2.9. Installing MySQL from tar.gz Packages on Other Unix-Like
Systems

   This section covers the installation of MySQL binary
   distributions that are provided for various platforms in the
   form of compressed tar files (files with a .tar.gz
   extension). See Section 2.1.2.4, "MySQL Binaries Compiled by
   Sun Microsystems, Inc.," for a detailed list.

   To obtain MySQL, see Section 2.1.3, "How to Get MySQL."

   MySQL tar file binary distributions have names of the form
   mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz, where VERSION is a number (for
   example, 5.1.40), and OS indicates the type of operating
   system for which the distribution is intended (for example,
   pc-linux-i686).

   In addition to these generic packages, we also offer binaries
   in platform-specific package formats for selected platforms.
   See Section 2.2, "Standard MySQL Installation Using a Binary
   Distribution," for more information on how to install these.

   You need the following tools to install a MySQL tar file
   binary distribution:

     * GNU gunzip to uncompress the distribution.

     * A reasonable tar to unpack the distribution. GNU tar is
       known to work. Some operating systems come with a
       preinstalled version of tar that is known to have
       problems. For example, the tar provided with early
       versions of Mac OS X, SunOS 4.x, Solaris 8, Solaris 9,
       Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris, and HP-UX are known to have
       problems with long file names. On Mac OS X, you can use
       the preinstalled gnutar program. On Solaris 10 and
       OpenSolaris you can use the preinstalled gtar. On other
       systems with a deficient tar, you should install GNU tar
       first.

   If you run into problems and need to file a bug report,
   please use the instructions in Section 1.6, "How to Report
   Bugs or Problems."

   The basic commands that you must execute to install and use a
   MySQL binary distribution are:
shell> groupadd mysql
shell> useradd -g mysql mysql
shell> cd /usr/local
shell> gunzip < /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz | tar xvf -
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
shell> bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

Note

   This procedure does not set up any passwords for MySQL
   accounts. After following the procedure, proceed to Section
   2.11, "Post-Installation Setup and Testing."

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

    1. Add a login 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 versions of Unix, or they may have different
       names such as adduser and addgroup.
       You might want to call the user and group something else
       instead of mysql. If so, substitute the appropriate name
       in the following steps.

    2. Pick the directory under which you want to unpack the
       distribution and change location into it. In the
       following example, we unpack 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


    3. Obtain a distribution file using the instructions in
       Section 2.1.3, "How to Get MySQL." For a given release,
       binary distributions for all platforms are built from the
       same MySQL source distribution.

    4. Unpack the distribution, which creates the installation
       directory. Then create a symbolic link to that directory:
shell> gunzip < /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz | tar xvf -
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 lets you refer more easily to the
       installation directory as /usr/local/mysql.
       With GNU tar, no separate invocation of gunzip is
       necessary. You can replace the first line with the
       following alternative command to uncompress and extract
       the distribution:
shell> tar zxvf /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz


    5. Change location into the installation directory:
shell> cd mysql

       You will find several files and subdirectories in the
       mysql directory. The most important for installation
       purposes are the bin and scripts subdirectories:

          + The bin directory contains client programs and the
            server. You should add the full path name of this
            directory to your PATH environment variable so that
            your shell finds the MySQL programs properly. See
            Section 2.14, "Environment Variables."

          + The scripts directory contains the mysql_install_db
            script used to initialize the mysql database
            containing the grant tables that store the server
            access permissions.

    6. Ensure that the distribution contents are accessible to
       mysql. If you unpacked the distribution as mysql, no
       further action is required. If you unpacked the
       distribution as root, its contents will be owned by root.
       Change its ownership to mysql by executing the following
       commands as root in the installation directory:
shell> chown -R mysql .
shell> chgrp -R mysql .

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

    7. If you have not installed MySQL before, you must create
       the MySQL data directory and initialize the grant tables:
shell> scripts/mysql_install_db --user=mysql

       If you run the command as root, include the --user option
       as shown. If you run the command while logged in as that
       user, you can omit the --user option.
       The command should create the data directory and its
       contents with mysql as the owner.
       After creating or updating the grant tables, you need to
       restart the server manually.

    8. Most of the MySQL installation can be owned by root if
       you like. The exception is that the data directory must
       be owned by mysql. To accomplish this, run the following
       commands as root in the installation directory:
shell> chown -R root .
shell> chown -R mysql data


    9. If you want 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 and in Section
       2.11.2.2, "Starting and Stopping MySQL Automatically."
   10. You can set up new accounts using the
       bin/mysql_setpermission script if you install the DBI and
       DBD::mysql Perl modules. See Section 4.6.14,
       "mysql_setpermission --- Interactively Set Permissions in
       Grant Tables." For Perl module installation instructions,
       see Section 2.15, "Perl Installation Notes."
   11. If you would like to use mysqlaccess and have the MySQL
       distribution in some nonstandard location, you must
       change the location where mysqlaccess expects to find the
       mysql client. Edit the bin/mysqlaccess script at
       approximately line 18. Search for a line that looks like
       this:
$MYSQL     = '/usr/local/bin/mysql';    # path to mysql executable

       Change the path to reflect the location where mysql
       actually is stored on your system. If you do not do this,
       a Broken pipe error will occur when you run mysqlaccess.

   After everything has been unpacked and installed, you should
   test your distribution. To start the MySQL server, use the
   following command:
shell> bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

   If you run the command as root, you must use the --user
   option as shown. The value of the option is the name of the
   login account that you created in the first step to use for
   running the server. If you run the command while logged in as
   mysql, you can omit the --user option.

   If the command fails immediately and prints mysqld ended, you
   can find some information in the host_name.err file in the
   data directory.

   More information about mysqld_safe is given in Section 4.3.2,
   "mysqld_safe --- MySQL Server Startup Script."

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 2.11, "Post-Installation Setup and Testing."
