| MySQL is available for several operating systems. Those covered in this chapter are Windows and Unix. Unless otherwise specified, "Unix" as used here includes Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. You can install MySQL from a binary distribution that contains precompiled programs ready to run, or you can compile MySQL yourself from a source distribution. This section describes the various types of MySQL distributions from which you can choose. 24.1.1. MySQL Binary Distributions On Windows, you can choose from these types of binary distributions: An Essentials distribution contains the minimum set of files needed to install MySQL, as well as the Configuration Wizard. This is the recommended package for most users. A Complete distribution contains all files for a MySQL installation, as well as the Configuration Wizard. A No-install distribution contains all files for a MySQL installation, but does not have an installer or the Configuration Wizard.
The installer included with Essentials and Complete distributions allows you to choose where to install MySQL. By default, it installs MySQL 5.0 in %ProgramFiles%\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0, where %ProgramFiles% has a value such as C:\Program Files. The No-install distribution is just a Zip archive. To install it, unpack it and move it to the desired installation location. On Unix, you can choose from these types of binary distributions: RPM files are available for Linux systems. These files are installed by using the rpm program. The installation layout for each RPM is given by a specification file contained within the RPM file itself. (Use rpm -qpl rpm_file to determine where the contents of an RPM file will be installed.) tar files are available for many varieties of Unix and Unix-like systems. To install this kind of distribution, unpack it by invoking the tar program in the directory where you want installation to take place.
Post-installation procedures for starting and configuring the server are covered later in this chapter. 24.1.2. MySQL Source Distributions The preceding section describes the types of precompiled binary distributions containing ready-to-run programs that are available. There are several advantages to using a binary distribution from MySQL AB, aside from the obvious one that you need not go through a possibly somewhat lengthy build process. One significant benefit is that binaries produced by MySQL are likely to provide better performance than those you build yourself: MySQL AB has a great deal of experience selecting configuration options such as compiler switches that produce the most highly optimized binaries. In many cases, MySQL AB uses commercial compilers that produce superior quality code compared to the compilers typically available for general-purpose use. In some cases, MySQL AB produces binaries compiled with libraries that provide capabilities beyond those available in the standard operating system vendor libraries. For example, on Linux systems, a special C library is used that allows a higher maximum number of concurrent connections than can be achieved using the stock C library. Other times, binaries are built using special libraries that work around known bugs in vendor libraries.
It is also possible to build MySQL by compiling it from a source distribution. Despite the advantages of precompiled distributions, there are reasons you might choose to compile MySQL yourself: There might be no binary distribution available for your platform. In this case, you have no choice but to build MySQL from source. You need to enable a feature that might not be available in a precompiled distribution, such as full debugging support. Or you might want to disable a feature that you don't need, to produce a server that uses less memory when it runs. For example, you can disable optional storage engines, or compile in only those character sets that you really need. Binary distributions are available only for released versions, not for the very latest development source code. If you want to run a server built from the current source, you must compile it yourself.
You can configure a source distribution to be installed at a location of your choosing. The default installation location is /usr/local/mysql. Should you decide to build MySQL from source, consult the MySQL Reference Manual, which has extensive notes and information on platform-specific issues. |
