Learning MySQL

Installing Under Linux

There are five main ways to get MySQL up and running on a Linux system. You can:

• Install a system-wide server from packages downloaded from the MySQL AB web site. Using packages supplied by MySQL AB means that the MySQL-related files are located together in a consistent way.

  MySQL AB provides these packages in the RPM format: a collection of files that can be processed and installed by the rpm program. The name is a vestige of the program’s origins as the Red Hat Package Manager. However, many Linux distributions other than Red Hat use RPMs for managing software installation; these include Fedora, Mandriva/Mandrake, and SUSE. The MySQL AB company also provides files for download in the format used by Debian-based distributions but recommends that the apt-get method be used instead; we describe the recommended approach in this chapter.

• Install a system-wide or local server using using a compressed directory (known as a gzipped tar archive) from the MySQL AB web site. This directory has all the necessary MySQL files ready to run in place; you don’t need to run an installer program or place the files in a particular location on disk.

• Install a system-wide or local server by downloading the MySQL source code from the MySQL AB web site and compiling the executable programs yourself. This is the most time-consuming way of setting up Linux, but is the most flexible for power users.

• Install a system-wide server using packages created by your Linux distribution; you can ...