The recommended way to install MySQL on RPM-based Linux
distributions is by using the RPM packages. The RPMs that we
provide to the community should work on all versions of Linux that
support RPM packages and use glibc 2.3. To
obtain RPM packages, see Section 2.1.3, “How to Get MySQL”.
For non-RPM Linux distributions, you can install MySQL using a
.tar.gz package. See
Section 2.2, “Installing MySQL from Generic Binaries on Unix/Linux”.
Installations created from our Linux RPM distributions result in files under the following system directories.
Table 2.11. MySQL Installation Layout for Linux RPM
| Directory | Contents of Directory |
|---|---|
/usr/bin | Client programs and scripts |
/usr/sbin | The mysqld server |
/var/lib/mysql | Log files, databases |
/usr/share/info | Manual in Info format |
/usr/share/man | Unix manual pages |
/usr/include/mysql | Include (header) files |
/usr/lib/mysql | Libraries |
/usr/share/mysql | Miscellaneous support files, including error messages, character set files, sample configuration files, SQL for database installation |
/usr/share/sql-bench | Benchmarks |
RPM distributions of MySQL often are provided by other vendors. Be aware that they may differ in features and capabilities from those built by us, and that the instructions in this manual do not necessarily apply to installing them. The vendor's instructions should be consulted instead.
In most cases, you need to install only the
MySQL-server and
MySQL-client packages to get a functional MySQL
installation. The other packages are not required for a standard
installation.
RPMs for MySQL Cluster.
Standard MySQL server RPMs built by MySQL do not provide support
for the NDBCLUSTER storage engine.
When upgrading a MySQL Cluster RPM installation, you must
upgrade all installed RPMs, including
the Server and Client
RPMs.
For more information about installing MySQL Cluster from RPMs, see MySQL Cluster Multi-Computer Installation.
For upgrades, if your installation was originally produced by installing multiple RPM packages, it is best to upgrade all the packages, not just some. For example, if you previously installed the server and client RPMs, do not upgrade just the server RPM.
If you get a dependency failure when trying to install MySQL
packages (for example, error: removing these packages
would break dependencies: libmysqlclient.so.10 is needed by
...), you should also install the
MySQL-shared-compat package, which includes
both the shared libraries for backward compatibility
(libmysqlclient.so.12 for MySQL 4.0 and
libmysqlclient.so.10 for MySQL 3.23).
The RPM packages shown in the following list are available. The
names shown here use a suffix of
.glibc23.i386.rpm, but particular packages
can have different suffixes, described later.
MySQL-server-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpmThe MySQL server. You need this unless you only want to connect to a MySQL server running on another machine.
MySQL-client-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpmThe standard MySQL client programs. You probably always want to install this package.
MySQL-devel-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpmThe libraries and include files that are needed if you want to compile other MySQL clients, such as the Perl modules.
MySQL-debuginfo-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpmThis package contains debugging information.
debuginfoRPMs are never needed to use MySQL software; this is true both for the server and for client programs. However, they contain additional information that might be needed by a debugger to analyze a crash.MySQL-shared-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpmThis package contains the shared libraries (
libmysqlclient.so*) that certain languages and applications need to dynamically load and use MySQL. It contains single-threaded and thread-safe libraries. Prior to MySQL 5.5.6, if you install this package, do not install theMySQL-shared-compatpackage.MySQL-shared-compat-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpmThis package includes the shared libraries for MySQL 3.23, 4.0, and so on. It contains single-threaded and thread-safe libraries. Install this package if you have applications installed that are dynamically linked against older versions of MySQL but you want to upgrade to the current version without breaking the library dependencies. Before MySQL 5.5.6,
MySQL-shared-compatalso includes the libraries for the current release, so if you install it, you should not also installMySQL-shared. As of 5.5.6,MySQL-shared-compatdoes not include the current library version, so there is no conflict.MySQL-embedded-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpmThe embedded MySQL server library.
MySQL-test-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpmThis package includes the MySQL test suite.
MySQL-VERSION.src.rpmThis contains the source code for all of the previous packages. It can also be used to rebuild the RPMs on other architectures (for example, Alpha or SPARC).
The suffix of RPM package names (following the
VERSION value) has the following
syntax:
.PLATFORM.CPU.rpm
The PLATFORM and
CPU values indicate the type of system
for which the package is built.
PLATFORM indicates the platform and
CPU indicates the processor type or
family.
All packages are dynamically linked against
glibc 2.3. The
PLATFORM value indicates whether the
package is platform independent or intended for a specific
platform, as shown in the following table.
Table 2.12. MySQL Linux Installation Packages
PLATFORM Value | Intended Use |
|---|---|
glibc23 | Platform independent, should run on any Linux distribution that supports
glibc 2.3 |
rhel3, rhel4 | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 or 4 |
sles9, sles10 | SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 or 10 |
In MySQL 5.5, only glibc23
packages are available currently.
The CPU value indicates the processor
type or family for which the package is built.
Table 2.13. MySQL Installation Packages for Linux CPU Identifier
CPU Value | Intended Processor Type or Family |
|---|---|
i386 | x86 processor, 386 and up |
i586 | x86 processor, Pentium and up |
x86_64 | 64-bit x86 processor |
ia64 | Itanium (IA-64) processor |
To see all files in an RPM package (for example, a
MySQL-server RPM), run a command like this:
shell> rpm -qpl MySQL-server-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpm
To perform a standard minimal installation, install the server and client RPMs:
shell>rpm -i MySQL-server-shell>VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpmrpm -i MySQL-client-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpm
To install only the client programs, install just the client RPM:
shell> rpm -i MySQL-client-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpm
RPM provides a feature to verify the integrity and authenticity of
packages before installing them. If you would like to learn more
about this feature, see
Section 2.1.4, “Verifying Package Integrity Using MD5 Checksums or
GnuPG”.
The server RPM places data under the
/var/lib/mysql directory. The RPM also
creates a login account for a user named mysql
(if one does not exist) to use for running the MySQL server, and
creates the appropriate entries in
/etc/init.d/ to start the server
automatically at boot time. (This means that if you have performed
a previous installation and have made changes to its startup
script, you may want to make a copy of the script so that you do
not lose it when you install a newer RPM.) See
Section 2.12.1.2, “Starting and Stopping MySQL Automatically”, for more information on how
MySQL can be started automatically on system startup.
If you want to install the MySQL RPM on older Linux distributions
that do not support initialization scripts in
/etc/init.d (directly or through a symlink),
you should create a symbolic link that points to the location
where your initialization scripts actually are installed. For
example, if that location is
/etc/rc.d/init.d, use these commands before
installing the RPM to create /etc/init.d as a
symbolic link that points there:
shell>cd /etcshell>ln -s rc.d/init.d .
However, all current major Linux distributions should support the
new directory layout that uses /etc/init.d,
because it is required for LSB (Linux Standard Base) compliance.
In MySQL 5.5.5 and later, during a new installation, the server boot scripts are installed, but the MySQL server is not started at the end of the installation, since the status of the server during an unattended installation is not known.
In MySQL 5.5.5 and later, during an upgrade installation using the RPM packages, if the MySQL server is running when the upgrade occurs, the MySQL server is stopped, the upgrade occurs, and the MySQL server is restarted. If the MySQL server is not already running when the RPM upgrade occurs, the MySQL server is not started at the end of the installation.
If something goes wrong, you can find more information in the binary installation section. See Section 2.2, “Installing MySQL from Generic Binaries on Unix/Linux”.
The accounts that are listed in the MySQL grant tables initially have no passwords. After starting the server, you should set up passwords for them using the instructions in Section 2.12, “Postinstallation Setup and Testing”.
During RPM installation, a user named mysql and
a group named mysql are created on the system.
This is done using the useradd,
groupadd, and usermod
commands. Those commands require appropriate administrative
privileges, which is required for locally managed users and groups
(as listed in the /etc/passwd and
/etc/group files) by the RPM installation
process being run by root.
If you log in as the mysql user, you may find
that MySQL displays “Invalid (old?) table or database
name” errors that mention .mysqlgui,
lost+found, .mysqlgui,
.bash_history,
.fonts.cache-1,
.lesshst,
.mysql_history,
.profile, .viminfo, and
similar files created by MySQL or operating system utilities. You
can safely ignore these error messages or remove the files or
directories that cause them if you do not need them.
For nonlocal user management (LDAP, NIS, and so forth), the administrative tools may require additional authentication (such as a password), and will fail if the installing user does not provide this authentication. Even if they fail, the RPM installation will not abort but succeed, and this is intentional. If they failed, some of the intended transfer of ownership may be missing, and it is recommended that the system administrator then manually ensures some appropriate user and group exists and manually transfers ownership following the actions in the RPM spec file.