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.

Perform the following steps as the mysql user, except as noted.

Pick the directory under which you want to unpack the distribution and change location into it.

Obtain a distribution file using the instructions in Section 2.1.3, “How to Get 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.

With GNU tar, no separate invocation of gunzip is necessary. You can use the following alternative command to uncompress and extract the distribution:

shell> tar zxvf /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz

Change location 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 cannot 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 other options. Run ./configure --help for a list of options. Section 2.3.2, “Typical configure Options”, discusses some of the more useful options.

If configure fails and you are going to send mail to a MySQL mailing list 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. To file a bug report, please use the instructions in Section 1.7, “How to Report Bugs or Problems”.

If the compile fails, see Section 2.3.4, “Dealing with Problems Compiling MySQL”, for help.

Install the distribution:

shell> make install

You might need to run this command as root.

If you want to set up an option file, use one of those present in the support-files directory as a template. For example:

shell> cp support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf

You might need to run this command as root.

If you want to configure support for InnoDB tables, you should edit the /etc/my.cnf file, remove the # character before the option lines that start with innodb_..., and modify the option values to be what you want. See Section 4.2.3.3, “Using Option Files”, and Section 13.6.2, “InnoDB Configuration”.

Change location into the installation directory:

shell> cd /usr/local/mysql

If you ran the make install command as root, the installed files will be owned by root. Ensure that the installation is accessible 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.

If you have not installed MySQL before, you must create the MySQL data directory and initialize the grant tables:

shell> bin/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 mysql, you can omit the --user option.

The command should create the data directory and its contents with mysql as the owner.

After using mysql_install_db to create the grant tables for MySQL, you must restart the server manually. The mysqld_safe command to do this is shown in a later step.

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 var

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; see also Section 2.13.1.2, “Starting and Stopping MySQL Automatically”.

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”.