If you are installing from a packaged source distribution, create a work directory (for example, C:\workdir), and unpack the source distribution there using WinZip or another Windows tool that can read .zip files. This directory is the work directory in the following instructions.

Start a command shell. If you have not configured the PATH and other environment variables for all command shells, you may be able to start a command shell from the Start Menu within the Windows Visual Studio menu that contains the necessary environment changes.

Within the command shell, navigate to the work directory and run the following command:

C:\workdir>win\configure.js options

If you have associated the .js file extension with an application such as a text editor, then you may need to use the following command to force configure.js to be executed as a script:

C:\workdir>cscript win\configure.js options

These options are available for configure.js:

For example (type the command on one line):

C:\workdir>win\configure.js WITH_INNOBASE_STORAGE_ENGINE
             WITH_PARTITION_STORAGE_ENGINE MYSQL_SERVER_SUFFIX=-pro

From the work directory, execute the win\build-vs9.bat (Windows Visual Studio 2008), win\build-vs8.bat (Windows Visual Studio 2005), or win\build-vs71.bat (Windows Visual Stidion 2003) script, depending on the version of Visual Studio you have installed. The script invokes CMake, which generates the mysql.sln solution file.

You can also use the corresponding 64-bit file (for example win\build-vs8_x64.bat or win\build-vs9_x64.bat) to build the 64-bit version of MySQL. However, you cannot build the 64-bit version with Visual Studio Express Edition. You must use Visual Studio 2005 (8.0) or higher.

From the work directory, open the generated mysql.sln file with Visual Studio and select the proper configuration using the Configuration menu. The menu provides Debug, Release, RelwithDebInfo, MinRelInfo options. Then select Solution > Build to build the solution.

Remember the configuration that you use in this step. It is important later when you run the test script because that script needs to know which configuration you used.

Test the server. The server built using the preceding instructions expects that the MySQL base directory and data directory are C:\mysql and C:\mysql\data by default. If you want to test your server using the source tree root directory and its data directory as the base directory and data directory, you need to tell the server their path names. You can either do this on the command line with the --basedir and --datadir options, or by placing appropriate options in an option file. (See Section 4.2.3.3, “Using Option Files”.) If you have an existing data directory elsewhere that you want to use, you can specify its path name instead.

When the server is running in standalone fashion or as a service based on your configuration, try to connect to it from the mysql interactive command-line utility.

You can also run the standard test script, mysql-test-run.pl. This script is written in Perl, so you'll need either Cygwin or ActiveState Perl to run it. You may also need to install the modules required by the script. To run the test script, change location into the mysql-test directory under the work directory, set the MTR_VS_CONFIG environment variable to the configuration you selected earlier (or use the --vs-config option), and invoke mysql-test-run.pl. For example (using Cygwin and the bash shell):

shell> cd mysql-test
shell> export MTR_VS_CONFIG=debug
shell> ./mysql-test-run.pl --force --timer
shell> ./mysql-test-run.pl --force --timer --ps-protocol

Create the directories where you want to install MySQL. For example, to install into C:\mysql, use these commands:

C:\> mkdir C:\mysql
C:\> mkdir C:\mysql\bin
C:\> mkdir C:\mysql\data
C:\> mkdir C:\mysql\share
C:\> mkdir C:\mysql\scripts

If you want to compile other clients and link them to MySQL, you should also create several additional directories:

C:\> mkdir C:\mysql\include
C:\> mkdir C:\mysql\lib
C:\> mkdir C:\mysql\lib\debug
C:\> mkdir C:\mysql\lib\opt

If you want to benchmark MySQL, create this directory:

C:\> mkdir C:\mysql\sql-bench

Benchmarking requires Perl support. See Section 2.15, “Perl Installation Notes”.

From the work directory, copy into the C:\mysql directory the following files and directories:

C:\> cd \workdir
C:\workdir> mkdir C:\mysql
C:\workdir> mkdir C:\mysql\bin
C:\workdir> copy client\Release\*.exe C:\mysql\bin
C:\workdir> copy sql\Release\mysqld.exe C:\mysql\bin\mysqld.exe
C:\workdir> xcopy scripts\*.* C:\mysql\scripts /E
C:\workdir> xcopy share\*.* C:\mysql\share /E

If you want to compile other clients and link them to MySQL, you should also copy several libraries and header files:

C:\workdir> copy lib\Release\mysqlclient.lib C:\mysql\lib\debug
C:\workdir> copy lib\Release\libmysql.* C:\mysql\lib\debug
C:\workdir> copy lib\Release\zlib.* C:\mysql\lib\debug
C:\workdir> copy lib\Release\mysqlclient.lib C:\mysql\lib\opt
C:\workdir> copy lib\Release\libmysql.* C:\mysql\lib\opt
C:\workdir> copy lib\Release\zlib.* C:\mysql\lib\opt
C:\workdir> copy include\*.h C:\mysql\include
C:\workdir> copy libmysql\libmysql.def C:\mysql\include

If you want to benchmark MySQL, you should also do this:

C:\workdir> xcopy sql-bench\*.* C:\mysql\bench /E