Use a standard MySQL source distribution. To obtain a standard distribution, see Section 2.1.3, “How to Get MySQL”. For instructions on building from a standard distribution, see Section 2.11.2, “Installing MySQL from a Standard Source Distribution”.

Standard distributions are available as compressed tar files, Zip archives, or RPM packages. Distribution files have names of the form mysql-VERSION.tar.gz, mysql-VERSION.zip, or mysql-VERSION.rpm, where VERSION is a number like 5.5.9. File names for source distributions can be distinguished from those for precompiled binary distributions in that source distribution names are generic and include no platform name, whereas binary distribution names include a platform name indicating the type of system for which the distribution is intended (for example, pc-linux-i686 or winx64).

Use a MySQL development tree. Development trees have not necessarily received the same level of testing as standard release distributions, so this installation method is usually required only if you need the most recent code changes. For information on building from one of the development trees, see Section 2.11.3, “Installing MySQL from a Development Source Tree”.

CMake, which is used as the build framework on all platforms. CMake can be downloaded from http://www.cmake.org.

A good make program. Although some platforms come with their own make implementations, it is highly recommended that you use GNU make 3.75 or newer. It may already be available on your system as gmake. GNU make is available from http://www.gnu.org/software/make/.

A working ANSI C++ compiler. GCC 3.2 or later, Sun Studio 10 or later, Visual Studio 2008 or later, and many current vendor-supplied compilers are known to work.

Perl is needed if you intend to run test scripts. Most Unix-like systems include Perl. On Windows, you can use a version such as ActiveState Perl.

For a .tar.gz compressed tar file: GNU gunzip to uncompress the distribution and a reasonable tar to unpack it. If your tar program supports the z option, it can both uncompress and unpack the file.

GNU tar is known to work. The standard tar provided with some operating systems is not able to unpack the long file names in the MySQL distribution. You should download and install GNU tar, or if available, use a preinstalled version of GNU tar. Usually this is available as gnutar, gtar, or as tar within a GNU or Free Software directory, such as /usr/sfw/bin or /usr/local/bin. GNU tar is available from http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/.

For a .zip Zip archive: WinZip or another tool that can read .zip files.

For an .rpm RPM package: The rpmbuild program used to build the distribution unpacks it.

To obtain the source tree, you must have Bazaar installed. The Bazaar VCS Web site has instructions for downloading and installing Bazaar on different platforms. Bazaar is supported on any platform that supports Python, and is therefore compatible with any Linux, Unix, Windows, or Mac OS X host.

bison is needed to generate sql_yacc.cc from sql_yacc.yy You should use the latest version of bison where possible. Versions 1.75 and 2.1 are known to work. There have been reported problems with bison 1.875. If you experience problems, upgrade to a later, rather than earlier, version.

bison is available from http://www.gnu.org/software/bison/. bison for Windows can be downloaded from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/bison.htm. Download the package labeled “Complete package, excluding sources”. On Windows, the default location for bison is the C:\Program Files\GnuWin32 directory. Some utilities may fail to find bison because of the space in the directory name. Also, Visual Studio may simply hang if there are spaces in the path. You can resolve these problems by installing into a directory that does not contain a space; for example C:\GnuWin32.

On OpenSolaris and Solaris Express, m4 must be installed in addition to bison. m4 is available from http://www.gnu.org/software/m4/.