distributions have names of the
   form mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz, where VERSION is a number (for
   example, 5.0.95), and OS indicates the type of operating system
   for which the distribution is intended (for example, pc-linux-i686
   or winx64).

   To install MySQL from a compressed tar file binary distribution,
   your system must have GNU gunzip to uncompress the distribution
   and a reasonable tar to unpack it. If your tar program supports
   the z option, it can both uncompress and unpack the file.

   GNU tar is known to work. The standard tar provided with some
   operating systems is not able to unpack the long file names in the
   MySQL distribution. You should download and install GNU tar, or if
   available, use a preinstalled version of GNU tar. Usually this is
   available as gnutar, gtar, or as tar within a GNU or Free Software
   directory, such as /usr/sfw/bin or /usr/local/bin. GNU tar is
   available from http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/.
   Warning

   If you have previously installed MySQL using your operating system
   native package management system, such as yum or apt-get, you may
   experience problems installing using a native binary. Make sure
   your previous MySQL previous installation has been removed
   entirely (using your package management system), and that any
   additional files, such as old versions of your data files, have
   also been removed. You should also check the existence of
   configuration files such as /etc/my.cnf or the /etc/mysql
   directory have been deleted.

   If you run into problems and need to file a bug report, please use
   the instructions in Section 1.7, "How to Report Bugs or Problems."

   To install and use a MySQL binary distribution, the basic command
   sequence looks like this:
shell> groupadd mysql
shell> useradd -r -g mysql mysql
shell> cd /usr/local
shell> tar zxvf /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz
shell> ln -s full-path-to-mysql-VERSION-OS mysql
shell> cd mysql
shell> chown -R mysql .
shell> chgrp -R mysql .
shell> scripts/mysql_install_db --user=mysql
shell> chown -R root .
shell> chown -R mysql data
# Next command is optional
shell> cp support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
shell> bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &
# Next command is optional
shell> cp support-files/mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql.server

   A more detailed version of the preceding description for
   installing a binary distribution follows.
   Note

   This procedure assumes that you have root (administrator) access
   to your system. Alternatively, you can prefix each command using
   the sudo (Linux) or pfexec (OpenSolaris) command.

   The procedure does not set up any passwords for MySQL accounts.
   After following the procedure, proceed to Section 2.18,
   "Postinstallation Setup and Testing."

Create a mysql User and Group

   If your system does not already have a user and group for mysqld
   to run as, you may need to create one. The following commands add
   the mysql group and the mysql user. The syntax for useradd and
   groupadd may differ slightly on different versions of Unix, or
   they may have different names such as adduser and addgroup.
shell> groupadd mysql
shell> useradd -r -g mysql mysql

   Note

   Because the user is required only for ownership purposes, not
   login purposes, the useradd command uses the -r option to create a
   user that does not have login permissions to your server. Omit
   this option to permit logins for the user (or if your useradd does
   not support the option).

   You might want to call the user and group something else instead
   of mysql. If so, substitute the appropriate name in the preceding
   commands and in the following steps.

Obtain and Unpack the Distribution

   Pick the directory under which you want to unpack the distribution
   and change location into it. The example here unpacks the
   distribution under /usr/local. The instructions, therefore, assume
   that you have permission to create files and directories in
   /usr/local. If that directory is protected, you must perform the
   installation as root.
shell> cd /usr/local

   Obtain a distribution file using the instructions in Section 2.5,
   "How to Get MySQL." For a given release, binary distributions for
   all platforms are built from the same MySQL source distribution.

   Unpack the distribution, which creates the installation directory.
   Then create a symbolic link to that directory. tar can uncompress
   and unpack the distribution if it has z option support:
shell> tar zxvf /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz
shell> ln -s full-path-to-mysql-VERSION-OS mysql

   The tar command creates a directory named mysql-VERSION-OS. The ln
   command makes a symbolic link to that directory. This enables you
   to refer more easily to the installation directory as
   /usr/local/mysql.

   If your tar does not have z option support, use gunzip to unpack
   the distribution and tar to unpack it. Replace the preceding tar
   command with the following alternative command to uncompress and
   extract the distribution:
shell> gunzip < /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz | tar xvf -

Perform Postinstallation Setup

   The remainder of the installation process involves setting up the
   configuration file, creating the core databases, and starting the
   MySQL server. For instructions, see Section 2.18,
   "Postinstallation Setup and Testing."
   Note

   The accounts that are listed in the MySQL grant tables initially
   have no passwords. After starting the server, you should set up
   passwords for them using the instructions in Section 2.18,
   "Postinstallation Setup and Testing."
