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.

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 2.8.2, “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 1.8, “How to Report Bugs or Problems”.

If the compile fails, see Section 2.8.4, “Dealing with Problems Compiling MySQL”, for help.

Install the distribution:

shell> make install

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 these commands 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 4.3.2, “Using Option Files”, and Section 14.2.3, “InnoDB Configuration”.

Change location into the installation directory:

shell> cd /usr/local/mysql

If you haven't installed MySQL before, you must create the MySQL grant tables:

shell> bin/mysql_install_db --user=mysql

If you run the command as root, you should use the --user option as shown. The value of the option should be 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 that user, you can omit the --user option.

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.

Change the ownership of program binaries to root and ownership of the data directory to the user that you run mysqld as. Assuming that you are located in the installation directory (/usr/local/mysql), the commands look like this:

shell> chown -R root  .
shell> chown -R mysql var
shell> chgrp -R mysql .

The first command changes the owner attribute of the files to the root user. The second changes the owner attribute of the data directory to the mysql user. The third changes the group attribute to the mysql group.

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 2.9.2.2, “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. For instructions, see Section 2.13, “Perl Installation Notes”.