Create a work directory (for example, C:\workdir).

Unpack the source distribution in the aforementioned directory using WinZip or another Windows tool that can read .zip files.

Start Visual Studio.

From the File menu, select Open Workspace.

Open the mysql.dsw workspace you find in the work directory.

From the Build menu, select the Set Active Configuration menu.

Click over the screen selecting mysqld - Win32 Debug and click OK.

Press F7 to begin the build of the debug server, libraries, and some client applications.

Compile the release version in the same way.

Debug versions of the programs and libraries are placed in the client_debug and lib_debug directories. Release versions of the programs and libraries are placed in the client_release and lib_release directories. Note that if you want to build both debug and release versions, you can select the Build All option from the Build menu.

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 pathnames. 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 4.3.2, “Using Option Files”.) If you have an existing data directory elsewhere that you want to use, you can specify its pathname instead.

Start your server from the client_release or client_debug directory, depending on which server you want to use. The general server startup instructions are in Section 2.3, “Installing MySQL on Windows”. You must adapt the instructions appropriately if you want to use a different base directory or data directory.

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 that exists in your client_release or client_debug directory.

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 2.13, “Perl Installation Notes”.

From the workdir directory, copy into the C:\mysql directory the following directories:

C:\> cd \workdir
C:\workdir> copy client_release\*.exe C:\mysql\bin
C:\workdir> copy client_debug\mysqld.exe C:\mysql\bin\mysqld-debug.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_debug\mysqlclient.lib C:\mysql\lib\debug
C:\workdir> copy lib_debug\libmysql.* C:\mysql\lib\debug
C:\workdir> copy lib_debug\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