Compiling and Linking for Speed

In Chapter 1, "Installing MySQL," we covered only installation from binaries ( specifically RPM under Unix). When you're learning how to use MySQL, this is by far the easiest way, especially if you are not used to compiling your own software, as is the case for many Windows users.

You may be able to get a performance improvement from your server by downloading the source version and compiling it yourself. Specifically, if you have a Pentium-based machine and run Linux, you will be able to get a significant performance increase by compiling MySQL with the pgcc compiler, which optimizes for Pentium only. (These executables are not compatible with AMD chips, hence the binary available from MySQL is compiled with plain gcc.) MySQL AB says that you can get an extra 10% to 30% faster server if you compile it yourself with the right compiler and options on ”see the manual for further details.

Another improvement you can make over the MySQL-supplied binary is available by compiling MySQL with support for only the character set(s) you need. The downloadable binaries contain support for all the character sets. (You can find more information on character sets in Chapter 12, "Configuring MySQL.")

The MySQL manual contains suggestions for optimizing user -compiled binaries for various operating systems. You can also find many operating-system and compiler-specific issues discussed on the MySQL mailing lists. The archives are at

http://lists.mysql.com

You might also like to discuss compiler options further in the discussion forum at