Installing MySQL - Learning MySQL - page 28

The MySQL directory is self-contained and has all the files you need to run and access
the server. If you have superuser access on the Linux machine and want this MySQL
server to be the system-wide instance on the machine, you should move it across to a
the standard location under the /usr/local/ directory:
# mv mysql-standard-5.0.22-linux-i686 /usr/local/
and make a link /usr/local/mysql that points to this directory:
# ln --symbolic /usr/local/mysql-standard-5.0.22-linux-i686 /usr/local/mysql
Now you can simply refer to the MySQL directory as /usr/local/mysql . Using a sym-
bolic link in this way allows you to have different versions of MySQL ready to run on
the system, with /usr/local/mysql pointing to the directory containing the version you
want to use.
If you want to have a local installation, you can leave the MySQL directory under your
home directory. You'll probably find it helpful to create the link ~/mysql to point to the
actual MySQL directory—for example:
$ ln --symbolic ~/mysql-standard-5.0.22-linux-i686 ~/mysql
With this link, you can use ~/mysql wherever you want to refer to the ~/mysql-
standard-5.0.22-linux-i686 directory.
Installing MySQL on Linux by Compiling the Source Code from MySQL AB
Given the nature of this topic, we won't go into detailed compile-time settings, but will
just look at how you can quickly get the server up and running.
First, you need to download the source file package from the MySQL AB downloads
page, following the directions in “Downloading MySQL from the MySQL AB Web
Site.” Go to the “Source downloads” section and download the “Tarball (tar.gz)”
package.
After downloading, you should have a file with a name like mysql-5.0.22.tar.gz . De-
compress this package using the following command:
$ tar --gunzip --extract --file mysql-5.0.22.tar.gz
This creates a new directory containing the MySQL source files; change your working
directory to this by typing:
$ cd mysql-5.0.22
You must now compile the source code and install the resulting programs. After you've
done this, you'll have a MySQL directory that has all the files you need to run and access
the server. This is very similar to the tarball approach. Unlike the tarball approach,
however, you need to first use the configure command to tell the compilation process
where you want the MySQL directory to be located.