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2 Installing MySQL

This chapter describes how to obtain and install MySQL:

2.1 Quick Standard Installation of MySQL

This chapter covers the installation of MySQL on platforms where we offer packages using the native packaging format of the respective platform. However, binary distributions of MySQL are available for many other platforms as well, see section 2.2.11 Installing a MySQL Binary Distribution for generic installation instructions for these packages that apply to all platforms.

See section 2.2 General Installation Issues for more information on what other binary distributions are available on how to obtain them.

2.1.1 Installing MySQL on Windows

The MySQL server for Windows is available in two distribution formats:

Generally speaking, you should use the binary distribution. It's simpler, and you need no additional tools to get MySQL up and running.

You will need the following:

2.1.1.1 Installing the Binaries

  1. If you are working on an NT/2000/XP server, log on as a user with administrator privileges.
  2. If you are doing an upgrade of an earlier MySQL installation, it is necessary to stop the current server. If you are running the server as a service, stop it using this command:
    C:\> NET STOP MySQL
    
    Otherwise, stop the server like this:
    C:\mysql\bin> mysqladmin -u root shutdown
    
  3. On NT/2000/XP machines, if you want to change the server executable (for example, -max or -nt), it is also necessary to remove the service:
    C:\mysql\bin> mysqld --remove
    
  4. Exit the WinMySQLadmin program if it is running.
  5. Unzip the distribution file to a temporary directory.
  6. Run the setup.exe program to begin the installation process. If you want to install into another directory than the default (`C:\mysql'), use the Browse button to specify your preferred directory.
  7. Finish the install process.

2.1.1.2 Preparing the Windows MySQL Environment

Starting with MySQL 3.23.38, the Windows distribution includes both the normal and the MySQL-Max server binaries. Here is a list of the different MySQL servers from which you can choose:

Binary Description
mysqld Compiled with full debugging and automatic memory allocation checking, symbolic links, InnoDB, and BDB tables.
mysqld-opt Optimised binary with no support for transactional tables in version 3.23. For version 4.0, InnoDB is enabled.
mysqld-nt Optimised binary for NT/2000/XP with support for named pipes.
mysqld-max Optimised binary with support for symbolic links, InnoDB and BDB tables.
mysqld-max-nt Like mysqld-max, but compiled with support for named pipes.

All of the preceding binaries are optimised for modern Intel processors but should work on any Intel processor >= i386.

When run on a version of Windows that supports named pipes (NT, 2000, XP), the mysqld-nt and mysqld-max-nt servers support named pipe connections. However, starting from 3.23.50, named pipes are enabled only if you start these servers with the --enable-named-pipe option. (The servers can be run on Windows 98 or Me, but TCP/IP must be installed, and named pipe connections cannot be used. On Windows 95, these servers cannot be used.)

You will find it helpful to use an option file to specify your MySQL configuration under the following circumstances:

On Windows, the MySQL installer places the data directory directly under the directory where you install MySQL. If you would like to use a data directory in a different location, you should copy the entire contents of the `data' directory to the new location. For example, the default installation places MySQL in `C:\mysql' and the data directory in `C:\mysql\data'. If you want to use a data directory of `E:\mydata', you must copy `C:\mysql\data' there. You will also need to use a --datadir option to specify the location of the new data directory.

Normally you can use the WinMySQLAdmin tool to edit the option file `my.ini'. In this case you don't have to worry about the following discussion.

There are two option files with the same function: `C:\my.cnf', and the `my.ini' file in the Windows directory. (This directory typically is named something like `C:\WINDOWS' or `C:\WinNT'. You can determine its exact location from the value of the WINDIR environment variable.) MySQL looks first for the `my.ini' file, then for the `my.cnf' file. However, to avoid confusion, it's best if you use only one of these files. Both files are plain text.

If your PC uses a boot loader where the C: drive isn't the boot drive, your only option is to use the `my.ini' file. Also note that if you use the WinMySQLAdmin tool, it uses only the `my.ini' file. The `\mysql\bin' directory contains a help file with instructions for using this tool.

Using the notepad program, create the option file and edit the [mysqld] section to specify values for the basedir and datadir parameters:

[mysqld]
# set basedir to your installation path, for example, C:/mysql
basedir=the_install_path
# set datadir to the location of your data directory,
# for example, C:/mysql/data or D:/mydata/data
datadir=the_data_path

Note that Windows pathnames should be specified in option files using forward slashes rather than backslashes. If you do use backslashes, you must double them.

Now you are ready to test starting the server.

2.1.1.3 Starting the Server for the First Time

Testing is best done from a command prompt in a console window (a ``DOS window''). This way you can have the server display status messages in the window where they are easy to see. If something is wrong with your configuration, these messages will make it easier for you to identify and fix any problems.

Make sure you are in the directory where the server is located, then enter this command:

shell> mysqld --console

For servers that include InnoDB support, you should see the following messages as the server starts up:

InnoDB: The first specified datafile c:\ibdata\ibdata1 did not exist:
InnoDB: a new database to be created!
InnoDB: Setting file c:\ibdata\ibdata1 size to 209715200
InnoDB: Database physically writes the file full: wait...
InnoDB: Log file c:\iblogs\ib_logfile0 did not exist: new to be created
InnoDB: Setting log file c:\iblogs\ib_logfile0 size to 31457280
InnoDB: Log file c:\iblogs\ib_logfile1 did not exist: new to be created
InnoDB: Setting log file c:\iblogs\ib_logfile1 size to 31457280
InnoDB: Log file c:\iblogs\ib_logfile2 did not exist: new to be created
InnoDB: Setting log file c:\iblogs\ib_logfile2 size to 31457280
InnoDB: Doublewrite buffer not found: creating new
InnoDB: Doublewrite buffer created
InnoDB: creating foreign key constraint system tables
InnoDB: foreign key constraint system tables created
011024 10:58:25  InnoDB: Started

When the server finishes its startup sequence, you should see something like this, which indicates that the server is ready to service client connections::

mysqld: ready for connections
Version: '4.0.14-log'  socket: ''  port: 3306

The server will continue to write to the console any further diagnostic output it produces. You can open a new console window in which to run client programs.

If you omit the --console option, the server writes diagnostic output to the error log in the data directory. The error log is the file with the `.err' extension.

For further information about running MySQL on Windows, see section 2.6.1 Windows Notes.

2.1.2 Installing MySQL on Linux

The recommended way to install MySQL on Linux is by using the RPM packages. The MySQL RPMs are currently built on a SuSE Linux 7.3 system but should work on most versions of Linux that support rpm and use glibc.

If you have problems with an RPM file (for example, if you receive the error ``Sorry, the host 'xxxx' could not be looked up''), see section 2.6.2.1 Linux Notes for Binary Distributions.

In most cases, you only need to install the MySQL-server and MySQL-client packages to get a functional MySQL installation. The other packages are not required for a standard installation. If you want to run a MySQL Max server that has additional capabilities, you should install the MySQL-Max RPM after installing the MySQL-server RPM. See section 4.7.5 mysqld-max, An Extended mysqld Server.

If you get a dependency failure when trying to install the MySQL 4.0 packages (for example, ``error: removing these packages would break dependencies: libmysqlclient.so.10 is needed by ...''), you should also install the package MySQL-shared-compat, which includes both the shared libraries for backward compatibility (libmysqlclient.so.12 for MySQL 4.0 and libmysqlclient.so.10 for MySQL 3.23).

Many Linux distributions still ship with MySQL 3.23 and they usually link applications dynamically to save disk space. If these shared libraries are in a separate package (for example, MySQL-shared), it is sufficient to simply leave this package installed and just upgrade the MySQL server and client packages (which are statically linked and do not depend on the shared libraries). For distributions that include the shared libraries in the same package as the MySQL server (for example, Red Hat Linux), you could either install our 3.23 MySQL-shared RPM, or use the MySQL-shared-compat package instead.

The following RPM packages are available:

To see all files in an RPM package (for example, a MySQL-server RPM), run:

shell> rpm -qpl MySQL-server-VERSION.i386.rpm

To perform a standard minimal installation, run:

shell> rpm -i MySQL-server-VERSION.i386.rpm MySQL-client-VERSION.i386.rpm

To install just the client package, run:

shell> rpm -i MySQL-client-VERSION.i386.rpm

The server RPM places data under the `/var/lib/mysql' directory. The RPM also 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 you don't lose it when you install a newer RPM.) See section 2.4.3 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 initialisation scripts in `/etc/init.d' (directly or via a symlink), you should create a symbolic link that points to the location where your initialisation 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 /etc ; ln -s rc.d/init.d .

However, all current major Linux distributions should already support the new directory layout that uses `/etc/init.d', because it is required for LSB (Linux Standard Base) compliance.

If the RPM files that you install include MySQL-server, the mysqld daemon should be up and running after installation. You should now be able to start using MySQL. See section 2.4 Post-installation Setup and Testing.

If something goes wrong, you can find more information in the binary installation chapter. See section 2.2.11 Installing a MySQL Binary Distribution.

2.1.3 Installing MySQL on Mac OS X

Beginning with MySQL 4.0.11, you can install MySQL on Mac OS X 10.2 (``Jaguar'') using a Mac OS X PKG binary package instead of the binary tarball distribution. Please note that older versions of Mac OS X (for example, 10.1.x) are not supported by this package.

The package is located inside a disk image (.dmg) file, that you first need to mount by double-clicking its icon in the Finder. It should then mount the image and display its contents.

NOTE: Before proceeding with the installation, be sure to shut down all running MySQL server instances by either using the MySQL Manager Application (on Mac OS X Server) or via mysqladmin shutdown on the command line.

To actually install the MySQL PKG, double click on the package icon. This launches the Mac OS Package Installer, which will guide you through the installation of MySQL.

The Mac OS X PKG of MySQL will install itself into `/usr/local/mysql-<version>' and will also install a symbolic link `/usr/local/mysql', pointing to the new location. If a directory named `/usr/local/mysql' already exists, it will be renamed to `/usr/local/mysql.bak' first. Additionally, it will install the grant tables in the mysql database by executing mysql_install_db after the installation.

The installation layout is similar to the one of the binary distribution; all MySQL binaries are located in the directory `/usr/local/mysql/bin'. The MySQL socket file is created as `/tmp/mysql.sock' by default. See section 2.2.7 Installation Layouts.

MySQL installation requires a Mac OS X user account named mysql (a user account with this name should exist by default on Mac OS X 10.2 and up).

If you are running Mac OS X Server, you already have a version of MySQL installed:

This manual section covers the installation of the official MySQL Mac OS X PKG only. Make sure to read Apple's help about installing MySQL (Run the ``Help View'' application, select ``Mac OS X Server'' help, and do a search for ``MySQL'' and read the item entitled ``Installing MySQL'').

Especially note that the pre-installed version of MySQL on Mac OS X Server is started with the command safe_mysqld instead of mysqld_safe.

If you previously used Marc Liyanage's MySQL packages for Mac OS X from http://www.entropy.ch, you can simply follow the update instructions for packages using the binary installation layout as given on his pages.

If you are upgrading from Marc's 3.23.xx versions or from the Mac OS X Server version of MySQL to the official MySQL PKG, you also need to convert the existing MySQL privilege tables to the current format, because some new security privileges have been added. See section 2.5.6 Upgrading the Grant Tables.

If you would like to automatically start up MySQL during system bootup, you also need to install the MySQL Startup Item. Starting with MySQL 4.0.15, it is part of the Mac OS X installation disk images as a separate installation package. Simply double-click the MySQLStartupItem.pkg icon and follow the instructions to install it.

Note that this only has to be done once! There is no need to install the Startup Item every time you upgrade the MySQL package.

The Startup Item will be installed into `/Library/StartupItems/MySQL'. It adds a variable MYSQLCOM=-YES- to the system configuration file `/etc/hostconfig'. If you would like to disable the automatic startup of MySQL, simply change this variable to MYSQLCOM=-NO-.

On Mac OS X Server, the Startup Item installation script will automatically disable the startup of the default MySQL installation by changing the variable MYSQL in `/etc/hostconfig' to MYSQL=-NO-. This is to avoid conflicts on bootup. However, it does not shut down an already running MySQL server.

After the installation, you can start up MySQL by running the following commands in a terminal window. Please note that you need to have administrator privileges to perform this task.

If you have installed the Startup Item:

shell> sudo /Library/StartupItems/MySQL/MySQL start
(Enter your password, if necessary)
(Press Control-D or enter "exit" to exit the shell)

If you don't use the Startup Item, enter the following command sequence:

shell> cd /usr/local/mysql
shell> sudo ./bin/mysqld_safe
(Enter your password, if necessary)
(Press Control-Z)
shell> bg
(Press Control-D or enter "exit" to exit the shell)

You should now be able to connect to the MySQL server, for example, by running `/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql'.

If you installed MySQL for the first time, please remember to set a password for the MySQL root user!

This is done with the following two commands:

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -u root password <password>
/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h `hostname` password <password>

Please make sure that the hostname command in the second line is enclosed by backticks (`), so the shell can replace it with the output of this command (the host name of this system)!

You might want to also add aliases to your shell's resource file to access mysql and mysqladmin from the command line:

alias mysql '/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql'
alias mysqladmin '/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin'

Alternatively, you could simply add /usr/local/mysql/bin to your PATH environment variable, for example, by adding the following to `$HOME/.tcshrc':

setenv PATH ${PATH}:/usr/local/mysql/bin

Please note that installing a new MySQL PKG does not remove the directory of an older installation. Unfortunately, the Mac OS X Installer does not yet offer the functionality required to properly upgrade previously installed packages.

After you have copied over the MySQL database files from the previous version and have successfully started the new version, you should consider removing the old installation files to save disk space. Additionally, you should also remove older versions of the Package Receipt directories located in `/Library/Receipts/mysql-<version>.pkg'.

2.1.4 Installing MySQL on NetWare

As of version 4.0.11, the MySQL server is available for Novell NetWare in binary package form. In order to host MySQL, the NetWare server must meet these requirements:

The binary package for NetWare can be obtained at http://www.mysql.com/downloads/.

If you are running MySQL on NetWare 6.0, we strongly suggest that you use the --skip-external-locking option on the command line. It will also be neccesary to use CHECK TABLE and REPAIR TABLE instead of myisamchk, because myisamchk makes use of external locking. External locking is known to have problems on NetWare 6.0; the problem has been eliminated in NetWare 6.5.

2.1.4.1 Installing the MySQL for NetWare Binaries

  1. If you are upgrading from a prior installation, stop the MySQL server. This is done from the server console, using:
    SERVER:  mysqladmin -u root shutdown
    
  2. Log on to the target server from a client machine with access to the location where you will install MySQL.
  3. Extract the binary package zip file onto the server. Be sure to allow the paths in the zip file to be used. It is safe to simply extract the file to `SYS:\'. If you are upgrading from a prior installation, you may need to copy the data directory (for example, `SYS:MYSQL\DATA') now, as well as `my.cnf' if you have customised it. You can then delete the old copy of MySQL.
  4. You may wish to rename the directory to something more consistent and easy to use. We recommend using `SYS:MYSQL'; examples in the manual will use this to refer to the installation directory in general.
  5. At the server console, add a search path for the directory containing the MySQL NLMs. For example:
    SERVER:  SEARCH ADD SYS:MYSQL\BIN
    
  6. Install the initial database, if needed, by executing mysql_install_db at the server console.
  7. Start the MySQL server using mysqld_safe at the server console.
  8. To finish the installation, you should also add the following commands to autoexec.ncf. For example, if your MySQL installation is in `SYS:MYSQL' and you want MySQL to start automatically, you could add these lines:
    #Starts the MySQL 4.0.x database server
    SEARCH ADD SYS:MYSQL\BIN
    MYSQLD_SAFE
    
    If you are using NetWare 6.0, you should add the --skip-external-locking flag:
    #Starts the MySQL 4.0.x database server
    SEARCH ADD SYS:MYSQL\BIN
    MYSQLD_SAFE --skip-external-locking
    

If there was an existing installation of MySQL on the server, be sure to check for existing MySQL startup commands in autoexec.ncf, and edit or delete them as necessary.

2.2 General Installation Issues

2.2.1 How to Get MySQL

Check the MySQL homepage (http://www.mysql.com/) for information about the current version and for downloading instructions.

Our main mirror is located at http://mirrors.sunsite.dk/mysql/.

For a complete up-to-date list of MySQL web/download mirrors, see http://www.mysql.com/downloads/mirrors.html. There you will also find information about becoming a MySQL mirror site and how to report a bad or out-of-date mirror.

2.2.2 Verifying Package Integrity Using MD5 Checksums or GnuPG

After you have downloaded the MySQL package that suits your needs and before you attempt to install it, you should make sure it is intact and has not been tampered with.

MySQL AB offers two means of integrity checking: MD5 checksums and cryptographic signatures using GnuPG, the GNU Privacy Guard.

2.2.3 Verifying the MD5 Checksum

After you have downloaded the package, you should check, if the MD5 checksum matches the one provided on the MySQL download pages. Each package has an individual checksum, that you can verify with the following command:

shell> md5sum <package>

Note, that not all operating systems support the md5sum command - on some it is simply called md5, others do not ship it at all. On Linux, it is part of the GNU Text Utilities package, which is available for a wide range of platforms. You can download the source code from http://www.gnu.org/software/textutils/ as well. If you have OpenSSL installed, you can also use the command openssl md5 <package> instead. A DOS/Windows implementation of the md5 command is available from http://www.fourmilab.ch/md5/.

Example:

shell> md5sum mysql-standard-4.0.10-gamma-pc-linux-i686.tar.gz
155836a7ed8c93aee6728a827a6aa153
                mysql-standard-4.0.10-gamma-pc-linux-i686.tar.gz

You should check, if the resulting checksum matches the one printed on the download page right below the respective package.

Most mirror sites also offer a file named `MD5SUMS', which also includes the MD5 checksums for all files included in the `Downloads' directory. Please note however that it's very easy to modify this file and it's not a very reliable method. If in doubt, you should consult different mirror sites and compare the results.

2.2.4 Signature Checking Using GnuPG

A more reliable method of verifying the integrity of a package is using cryptographic signatures. MySQL AB uses the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG), an Open Source alternative to the very well-known Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) by Phil Zimmermann. See http://www.gnupg.org/ and http://www.openpgp.org/ for more information about OpenPGP/GnuPG and how to obtain and install GnuPG on your system. Most Linux distributions already ship with GnuPG installed by default.

Beginning with MySQL 4.0.10 (February 2003), MySQL AB has started signing their downloadable packages with GnuPG. Cryptographic signatures are a much more reliable method of verifying the integrity and authenticity of a file.

To verify the signature for a specific package, you first need to obtain a copy of MySQL AB's public GPG build key build@mysql.com. You can either cut and paste it directly from here, or obtain it from http://www.keyserver.net/.

Key ID:
pub  1024D/5072E1F5 2003-02-03
     MySQL Package signing key (www.mysql.com) <build@mysql.com>
Fingerprint: A4A9 4068 76FC BD3C 4567  70C8 8C71 8D3B 5072 E1F5

Public Key (ASCII-armored):

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org
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=YJkx
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

You can import this key into your public GPG keyring by using gpg --import. See the GPG documentation for more info on how to work with public keys.

After you have downloaded and imported the public build key, now download your desired MySQL package and the corresponding signature, which is also available from the download page. The signature has the file name extension `.asc'. For example, the signature for `mysql-standard-4.0.10-gamma-pc-linux-i686.tar.gz' would be `mysql-standard-4.0.10-gamma-pc-linux-i686.tar.gz.asc'. Make sure that both files are stored in the same directory and then run the following command to verify the signature for this file:

shell> gpg --verify <package>.asc

Example:

shell> gpg --verify mysql-standard-4.0.10-gamma-pc-linux-i686.tar.gz.asc
gpg: Warning: using insecure memory!
gpg: Signature made Mon 03 Feb 2003 08:50:39 PM MET using DSA key ID 5072E1F5
gpg: Good signature from
     "MySQL Package signing key (www.mysql.com) <build@mysql.com>"

The "Good signature" message indicates that everything is all right.

For RPM packages, there is no separate signature - RPM packages actually have a built-in GPG signature and MD5 checksum. You can verify them by running the following command:

shell> rpm --checksig <package>.rpm

Example:

shell> rpm --checksig MySQL-server-4.0.10-0.i386.rpm
MySQL-server-4.0.10-0.i386.rpm: md5 gpg OK

Note: If you are using RPM 4.1 and it complains about (GPG) NOT OK (MISSING KEYS: GPG#5072e1f5) (even though you have imported it into your GPG public keyring), you need to import the key into the RPM keyring first. RPM 4.1 no longer uses your GPG keyring (and GPG itself), but rather maintains its own keyring (because it's a system wide application and the GPG public keyring is user-specific file). To import the MySQL public key into the RPM keyring, please use the following command:

shell> rpm --import <pubkey>

Example:

shell> rpm --import mysql_pubkey.asc

In case you notice that the MD5 checksum or GPG signatures do not match, first try to download the respective package one more time, maybe from another mirror site. If you repeatedly can not successfully verify the integrity of the package, please notify us about such incidents including the full package name and the download site you have been using at webmaster@mysql.com or build@mysql.com.

2.2.5 Operating Systems Supported by MySQL

We use GNU Autoconf, so it is possible to port MySQL to all modern systems with working Posix threads and a C++ compiler. (To compile only the client code, a C++ compiler is required but not threads.) We use and develop the software ourselves primarily on Linux (SuSE and Red Hat), FreeBSD and Sun Solaris (Versions 8 and 9).

Note that for many operating systems, the native thread support works only in the latest versions. MySQL has been reported to compile successfully on the following operating system/thread package combinations:

Note that not all platforms are suited equally well for running MySQL. How well a certain platform is suited for a high-load mission-critical MySQL server is determined by the following factors:

Based on the preceding criteria, the best platforms for running MySQL at this point are x86 with SuSE Linux 8.2, 2.4 kernel, and ReiserFS (or any similar Linux distribution) and SPARC with Solaris (2.7-9). FreeBSD comes third, but we really hope it will join the top club once the thread library is improved. We also hope that at some point we will be able to include all other platforms on which MySQL compiles, runs okay, but not quite with the same level of stability and performance, into the top category. This will require some effort on our part in cooperation with the developers of the OS/library components MySQL depends upon. If you are interested in making one of those components better, are in a position to influence their development, and need more detailed instructions on what MySQL needs to run better, send an e-mail to the MySQL internals mailing list. See section 1.6.1.1 The MySQL Mailing Lists.

Please note that the preceding comparison is not to say that one OS is better or worse than the other in general. We are talking about choosing a particular OS for a dedicated purpose--running MySQL, and compare platforms in that regard only. With this in mind, the result of this comparison would be different if we included more issues into it. And in some cases, the reason one OS is better than the other could simply be that we have put forth more effort into testing on and optimising for that particular platform. We are just stating our observations to help you decide on which platform to use MySQL on in your setup.

2.2.6 Which MySQL Version to Use

The first decision to make is whether you want to use the latest development release or the last production (stable) release:

The second decision to make is whether you want to use a source distribution or a binary distribution. In most cases you should probably use a binary distribution, if one exists for your platform, as this generally will be easier to install than a source distribution.

In the following cases you probably will be better off with a source installation:

The MySQL naming scheme uses release numbers that consist of three numbers and a suffix. For example, a release name like mysql-4.1.0-alpha is interpreted like this:

In the MySQL development process, multiple versions co-exist and are at a different stage. Naturally, relevant bugfixes from an earlier series also propagate upward.

All versions of MySQL are run through our standard tests and benchmarks to ensure that they are relatively safe to use. Because the standard tests are extended over time to check for all previously found bugs, the test suite keeps getting better.

Note that all releases have been tested at least with:

An internal test suite
This is part of a production system for a customer. It has many tables with hundreds of megabytes of data.
The MySQL benchmark suite
This runs a range of common queries. It is also a test to see whether the latest batch of optimisations actually made the code faster. See section 5.1.4 The MySQL Benchmark Suite.
The crash-me test
This tries to determine what features the database supports and what its capabilities and limitations are. See section 5.1.4 The MySQL Benchmark Suite.

Another test is that we use the newest MySQL version in our internal production environment, on at least one machine. We have more than 100 gigabytes of data to work with.

2.2.7 Installation Layouts

This section describes the default layout of the directories created by installing binary and source distributions.

A binary distribution is installed by unpacking it at the installation location you choose (typically `/usr/local/mysql') and creates the following directories in that location:

Directory Contents of directory
`bin' Client programs and the mysqld server
`data' Log files, databases
`docs' Documentation, ChangeLog
`include' Include (header) files
`lib' Libraries
`scripts' mysql_install_db
`share/mysql' Error message files
`sql-bench' Benchmarks

A source distribution is installed after you configure and compile it. By default, the installation step installs files under `/usr/local', in the following subdirectories:

Directory Contents of directory
`bin' Client programs and scripts
`include/mysql' Include (header) files
`info' Documentation in Info format
`lib/mysql' Libraries
`libexec' The mysqld server
`share/mysql' Error message files
`sql-bench' Benchmarks and crash-me test
`var' Databases and log files

Within an installation directory, the layout of a source installation differs from that of a binary installation in the following ways:

You can create your own binary installation from a compiled source distribution by executing the script `scripts/make_binary_distribution'.

2.2.8 How and When Updates Are Released

MySQL is evolving quite rapidly here at MySQL AB and we want to share this with other MySQL users. We try to make a release when we have very useful features that others seem to have a need for.

We also try to help out users who request features that are easy to implement. We take note of what our licensed users want to have, and we especially take note of what our extended e-mail supported customers want and try to help them out.

No one has to download a new release. The News section will tell you if the new release has something you really want. See section D MySQL Change History.

We use the following policy when updating MySQL:

The current production release is Version 4.0; we have already moved active development to Version 4.1 and 5.0. Bugs will still be fixed in the 4.0 version, and critical bugs also in the 3.23 series. We don't believe in a complete freeze, as this also leaves out bug fixes and things that ``must be done.'' ``Somewhat frozen'' means that we may add small things that ``almost surely will not affect anything that's already working.''

MySQL uses a slightly different naming scheme from most other products. In general it's relatively safe to use any version that has been out for a couple of weeks without being replaced with a new version. See section 2.2.6 Which MySQL Version to Use.

2.2.9 Release Philosophy - No Known Bugs in Releases

We put a lot of time and effort into making our releases bug free. To our knowledge, we have not released a single MySQL version with any known 'fatal' repeatable bugs.

A fatal bug is something that crashes MySQL under normal usage, gives wrong answers for normal queries, or has a security problem.

We have documented all open problems, bugs and things that are dependent on design decisions. See section 1.7.6 Known Errors and Design Deficiencies in MySQL.

Our aim is to fix everything that is fixable, but without risking making a stable MySQL version less stable. In certain cases, this means we can fix an issue in the development version(s), but not in the stable (production) version. Naturally, we document such issues so that users are aware.

Here is a description of how our build process works:

2.2.10 MySQL Binaries Compiled by MySQL AB

As a service, we at MySQL AB provide a set of binary distributions of MySQL that are compiled at our site or at sites where customers kindly have given us access to their machines.

In addition to the binaries provided in platform-specific package formats (see section 2.1 Quick Standard Installation of MySQL), we do offer binary distributions for a number of platforms by means of compressed tar archives (.tar.gz).

These distributions are generated using the script Build-tools/Do-compile which compiles the source code and creates the binary tar.gz archive using scripts/make_binary_distribution These binaries are configured and built with the following compilers and options.

Binaries built on MySQL AB development systems:

Linux 2.4.xx x86 with gcc 2.95.3
CFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=pentiumpro" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=pentiumpro -felide-constructors" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --enable-assembler --disable-shared --with-client-ldflags=-all-static --with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static
Linux 2.4.xx Intel Itanium 2 with ecc (Intel C++ Itanium Compiler 7.0)
CC=ecc CFLAGS="-O2 -tpp2 -ip -nolib_inline" CXX=ecc CXXFLAGS="-O2 -tpp2 -ip -nolib_inline" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile
Linux 2.4.xx Intel Itanium with ecc (Intel C++ Itanium Compiler 7.0)
CC=ecc CFLAGS=-tpp1 CXX=ecc CXXFLAGS=-tpp1 ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile
Linux 2.4.xx alpha with ccc (Compaq C V6.2-505 / Compaq C++ V6.3-006)
CC=ccc CFLAGS="-fast -arch generic" CXX=cxx CXXFLAGS="-fast -arch generic -noexceptions -nortti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --with-mysqld-ldflags=-non_shared --with-client-ldflags=-non_shared --disable-shared
Linux 2.4.xx s390 with gcc 2.95.3
CFLAGS="-O2" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O2 -felide-constructors" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared --with-client-ldflags=-all-static --with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static
Linux 2.4.xx x86_64 (AMD64) with gcc 3.2.1
CXX=gcc ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared
Sun Solaris 8 x86 with gcc 3.2.3
CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data --libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared --with-innodb
Sun Solaris 8 sparc with gcc 3.2
CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --enable-assembler --with-named-z-libs=no --with-named-curses-libs=-lcurses --disable-shared
Sun Solaris 8 sparc 64bit with gcc 3.2
CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -m64 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -m64 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --enable-assembler --with-named-z-libs=no --with-named-curses-libs=-lcurses --disable-shared
Sun Solaris 9 sparc with gcc 2.95.3
CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --enable-assembler --with-named-curses-libs=-lcurses --disable-shared
Sun Solaris 9 sparc with cc-5.0 (Sun Forte 5.0)
CC=cc-5.0 CXX=CC ASFLAGS="-xarch=v9" CFLAGS="-Xa -xstrconst -mt -D_FORTEC_ -xarch=v9" CXXFLAGS="-noex -mt -D_FORTEC_ -xarch=v9" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --enable-assembler --with-named-z-libs=no --enable-thread-safe-client --disable-shared
IBM AIX 4.3.2 ppc with gcc 3.2.3
CFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=powerpc -Wa,-many " CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=powerpc -Wa,-many -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no --disable-shared
IBM AIX 4.3.3 ppc with xlC_r (IBM Visual Age C/C++ 6.0)
CC=xlc_r CFLAGS="-ma -O2 -qstrict -qoptimize=2 -qmaxmem=8192" CXX=xlC_r CXXFLAGS ="-ma -O2 -qstrict -qoptimize=2 -qmaxmem=8192" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data --libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no --disable-shared --with-innodb
IBM AIX 5.1.0 ppc with gcc 3.3
CFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=powerpc -Wa,-many" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=powerpc -Wa,-many -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --with-server-suffix="-pro" --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no --disable-shared
HP-UX 10.20 pa-risc1.1 with gcc 3.1
CFLAGS="-DHPUX -I/opt/dce/include -O3 -fPIC" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-DHPUX -I/opt/dce /include -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti -O3 -fPIC" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --with-pthread --with-named-thread-libs=-ldce --with-lib-ccflags=-fPIC --disable-shared
HP-UX 11.11 pa-risc2.0 64bit with aCC (HP ANSI C++ B3910B A.03.33)
CC=cc CXX=aCC CFLAGS=+DD64 CXXFLAGS=+DD64 ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared
HP-UX 11.11 pa-risc2.0 32bit with aCC (HP ANSI C++ B3910B A.03.33)
CC=cc CXX=aCC CFLAGS="+DAportable" CXXFLAGS="+DAportable" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data --libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared --with-innodb
Apple Mac OS X 10.2 powerpc with gcc 3.1
CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared
FreeBSD 4.7 i386 with gcc 2.95.4
CFLAGS=-DHAVE_BROKEN_REALPATH ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --enable-assembler --with-named-z-libs=not-used --disable-shared
QNX Neutrino 6.2.1 i386 with gcc 2.95.3qnx-nto 20010315
CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared

The following binaries are built on third-party systems kindly provided to MySQL AB by other users. Please note that these are only provided as a courtesy. Since MySQL AB does not have full control over these systems, we can only provide limited support for the binaries built on these systems.

SCO Unix 3.2v5.0.6 i386 with gcc 2.95.3
CFLAGS="-O3 -mpentium" LDFLAGS=-static CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -mpentium -felide-constructors" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no --enable-thread-safe-client --disable-shared
SCO OpenUnix 8.0.0 i386 with CC 3.2
CC=cc CFLAGS="-O" CXX=CC ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --with-named-z-libs=no --enable-thread-safe-client --disable-shared
Compaq Tru64 OSF/1 V5.1 732 alpha with cc/cxx (Compaq C V6.3-029i / DIGITAL C++ V6.1-027)
CC="cc -pthread" CFLAGS="-O4 -ansi_alias -ansi_args -fast -inline speed -speculate all" CXX="cxx -pthread" CXXFLAGS="-O4 -ansi_alias -fast -inline speed -speculate all -noexceptions -nortti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --with-prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-named-thread-libs="-lpthread -lmach -lexc -lc" --disable-shared --with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static
SGI Irix 6.5 IP32 with gcc 3.0.1
CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXXFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared
FreeBSD 5.0 sparc64 with gcc 3.2.1
CFLAGS=-DHAVE_BROKEN_REALPATH ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data --libexecdir=/usr/local/mysql/bin --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --disable-shared --with-innodb

The following compile options have been used for binary packages MySQL AB used to provide in the past. These binaries are no longer being updated, but the compile options are kept here for reference purposes.

Linux 2.2.xx sparc with egcs 1.1.2
CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client --enable-local-infile --enable-assembler --disable-shared
Linux 2.2.x with x686 with gcc 2.95.2
CFLAGS="-O3 -mpentiumpro" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -mpentiumpro -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --enable-assembler --with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static --disable-shared --with-extra-charsets=complex
SunOS 4.1.4 2 sun4c with gcc 2.7.2.1
CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -felide-constructors" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --disable-shared --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-assembler
SunOS 5.5.1 (and above) sun4u with egcs 1.0.3a or 2.90.27 or gcc 2.95.2 and newer
CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-low-memory --with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-assembler
SunOS 5.6 i86pc with gcc 2.8.1
CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O3 ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-low-memory --with-extra-charsets=complex
BSDI BSD/OS 3.1 i386 with gcc 2.7.2.1
CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex
BSDI BSD/OS 2.1 i386 with gcc 2.7.2
CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O3 ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex
AIX 2 4 with gcc 2.7.2.2
CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O3 ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-extra-charsets=complex

Anyone who has more optimal options for any of the preceding configurations listed can always mail them to the MySQL internals s mailing list. See section 1.6.1.1 The MySQL Mailing Lists.

RPM distributions prior to MySQL Version 3.22 are user-contributed. Beginning with Version 3.22, the RPMs are generated by us at MySQL AB.

If you want to compile a debug version of MySQL, you should add --with-debug or --with-debug=full to the preceding configure lines and remove any -fomit-frame-pointer options.

For the Windows distribution, please see section 2.1.1 Installing MySQL on Windows.

2.2.11 Installing a MySQL Binary Distribution

This chapter covers the installation of MySQL binary distributions (.tar.gz Archives) for various platforms (see section 2.2.10 MySQL Binaries Compiled by MySQL AB for a detailed list).

In addition to these generic packages, we also offer binaries in platform-specific package formats for selected platforms. See section 2.1 Quick Standard Installation of MySQL for more information on how to install these.

The generic MySQL binary distributions are packaged as gzip-compressed GNU tar archives (.tar.gz). You need the following tools to install a MySQL binary distribution:

If you run into problems, please always use mysqlbug when posting questions to a MySQL mailing list. Even if the problem isn't a bug, mysqlbug gathers system information that will help others solve your problem. By not using mysqlbug, you lessen the likelihood of getting a solution to your problem. You will find mysqlbug in the `bin' directory after you unpack the distribution. See section 1.6.1.3 How to Report Bugs or Problems.

The basic commands you must execute to install and use a MySQL binary distribution are:

shell> groupadd mysql
shell> useradd -g mysql mysql
shell> cd /usr/local
shell> gunzip < /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz | tar xvf -
shell> ln -s full-path-to-mysql-VERSION-OS mysql
shell> cd mysql
shell> scripts/mysql_install_db
shell> chown -R root  .
shell> chown -R mysql data
shell> chgrp -R mysql .
shell> bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &
or
shell> bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &
if you are running MySQL 4.x

You can add new users using the bin/mysql_setpermission script if you install the DBI and DBD-mysql Perl modules.

A more detailed description follows.

To install a binary distribution, follow these steps, then proceed to section 2.4 Post-installation Setup and Testing, for post-installation setup and testing:

  1. Pick the directory under which you want to unpack the distribution, and move into it. In the following example, we unpack the distribution under `/usr/local' and create a directory `/usr/local/mysql' into which MySQL is installed. (The following instructions, therefore, assume you have permission to create files in `/usr/local'. If that directory is protected, you will need to perform the installation as root.)
  2. Obtain a distribution file from one of the sites listed in section 2.2.1 How to Get MySQL. MySQL binary distributions are provided as compressed tar archives and have names like `mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz', where VERSION is a number (for example, 3.21.15), and OS indicates the type of operating system for which the distribution is intended (for example, pc-linux-gnu-i586). Note that all binaries are built from the same MySQL source distribution.
  3. Add a user and group for mysqld to run as:
    shell> groupadd mysql
    shell> useradd -g mysql mysql
    
    These commands add the mysql group and the mysql user. The syntax for useradd and groupadd may differ slightly on different versions of Unix. They may also be called adduser and addgroup. You may wish to call the user and group something else instead of mysql.
  4. Change into the intended installation directory:
    shell> cd /usr/local
    
  5. Unpack the distribution and create the installation directory:
    shell> gunzip < /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz | tar xvf -
    shell> ln -s full-path-to-mysql-VERSION-OS mysql
    
    Using GNU tar, you can also replace the first line with the following alternative command to decompress and extract the distribution in one go:
    shell> tar zxvf /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz
    
    The first command creates a directory named `mysql-VERSION-OS'. The second command makes a symbolic link to that directory. This lets you refer more easily to the installation directory as `/usr/local/mysql'.
  6. Change into the installation directory:
    shell> cd mysql
    
    You will find several files and subdirectories in the mysql directory. The most important for installation purposes are the `bin' and `scripts' subdirectories.
    `bin'
    This directory contains client programs and the server You should add the full pathname of this directory to your PATH environment variable so that your shell finds the MySQL programs properly. See section F Environment Variables.
    `scripts'
    This directory contains the mysql_install_db script used to initialise the mysql database containing the grant tables that store the server access permissions.
  7. If you would like to use mysqlaccess and have the MySQL distribution in some non-standard place, you must change the location where mysqlaccess expects to find the mysql client. Edit the `bin/mysqlaccess' script at approximately line 18. Search for a line that looks like this:
    $MYSQL     = '/usr/local/bin/mysql';    # path to mysql executable
    
    Change the path to reflect the location where mysql actually is stored on your system. If you do not do this, you will get a Broken pipe error when you run mysqlaccess.
  8. Create the MySQL grant tables (necessary only if you haven't installed MySQL before):
    shell> scripts/mysql_install_db
    
    Note that MySQL versions older than Version 3.22.10 started the MySQL server when you run mysql_install_db. This is no longer true.
  9. Change ownership of binaries to root and ownership of the data directory to the user that you will run mysqld as:
    shell> chown -R root  /usr/local/mysql/.
    shell> chown -R mysql /usr/local/mysql/data
    shell> chgrp -R mysql /usr/local/mysql/.
    
    The first command changes the owner attribute of the files to the root user, the second one changes the owner attribute of the data directory to the mysql user, and the third one changes the group attribute to the mysql group.
  10. If you want to install support for the Perl DBI/DBD interface, see section 2.7 Perl Installation Comments.
  11. If you would like MySQL to start automatically when you boot your machine, you can copy support-files/mysql.server to the location where your system has its startup files. More information can be found in the support-files/mysql.server script itself and in section 2.4.3 Starting and Stopping MySQL Automatically.

After everything has been unpacked and installed, you should initialise and test your distribution.

You can start the MySQL server with the following command:

shell> bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

Now proceed to section 4.7.2 mysqld_safe, The Wrapper Around mysqld, and See section 2.4 Post-installation Setup and Testing.

2.3 Installing a MySQL Source Distribution

Before you proceed with the source installation, check first to see if our binary is available for your platform and if it will work for you. We put a lot of effort into making sure that our binaries are built with the best possible options.

You need the following tools to build and install MySQL from source:

If you are using a recent version of gcc, recent enough to understand the -fno-exceptions option, it is very important that you use it. Otherwise, you may compile a binary that crashes randomly. We also recommend that you use -felide-constructors and -fno-rtti along with -fno-exceptions. When in doubt, do the following:


CFLAGS="-O3" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions \
       -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --enable-assembler \
       --with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static

On most systems this will give you a fast and stable binary.

If you run into problems, please always use mysqlbug when posting questions to a MySQL mailing list. Even if the problem isn't a bug, mysqlbug gathers system information that will help others solve your problem. By not using mysqlbug, you lessen the likelihood of getting a solution to your problem. You will find mysqlbug in the `scripts' directory after you unpack the distribution. See section 1.6.1.3 How to Report Bugs or Problems.

2.3.1 Quick Installation Overview

The basic commands you must execute to install a MySQL source distribution are:

shell> groupadd mysql
shell> useradd -g mysql mysql
shell> gunzip < mysql-VERSION.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
shell> cd mysql-VERSION
shell> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
shell> make
shell> make install
shell> scripts/mysql_install_db
shell> chown -R root  /usr/local/mysql
shell> chown -R mysql /usr/local/mysql/var
shell> chgrp -R mysql /usr/local/mysql
shell> cp support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
shell> /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

If your version of MySQL is older than 4.0, use safe_mysqld rather than mysqld_safe.

If you want to have support for InnoDB tables, you should edit the /etc/my.cnf file and remove the # character before the parameter that starts with innodb_.... See section 4.1.2 `my.cnf' Option Files, and section 7.5.3 InnoDB Startup Options.

If you start from a source RPM, do the following:

shell> rpm --rebuild --clean MySQL-VERSION.src.rpm

This will make a binary RPM that you can install.

You can add new users using the bin/mysql_setpermission script if you install the DBI and DBD-mysql Perl modules.

A more detailed description follows.

To install a source distribution, follow these steps, then proceed to section 2.4 Post-installation Setup and Testing, for post-installation initialisation and testing:

  1. Pick the directory under which you want to unpack the distribution, and move into it.
  2. Obtain a distribution file from one of the sites listed in section 2.2.1 How to Get MySQL.
  3. If you are interested in using Berkeley DB tables with MySQL, you will need to obtain a patched version of the Berkeley DB source code. Please read the chapter on Berkeley DB tables before proceeding. See section 7.6 BDB or BerkeleyDB Tables. MySQL source distributions are provided as compressed tar archives and have names like `mysql-VERSION.tar.gz', where VERSION is a number like 4.1.1-alpha.
  4. Add a user and group for mysqld to run as:
    shell> groupadd mysql
    shell> useradd -g mysql mysql
    
    These commands add the mysql group and the mysql user. The syntax for useradd and groupadd may differ slightly on different versions of Unix. They may also be called adduser and addgroup. You may wish to call the user and group something else instead of mysql.
  5. Unpack the distribution into the current directory:
    shell> gunzip < /path/to/mysql-VERSION.tar.gz | tar xvf -
    
    This command creates a directory named `mysql-VERSION'.
  6. Change into the top-level directory of the unpacked distribution:
    shell> cd mysql-VERSION
    
    Note that currently you must configure and build MySQL from this top-level directory. You cannot build it in a different directory.
  7. Configure the release and compile everything:
    shell> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
    shell> make
    
    When you run configure, you might want to specify some options. Run ./configure --help for a list of options. section 2.3.3 Typical configure Options, discusses some of the more useful options. If configure fails, and you are going to send mail to a MySQL mailing list to ask for assistance, please include any lines from `config.log' that you think can help solve the problem. Also include the last couple of lines of output from configure if configure aborts. Post the bug report using the mysqlbug script. See section 1.6.1.3 How to Report Bugs or Problems. If the compile fails, see section 2.3.5 Problems Compiling MySQL?, for help with a number of common problems.
  8. Install everything:
    shell> make install
    
    You might need to run this command as root.
  9. Create the MySQL grant tables (necessary only if you haven't installed MySQL before):
    shell> scripts/mysql_install_db
    
    Note that MySQL versions older than Version 3.22.10 started the MySQL server when you run mysql_install_db. This is no longer true.
  10. Change ownership of binaries to root and ownership of the data directory to the user that you will run mysqld as:
    shell> chown -R root  /usr/local/mysql
    shell> chown -R mysql /usr/local/mysql/var
    shell> chgrp -R mysql /usr/local/mysql
    
    The first command changes the owner attribute of the files to the root user, the second one changes the owner attribute of the data directory to the mysql user, and the third one changes the group attribute to the mysql group.
  11. If you want to install support for the Perl DBI/DBD interface, see section 2.7 Perl Installation Comments.
  12. If you would like MySQL to start automatically when you boot your machine, you can copy support-files/mysql.server to the location where your system has its startup files. More information can be found in the support-files/mysql.server script itself and in section 2.4.3 Starting and Stopping MySQL Automatically.

After everything has been installed, you should initialise and test your distribution:

shell> /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

If that command fails immediately with mysqld daemon ended, you can find some information in the file `mysql-data-directory/'hostname'.err'. The likely reason is that you already have another mysqld server running. See section 4.1.3 Running Multiple MySQL Servers on the Same Machine.

Now proceed to section 2.4 Post-installation Setup and Testing.

2.3.2 Applying Patches

Sometimes patches appear on the mailing list or are placed in the patches area of the MySQL web site (http://www.mysql.com/downloads/patches.html).

To apply a patch from the mailing list, save the message in which the patch appears in a file, change into the top-level directory of your MySQL source tree, and run these commands:

shell> patch -p1 < patch-file-name
shell> rm config.cache
shell> make clean

Patches from the FTP site are distributed as plain text files or as files compressed with gzip. Apply a plain patch as shown previously for mailing list patches. To apply a compressed patch, change into the top-level directory of your MySQL source tree and run these commands:

shell> gunzip < patch-file-name.gz | patch -p1
shell> rm config.cache
shell> make clean

After applying a patch, follow the instructions for a normal source install, beginning with the ./configure step. After running the make install step, restart your MySQL server.

You may need to bring down any currently running server before you run make install. (Use mysqladmin shutdown to do this.) Some systems do not allow you to install a new version of a program if it replaces the version that is currently executing.

2.3.3 Typical configure Options

The configure script gives you a great deal of control over how you configure your MySQL distribution. Typically you do this using options on the configure command-line. You can also affect configure using certain environment variables. See section F Environment Variables. For a list of options supported by configure, run this command:

shell> ./configure --help

Some of the more commonly-used configure options are described here:

2.3.4 Installing from the Development Source Tree

Caution: You should read this section only if you are interested in helping us test our new code. If you just want to get MySQL up and running on your system, you should use a standard release distribution (either a source or binary distribution will do).

To obtain our most recent development source tree, use these instructions:

  1. Download BitKeeper from http://www.bitmover.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi. You will need Bitkeeper 3.0 or newer to access our repository.
  2. Follow the instructions to install it.
  3. After BitKeeper is installed, first go to the directory you want to work from, and then use one of the following commands to clone the MySQL version branch of your choice: To clone the 3.23 (old) branch, use this command:
    shell> bk clone bk://mysql.bkbits.net/mysql-3.23 mysql-3.23
    
    To clone the 4.0 (stable/production) branch, use this command:
    shell> bk clone bk://mysql.bkbits.net/mysql-4.0 mysql-4.0
    
    To clone the 4.1 alpha branch, use this command:
    shell> bk clone bk://mysql.bkbits.net/mysql-4.1 mysql-4.1
    
    To clone the 5.0 development branch, use this command:
    shell> bk clone bk://mysql.bkbits.net/mysql-5.0 mysql-5.0
    
    In the preceding examples the source tree will be set up in the `mysql-3.23/', `mysql-4.0/', `mysql-4.1/', or `mysql-5.0/' subdirectory of your current directory. If you are behind a firewall and can only initiate HTTP connections, you can also use BitKeeper via HTTP. If you are required to use a proxy server, simply set the environment variable http_proxy to point to your proxy:
    shell> export http_proxy="http://your.proxy.server:8080/"
    
    Now, simply replace the bk:// with http:// when doing a clone. Example:
    shell> bk clone http://mysql.bkbits.net/mysql-4.1 mysql-4.1
    
    The initial download of the source tree may take a while, depending on the speed of your connection - please be patient.
  4. You will need GNU make, autoconf 2.53 (or newer), automake 1.5, libtool 1.4, and m4 to run the next set of commands. Even though many operating system already come with their own implementation of make, chances are high that the compilation fails with strange error messages. Therefore it is highly recommended to use GNU make (sometimes also named gmake) by all means. Fortunately, a large number of operating systems already ship with the GNU toolchain preinstalled or supply installable packages of these. In any case, they can also be downloaded from the following locations: If you are trying to configure MySQL 4.1, you will also need GNU bison 1.75. Older versions of bison may report this error: sql_yacc.yy:#####: fatal error: maximum table size (32767) exceeded. Note: the maximum table size is not actually exceeded, the error is caused by bugs in these earlier bison versions. Versions of MySQL before version 4.1 may also compile with other yacc implementations (e.g. BSD yacc 91.7.30). For later versions, GNU bison is a requirement. The typical command to do in a shell is:
    cd mysql-4.0
    bk -r edit
    aclocal; autoheader; autoconf; automake
    (cd innobase ; aclocal; autoheader; autoconf; automake) # for InnoDB
    (cd bdb/dist ; sh s_all ) # for Berkeley DB
    ./configure  # Add your favorite options here
    make
    
    If you get some strange error during this stage, check that you really have libtool installed. A collection of our standard configure scripts is located in the `BUILD/' subdirectory. If you are lazy, you can use `BUILD/compile-pentium-debug'. To compile on a different architecture, modify the script by removing flags that are Pentium-specific.
  5. When the build is done, run make install. Be careful with this on a production machine; the command may overwrite your live release installation. If you have another installation of MySQL, we recommend that you run ./configure with different values for the prefix, with-tcp-port, and unix-socket-path options than those used for your production server.
  6. Play hard with your new installation and try to make the new features crash. Start by running make test. See section 12.1.2 MySQL Test Suite.
  7. If you have gotten to the make stage and the distribution does not compile, please report it in our bugs database at http://bugs.mysql.com/. If you have installed the latest versions of the required GNU tools, and they crash trying to process our configuration files, please report that also. However, if you execute aclocal and get a command not found error or a similar problem, do not report it. Instead, make sure all the necessary tools are installed and that your PATH variable is set correctly so that your shell can find them.
  8. After the initial bk clone operation to get the source tree, you should run bk pull periodically to get the updates.
  9. You can examine the change history for the tree with all the diffs by using bk sccstool. If you see some funny diffs or code that you have a question about, do not hesitate to send e-mail to the MySQL internals mailing list. See section 1.6.1.1 The MySQL Mailing Lists. Also, if you think you have a better idea on how to do something, send an e-mail to the same address with a patch. bk diffs will produce a patch for you after you have made changes to the source. If you do not have the time to code your idea, just send a description.
  10. BitKeeper has a nice help utility that you can access via bk helptool.
  11. Please note that any commits (bk ci or bk citool) will trigger the posting of a message with the changeset to our internals mailing list, as well as the usual openlogging.org submission with just the changeset comments. Generally, you wouldn't need to use commit (since the public tree will not allow bk push), but rather use the bk diffs method described previously.

You can also browse changesets, comments and sourcecode online by browsing to for example, http://mysql.bkbits.net:8080/mysql-4.1 For MySQL 4.1.

The manual is in a separate tree which can be cloned with:

shell> bk clone bk://mysql.bkbits.net/mysqldoc mysqldoc

There are also public BitKeeper trees for MySQL Control Center and Connector/ODBC. They can be cloned respectively as follows.

To clone MySQL Control center, use this command:

shell> bk clone http://mysql.bkbits.net/mysqlcc mysqlcc

To clone Connector/ODBC, use this command:

shell> bk clone http://mysql.bkbits.net/myodbc3 myodbc3

2.3.5 Problems Compiling MySQL?

All MySQL programs compile cleanly for us with no warnings on Solaris or Linux using gcc. On other systems, warnings may occur due to differences in system include files. See section 2.3.6 MIT-pthreads Notes for warnings that may occur when using MIT-pthreads. For other problems, check the following list.

The solution to many problems involves reconfiguring. If you do need to reconfigure, take note of the following:

To prevent old configuration information or object files from being used, run these commands before rerunning configure:

shell> rm config.cache
shell> make clean

Alternatively, you can run make distclean.

The following list describes some of the problems when compiling MySQL that have been found to occur most often:

2.3.6 MIT-pthreads Notes

This section describes some of the issues involved in using MIT-pthreads.

Note that on Linux you should not use MIT-pthreads but use the installed LinuxThreads implementation instead. See section 2.6.2 Linux Notes (All Linux Versions).

If your system does not provide native thread support, you will need to build MySQL using the MIT-pthreads package. This includes older FreeBSD systems, SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.4 and earlier, and some others. See section 2.2.5 Operating Systems Supported by MySQL.

Note, that beginning with MySQL 4.0.2 MIT-pthreads are no longer part of the source distribution. If you require this package, you need to download it separately from http://www.mysql.com/Downloads/Contrib/pthreads-1_60_beta6-mysql.tar.gz

After downloading, extract this source archive into the top level of the MySQL source directory. It will create a new subdirectory mit-pthreads.

2.3.7 Windows Source Distribution

You will need the following:

Building MySQL:

  1. Create a work directory (for example, `workdir').
  2. Unpack the source distribution in the aforementioned directory.
  3. Start the VC++ 6.0 compiler.
  4. In the File menu, select Open Workspace.
  5. Open the `mysql.dsw' workspace you find on the work directory.
  6. From the Build menu, select the Set Active Configuration menu.
  7. Click over the screen selecting mysqld - Win32 Debug and click OK.
  8. Press F7 to begin the build of the debug server, libraries, and some client applications.
  9. When the compilation finishes, copy the libraries and the executables to a separate directory.
  10. Compile the release versions that you want, in the same way.
  11. Create the directory into which to install the MySQL stuff (for example, `c:\mysql').
  12. From the `workdir' directory copy into the c:\mysql directory the following directories:
  13. Create the directory `c:\mysql\bin' and copy into it all the servers and clients that you just compiled.
  14. If you want, also create the `c:\mysql\lib' directory and copy the libraries that you just compiled.
  15. Do a clean using Visual Studio.

Set up and start the server in the same way as for the binary Windows distribution. See section 2.1.1.2 Preparing the Windows MySQL Environment.

2.4 Post-installation Setup and Testing

Once you've installed MySQL (from either a binary or source distribution), you need to initialise the grant tables, start the server, and make sure that the server works okay. You may also wish to arrange for the server to be started and stopped automatically when your system starts up and shuts down.

Normally you install the grant tables and start the server like this for installation from a source distribution:

shell> ./scripts/mysql_install_db
shell> cd mysql_installation_directory
shell> ./bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

For a binary distribution (not RPM or pkg packages), do this:

shell> cd mysql_installation_directory
shell> ./scripts/mysql_install_db
shell> ./bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

The mysql_install_db script creates the mysql database which will hold all database privileges, the test database which you can use to test MySQL, and also privilege entries for the user that runs mysql_install_db and a root user. The entries are created without passwords. The mysqld_safe script starts the mysqld server. (If your version of MySQL is older than 4.0, use safe_mysqld rather than mysqld_safe.)

mysql_install_db will not overwrite any old privilege tables, so it should be safe to run in any circumstances. If you don't want to have the test database you can remove it with mysqladmin -u root drop test after starting the server.

Testing is most easily done from the top-level directory of the MySQL distribution. For a binary distribution, this is your installation directory (typically something like `/usr/local/mysql'). For a source distribution, this is the main directory of your MySQL source tree.

In the commands shown in this section and in the following subsections, BINDIR is the path to the location in which programs like mysqladmin and mysqld_safe are installed. For a binary distribution, this is the `bin' directory within the distribution. For a source distribution, BINDIR is probably `/usr/local/bin', unless you specified an installation directory other than `/usr/local' when you ran configure. EXECDIR is the location in which the mysqld server is installed. For a binary distribution, this is the same as BINDIR. For a source distribution, EXECDIR is probably `/usr/local/libexec'.

Testing is described in detail:

  1. If necessary, start the mysqld server and set up the initial MySQL grant tables containing the privileges that determine how users are allowed to connect to the server. This is normally done with the mysql_install_db script:
    shell> scripts/mysql_install_db
    
    Typically, mysql_install_db needs to be run only the first time you install MySQL. Therefore, if you are upgrading an existing installation, you can skip this step. (However, mysql_install_db is quite safe to use and will not update any tables that already exist, so if you are unsure of what to do, you can always run mysql_install_db.) mysql_install_db creates six tables (user, db, host, tables_priv, columns_priv, and func) in the mysql database. A description of the initial privileges is given in section 4.3.4 Setting Up the Initial MySQL Privileges. Briefly, these privileges allow the MySQL root user to do anything, and allow anybody to create or use databases with a name of test or starting with test_. If you don't set up the grant tables, the following error will appear in the log file when you start the server:
    mysqld: Can't find file: 'host.frm'
    
    This may also happen with a binary MySQL distribution if you don't start MySQL by executing exactly ./bin/mysqld_safe. See section 4.7.2 mysqld_safe, The Wrapper Around mysqld. You might need to run mysql_install_db as root. However, if you prefer, you can run the MySQL server as an unprivileged (non-root) user, provided that the user can read and write files in the database directory. Instructions for running MySQL as an unprivileged user are given in section A.3.2 How to Run MySQL As a Normal User. If you have problems with mysql_install_db, see section 2.4.1 Problems Running mysql_install_db. There are some alternatives to running the mysql_install_db script as it is provided in the MySQL distribution: For more information about these alternatives, see section 4.3.4 Setting Up the Initial MySQL Privileges.
  2. Start the MySQL server like this:
    shell> cd mysql_installation_directory
    shell> bin/mysqld_safe &
    
    If you have problems starting the server, see section 2.4.2 Problems Starting the MySQL Server.
  3. Use mysqladmin to verify that the server is running. The following commands provide a simple test to check that the server is up and responding to connections:
    shell> BINDIR/mysqladmin version
    shell> BINDIR/mysqladmin variables
    
    The output from mysqladmin version varies slightly depending on your platform and version of MySQL, but should be similar to that shown here:
    shell> BINDIR/mysqladmin version
    mysqladmin  Ver 8.14 Distrib 3.23.32, for linux on i586
    Copyright (C) 2000 MySQL AB & MySQL Finland AB & TCX DataKonsult AB
    This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software,
    and you are welcome to modify and redistribute it under the GPL license.
    
    Server version          3.23.32-debug
    Protocol version        10
    Connection              Localhost via Unix socket
    TCP port                3306
    UNIX socket             /tmp/mysql.sock
    Uptime:                 16 sec
    
    Threads: 1  Questions: 9  Slow queries: 0
    Opens: 7  Flush tables: 2  Open tables: 0
    Queries per second avg: 0.000
    Memory in use: 132K  Max memory used: 16773K
    
    To get a feeling for what else you can do with BINDIR/mysqladmin, invoke it with the --help option.
  4. Verify that you can shut down the server:
    shell> BINDIR/mysqladmin -u root shutdown
    
  5. Verify that you can restart the server. Do this using mysqld_safe or by invoking mysqld directly. For example:
    shell> BINDIR/mysqld_safe --log &
    
    If mysqld_safe fails, try running it from the MySQL installation directory (if you are not already there). If that doesn't work, see section 2.4.2 Problems Starting the MySQL Server.
  6. Run some simple tests to verify that the server is working. The output should be similar to what is shown here:
    shell> BINDIR/mysqlshow
    +-----------+
    | Databases |
    +-----------+
    | mysql     |
    +-----------+
    
    shell> BINDIR/mysqlshow mysql
    Database: mysql
    +--------------+
    |    Tables    |
    +--------------+
    | columns_priv |
    | db           |
    | func         |
    | host         |
    | tables_priv  |
    | user         |
    +--------------+
    
    shell> BINDIR/mysql -e "SELECT host,db,user FROM db" mysql
    +------+--------+------+
    | host | db     | user |
    +------+--------+------+
    | %    | test   |      |
    | %    | test_% |      |
    +------+--------+------+
    
    There is also a benchmark suite in the `sql-bench' directory (under the MySQL installation directory) that you can use to compare how MySQL performs on different platforms. The benchmark suite is written in Perl, using the Perl DBI module to provide a database-independent interface to the various databases. The following additional Perl modules are required to run the benchmark suite:
    DBI
    DBD-mysql
    Data-Dumper
    Data-ShowTable
    
    These modules can be obtained from CPAN http://www.cpan.org/. See section 2.7.1 Installing Perl on Unix. The `sql-bench/Results' directory contains the results from many runs against different databases and platforms. To run all tests, execute these commands:
    shell> cd sql-bench
    shell> run-all-tests
    
    If you don't have the `sql-bench' directory, you are probably using an RPM for a binary distribution. (Source distribution RPMs include the benchmark directory.) In this case, you must first install the benchmark suite before you can use it. Beginning with MySQL Version 3.22, there are benchmark RPM files named `mysql-bench-VERSION-i386.rpm' that contain benchmark code and data. If you have a source distribution, you can also run the tests in the `tests' subdirectory. For example, to run `auto_increment.tst', do this:
    shell> BINDIR/mysql -vvf test < ./tests/auto_increment.tst
    
    The expected results are shown in the `./tests/auto_increment.res' file.

2.4.1 Problems Running mysql_install_db

The purpose of the mysql_install_db script is to generate new MySQL privilege tables. It will not affect any other data. It will also not do anything if you already have MySQL privilege tables installed.

If you want to re-create your privilege tables, you should take down the mysqld server, if it's running, and then do something like:

mv mysql-data-directory/mysql mysql-data-directory/mysql-old
mysql_install_db

This section lists problems you might encounter when you run mysql_install_db:

mysql_install_db doesn't install the grant tables
You may find that mysql_install_db fails to install the grant tables and terminates after displaying the following messages:
starting mysqld daemon with databases from XXXXXX
mysql daemon ended
In this case, you should examine the log file very carefully. The log should be located in the directory `XXXXXX' named by the error message, and should indicate why mysqld didn't start. If you don't understand what happened, include the log when you post a bug report using mysqlbug. See section 1.6.1.3 How to Report Bugs or Problems.
There is already a mysqld daemon running
In this case, you probably don't have to run mysql_install_db at all. You have to run mysql_install_db only once, when you install MySQL the first time.
Installing a second mysqld daemon doesn't work when one daemon is running
This can happen when you already have an existing MySQL installation, but want to put a new installation in a different place (for example, for testing, or perhaps you simply want to run two installations at the same time). Generally the problem that occurs when you try to run the second server is that it tries to use the same socket and port as the old one. In this case you will get the error message: Can't start server: Bind on TCP/IP port: Address already in use or Can't start server: Bind on unix socket.... See section 4.1.3 Running Multiple MySQL Servers on the Same Machine.
You don't have write access to `/tmp'
If you don't have write access to create a socket file at the default place (in `/tmp') or permission to create temporary files in `/tmp,' you will get an error when running mysql_install_db or when starting or using mysqld. You can specify a different socket and temporary directory as follows:
shell> TMPDIR=/some_tmp_dir/
shell> MYSQL_UNIX_PORT=/some_tmp_dir/mysqld.sock
shell> export TMPDIR MYSQL_UNIX_PORT
See section A.4.5 How to Protect or Change the MySQL Socket File `/tmp/mysql.sock'. `some_tmp_dir' should be the path to some directory for which you have write permission. See section F Environment Variables. After this you should be able to run mysql_install_db and start the server with these commands:
shell> scripts/mysql_install_db
shell> BINDIR/mysqld_safe &
mysqld crashes immediately
If you are running Red Hat Version 5.0 with a version of glibc older than 2.0.7-5, you should make sure you have installed all glibc patches. There is a lot of information about this in the MySQL mail archives. Links to the mail archives are available online at http://lists.mysql.com/. Also, see section 2.6.2 Linux Notes (All Linux Versions). You can also start mysqld manually using the --skip-grant-tables option and add the privilege information yourself using mysql:
shell> BINDIR/mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &
shell> BINDIR/mysql -u root mysql
From mysql, manually execute the SQL commands in mysql_install_db. Make sure you run mysqladmin flush-privileges or mysqladmin reload afterward to tell the server to reload the grant tables.

2.4.2 Problems Starting the MySQL Server

If you are going to use tables that support transactions (InnoDB, BDB), you should first create a `my.cnf' file and set startup options for the table types you plan to use. See section 7 MySQL Table Types.

Generally, you start the mysqld server in one of these ways:

When the mysqld daemon starts up, it changes the directory to the data directory. This is where it expects to write log files and the pid (process ID) file, and where it expects to find databases.

The data directory location is hardwired in when the distribution is compiled. However, if mysqld expects to find the data directory somewhere other than where it really is on your system, it will not work properly. If you have problems with incorrect paths, you can find out what options mysqld allows and what the default path settings are by invoking mysqld with the --help option. You can override the defaults by specifying the correct pathnames as command-line arguments to mysqld. (These options can be used with mysqld_safe as well.)

Normally you should need to tell mysqld only the base directory under which MySQL is installed. You can do this with the --basedir option. You can also use --help to check the effect of changing path options (note that --help must be the final option of the mysqld command). For example:

shell> EXECDIR/mysqld --basedir=/usr/local --help

Once you determine the path settings you want, start the server without the --help option.

Whichever method you use to start the server, if it fails to start up correctly, check the log file to see if you can find out why. Log files are located in the data directory (typically `/usr/local/mysql/data' for a binary distribution, `/usr/local/var' for a source distribution, and `\mysql\data\mysql.err' on Windows). Look in the data directory for files with names of the form `host_name.err' and `host_name.log' where host_name is the name of your server host. Then check the last few lines of these files:

shell> tail host_name.err
shell> tail host_name.log

Look for something like the following in the log file:

000729 14:50:10  bdb:  Recovery function for LSN 1 27595 failed
000729 14:50:10  bdb:  warning: ./test/t1.db: No such file or directory
000729 14:50:10  Can't init databases

This means that you didn't start mysqld with --bdb-no-recover and Berkeley DB found something wrong with its log files when it tried to recover your databases. To be able to continue, you should move away the old Berkeley DB log file from the database directory to some other place, where you can later examine it. The log files are named `log.0000000001', where the number will increase over time.

If you are running mysqld with BDB table support and mysqld core dumps at start this could be because of some problems with the BDB recover log. In this case you can try starting mysqld with --bdb-no-recover. If this helps, then you should remove all `log.*' files from the data directory and try starting mysqld again.

If you get the following error, it means that some other program (or another mysqld server) is already using the TCP/IP port or socket mysqld is trying to use:

Can't start server: Bind on TCP/IP port: Address already in use
  or
Can't start server : Bind on unix socket...

Use ps to make sure that you don't have another mysqld server running. If you can't find another server running, you can try to execute the command telnet your-host-name tcp-ip-port-number and press Enter a couple of times. If you don't get an error message like telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused, something is using the TCP/IP port mysqld is trying to use. See section 2.4.1 Problems Running mysql_install_db and section 4.1.3 Running Multiple MySQL Servers on the Same Machine.

If mysqld is currently running, you can find out what path settings it is using by executing this command:

shell> mysqladmin variables

or

shell> mysqladmin -h 'your-host-name' variables

If you get Errcode 13, which means Permission denied, when starting mysqld this means that you didn't have the right to read/create files in the MySQL database or log directory. In this case you should either start mysqld as the root user or change the permissions for the involved files and directories so that you have the right to use them.

If mysqld_safe starts the server but you can't connect to it, you should make sure you have an entry in `/etc/hosts' that looks like this:

127.0.0.1       localhost

This problem occurs only on systems that don't have a working thread library and for which MySQL must be configured to use MIT-pthreads.

If you can't get mysqld to start you can try to make a trace file to find the problem. See section E.1.2 Creating Trace Files.

If you are using InnoDB tables, refer to the InnoDB-specific startup options. See section 7.5.3 InnoDB Startup Options.

If you are using BDB (Berkeley DB) tables, you should familiarise yourself with the different BDB-specific startup options. See section 7.6.3 BDB startup options.

2.4.3 Starting and Stopping MySQL Automatically

The mysql.server and mysqld_safe scripts can be used to start the server automatically at system startup time. mysql.server can also be used to stop the server.

The mysql.server script can be used to start or stop the server by invoking it with start or stop arguments:

shell> mysql.server start
shell> mysql.server stop

mysql.server can be found in the `share/mysql' directory under the MySQL installation directory or in the `support-files' directory of the MySQL source tree.

Note that if you use the Linux RPM package (MySQL-server-VERSION.rpm), the mysql.server script has already been installed as `/etc/init.d/mysql' - you don't have to install it manually. See section 2.1.2 Installing MySQL on Linux for more information on the Linux RPM packages.

On Mac OS X, you can install a separate MySQL Startup Item package to enable the automatic startup of MySQL on system bootup. See section 2.1.3 Installing MySQL on Mac OS X for details.

Before mysql.server starts the server, it changes the directory to the MySQL installation directory, then invokes mysqld_safe. You might need to edit mysql.server if you have a binary distribution that you've installed in a non-standard location. Modify it to cd into the proper directory before it runs mysqld_safe. If you want the server to run as some specific user, add an appropriate user line to the `/etc/my.cnf' file, as shown later in this section.

mysql.server stop brings down the server by sending a signal to it. You can also take down the server manually by executing mysqladmin shutdown.

You need to add these start and stop commands to the appropriate places in your `/etc/rc*' files when you want to start up MySQL automatically on your server.

On most current Linux distributions, it is sufficient to copy the file mysql.server into the `/etc/init.d' directory (or `/etc/rc.d/init.d' on older Red Hat systems). Afterwards, run the following command to enable the startup of MySQL on system bootup:

shell> chkconfig --add mysql.server

On FreeBSD startup scripts generally should go in `/usr/local/etc/rc.d/'. The rc(8) manual page also states that scripts in this directory are only executed, if their basename matches the shell globbing pattern *.sh. Any other files or directories present within the directory are silently ignored. In other words, on FreeBSD you should install the file `mysql.server' as `/usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql.server.sh' to enable automatic startup.

As an alternative to the above, some operating systems also use `/etc/rc.local' or `/etc/init.d/boot.local' to start additional services on bootup. To start up MySQL using this method, you could append something like the following to it:

/bin/sh -c 'cd /usr/local/mysql ; ./bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &'

You can also add options for mysql.server in a global `/etc/my.cnf' file. A typical `/etc/my.cnf' file might look like this:

[mysqld]
datadir=/usr/local/mysql/var
socket=/var/tmp/mysql.sock
port=3306
user=mysql

[mysql.server]
basedir=/usr/local/mysql

The mysql.server script understands the following options: datadir, basedir, and pid-file.

The following table shows which option groups each startup script reads from option files:

Script Option groups
mysqld [mysqld] and [server]
mysql.server [mysql.server], [mysqld], and [server]
mysqld_safe [mysqld], [server], and [mysqld_safe]

For backward compatibility, mysql.server also reads the [mysql_server] group and mysqld_safe also reads the [safe_mysqld] group. However, you should update your option files to use the [mysql.server] and [mysqld_safe] groups instead.

See section 4.1.2 `my.cnf' Option Files.

2.5 Upgrading/Downgrading MySQL

Before you do an upgrade, you should back up your old databases.

You can always move the MySQL form files and datafiles between different versions on the same architecture as long as you have the same base version of MySQL. The current base version is 4. If you change the character set when running MySQL, you must run myisamchk -r -q --set-character-set=charset on all tables. Otherwise, your indexes may not be ordered correctly, because changing the character set may also change the sort order.

If you are afraid of new versions, you can always rename your old mysqld to something like mysqld-old-version-number. If your new mysqld then does something unexpected, you can simply shut it down and restart with your old mysqld.

If, after an upgrade, you experience problems with recompiled client programs, such as Commands out of sync or unexpected core dumps, you probably have used an old header or library file when compiling your programs. In this case you should check the date for your `mysql.h' file and `libmysqlclient.a' library to verify that they are from the new MySQL distribution. If not, please recompile your programs.

If problems occur, such as that the new mysqld server doesn't want to start or that you can't connect without a password, check that you don't have some old `my.cnf' file from your old installation. You can check this with: program-name --print-defaults. If this outputs anything other than the program name, you have an active `my.cnf' file that will affect things.

It is a good idea to rebuild and reinstall the Perl DBD-mysql module whenever you install a new release of MySQL. The same applies to other MySQL interfaces as well, such as the Python MySQLdb module.

2.5.1 Upgrading From Version 4.0 to 4.1

2.5.1.1 Preparing to Upgrade From Version 4.0 to 4.1

Some visible things have changed between MySQL 4.0 and MySQL 4.1 to fix some critical bugs and make MySQL more compatible with the ANSI SQL standard.

Instead of adding options (and a lot of code) to try to make 4.1 behave like 4.0 we have taken another approach:

We have added to the later MySQL 4.0 releases (from 4.0.12 on) the --new startup option for mysqld, which gives you the 4.1 behaviour for the most critical changes. You can also set this behaviour for a given client connection with the SET @@new=1 command.

If you believe that some of the following changes will affect you when you upgrade to 4.1, we recommend that before upgrading to 4.1, you download the latest MySQL 4.0 version and make sure that your applications work in the --new mode. This way you will have a smooth painless upgrade to 4.1 later.

In MySQL 4.1 we have done some things that may affect applications. The following is a list of things that you have to watch out for when upgrading to version 4.1:

Note: The table definition format used in `.frm' files has changed slightly in 4.1. MySQL 4.0 versions from 4.0.11 on can read the new `.frm' format directly, but older versions cannot. If you need to move tables from 4.1 to an earlier MySQL version, you should use mysqldump. See section 4.8.6 mysqldump, Dumping Table Structure and Data.

If you are running MySQL Server on Windows, please also see section 2.5.8 Upgrading MySQL under Windows.

2.5.1.2 What to do when upgrading from 4.0 to 4.1

In general, upgrading to 4.1 from an earlier MySQL version involves the following steps:

The password hashing mechanism has changed in 4.1 to provide better security, but this may cause compatibility problems if you still have clients that use the client library from 4.0 or earlier. (It is very likely that you will have 4.0 clients in situations where clients connect from remote hosts that have not yet upgraded to 4.1). The following list indicates some possible upgrade strategies. They represent various tradeoffs between the goal of compatibility with old clients and the goal of security.

Further background on password hashing with respect to client authentication and password-changing operations may be found in section 4.2.11 Password Hashing in MySQL 4.1.

2.5.2 Upgrading From Version 3.23 to 4.0

In general, you should do the following when upgrading to 4.0 from an earlier MySQL version:

MySQL 4.0 will work even if you don't do the above, but you will not be able to use the new security privileges that MySQL 4.0 and you may run into problems when upgrading later to MySQL 4.1 or newer. The ISAM file format still works in MySQL 4.0 but it's deprecated and will be disabled in MySQL 5.0.

Old clients should work with a Version 4.0 server without any problems.

Even if you do the above, you can still downgrade to MySQL 3.23.52 or newer if you run into problems with the MySQL 4.0 series. In this case, you must use mysqldump to dump any tables that use full-text indexes and reload the dump file into the 3.23 server. This is necessary because 4.0 uses a new format for full-text indexing.

The following is a more complete list that tells what you must watch out for when upgrading to version 4.0:

If you are running MySQL Server on Windows, please also see section 2.5.8 Upgrading MySQL under Windows. If you are using replication, please also see section 4.10.2 Replication Implementation Overview.

2.5.3 Upgrading From Version 3.22 to 3.23

MySQL Version 3.23 supports tables of the new MyISAM type and the old ISAM type. You don't have to convert your old tables to use these with Version 3.23. By default, all new tables will be created with type MyISAM (unless you start mysqld with the --default-table-type=isam option). You can convert an ISAM table to MyISAM format with ALTER TABLE table_name TYPE=MyISAM or the Perl script mysql_convert_table_format.

Version 3.22 and 3.21 clients will work without any problems with a Version 3.23 server.

The following list tells what you have to watch out for when upgrading to Version 3.23:

2.5.4 Upgrading from Version 3.21 to 3.22

Nothing that affects compatibility has changed between versions 3.21 and 3.22. The only pitfall is that new tables that are created with DATE type columns will use the new way to store the date. You can't access these new columns from an old version of mysqld.

After installing MySQL Version 3.22, you should start the new server and then run the mysql_fix_privilege_tables script. This will add the new privileges that you need to use the GRANT command. If you forget this, you will get Access denied when you try to use ALTER TABLE, CREATE INDEX, or DROP INDEX. The procedure for updating the grant tables is described in section 2.5.6 Upgrading the Grant Tables.

The C API interface to mysql_real_connect() has changed. If you have an old client program that calls this function, you must place a 0 for the new db argument (or recode the client to send the db element for faster connections). You must also call mysql_init() before calling mysql_real_connect(). This change was done to allow the new mysql_options() function to save options in the MYSQL handler structure.

The mysqld variable key_buffer has been renamed to key_buffer_size, but you can still use the old name in your startup files.

2.5.5 Upgrading from Version 3.20 to 3.21

If you are running a version older than Version 3.20.28 and want to switch to Version 3.21, you need to do the following:

You can start the mysqld Version 3.21 server with the --old-protocol option to use it with clients from a Version 3.20 distribution. In this case, the new client function mysql_errno() will not return any server error, only CR_UNKNOWN_ERROR (but it works for client errors), and the server uses the old pre-3.21 password() checking rather than the new method.

If you are not using the --old-protocol option to mysqld, you will need to make the following changes:

MySQL Version 3.20.28 and above can handle the new user table format without affecting clients. If you have a MySQL version earlier than Version 3.20.28, passwords will no longer work with it if you convert the user table. So to be safe, you should first upgrade to at least Version 3.20.28 and then upgrade to Version 3.21.

The new client code works with a 3.20.x mysqld server, so if you experience problems with 3.21.x, you can use the old 3.20.x server without having to recompile the clients again.

If you are not using the --old-protocol option to mysqld, old clients will be unable to connect and will issue the following error message:

ERROR: Protocol mismatch. Server Version = 10 Client Version = 9

The new Perl DBI/DBD interface also supports the old mysqlperl interface. The only change you have to make if you use mysqlperl is to change the arguments to the connect() function. The new arguments are: host, database, user, and password (note that the user and password arguments have changed places). See section 9.5.2 The DBI Interface.

The following changes may affect queries in old applications:

2.5.6 Upgrading the Grant Tables

Some releases introduce changes to the structure of the grant tables (the tables in the mysql database) to add new privileges or features. To make sure that your grant tables are current when you update to a new version of MySQL, you should update your grant tables as well.

On Unix or Unix-like systems, update the grant tables by running the mysql_fix_privilege_tables script:

shell> mysql_fix_privilege_tables

You must run this script while the server is running. It attempts to connect to the server running on the local host as root. If your root account requires a password, indicate the password on the command line. For MySQL 4.1 and up, specify the password like this:

shell> mysql_fix_privilege_tables --password=root_password

Prior to MySQL 4.1, specify the password like this:

shell> mysql_fix_privilege_tables root_password

The mysql_fix_privilege_tables script performs any actions necessary to convert your grant tables to the current format. You may see some Duplicate column name warnings as it runs; they can be ignored.

After running the script, stop the server and restart it.

On Windows systems, there isn't an easy way to update the grant tables until MySQL 4.0.15. From version 4.0.15 on, MySQL distributions include a mysql_fix_privilege_tables.sql SQL script that you can run using the mysql client. If your MySQL installation is located at `C:\mysql', the command looks like this (enter it all on one line):

shell> C:\mysql\bin\mysql -f -u root -p mysql
           < C:\mysql\scripts\mysql_fix_privilege_tables.sql

If your installation is located in some other directory, adjust the pathnames appropriately.

The command will prompt you for the root password; enter it when prompted.

As with the Unix procedure, you may see some Duplicate column name warnings as mysql processes the statements in the mysql_fix_privilege_tables.sql script; they can be ignored.

After running the script, stop the server and restart it.

2.5.7 Upgrading to Another Architecture

If you are using MySQL Version 3.23, you can copy the `.frm', `.MYI', and `.MYD' files for MyISAM tables between different architectures that support the same floating-point format. (MySQL takes care of any byte-swapping issues.) See section 7.1 MyISAM Tables.

The MySQL ISAM data and index files (`.ISD' and `*.ISM', respectively) are architecture-dependent and in some cases OS-dependent. If you want to move your applications to another machine that has a different architecture or OS than your current machine, you should not try to move a database by simply copying the files to the other machine. Use mysqldump instead.

By default, mysqldump will create a file containing SQL statements. You can then transfer the file to the other machine and feed it as input to the mysql client.

Try mysqldump --help to see what options are available. If you are moving the data to a newer version of MySQL, you should use mysqldump --opt with the newer version to get a fast, compact dump.

The easiest (although not the fastest) way to move a database between two machines is to run the following commands on the machine on which the database is located:

shell> mysqladmin -h 'other hostname' create db_name
shell> mysqldump --opt db_name \
        | mysql -h 'other hostname' db_name

If you want to copy a database from a remote machine over a slow network, you can use:

shell> mysqladmin create db_name
shell> mysqldump -h 'other hostname' --opt --compress db_name \
        | mysql db_name

You can also store the result in a file, then transfer the file to the target machine and load the file into the database there. For example, you can dump a database to a file on the source machine like this:

shell> mysqldump --quick db_name | gzip > db_name.contents.gz

(The file created in this example is compressed.) Transfer the file containing the database contents to the target machine and run these commands there:

shell> mysqladmin create db_name
shell> gunzip < db_name.contents.gz | mysql db_name

You can also use mysqldump and mysqlimport to transfer the database. For big tables, this is much faster than simply using mysqldump. In the following commands, DUMPDIR represents the full pathname of the directory you use to store the output from mysqldump.

First, create the directory for the output files and dump the database:

shell> mkdir DUMPDIR
shell> mysqldump --tab=DUMPDIR db_name

Then transfer the files in the DUMPDIR directory to some corresponding directory on the target machine and load the files into MySQL there:

shell> mysqladmin create db_name           # create database
shell> cat DUMPDIR/*.sql | mysql db_name   # create tables in database
shell> mysqlimport db_name DUMPDIR/*.txt   # load data into tables

Also, don't forget to copy the mysql database because that's where the grant tables (user, db, host) are stored. You may have to run commands as the MySQL root user on the new machine until you have the mysql database in place.

After you import the mysql database on the new machine, execute mysqladmin flush-privileges so that the server reloads the grant table information.

2.5.8 Upgrading MySQL under Windows

When upgrading MySQL under Windows, please follow these steps:

  1. Download the latest Windows distribution of MySQL.
  2. Choose a time of day with low usage, where a maintenance break is acceptable.
  3. Alert the users that still are active about the maintenance break.
  4. Stop the running MySQL Server (for example, with NET STOP mysql if you are running MySQL as a service, or with mysqladmin shutdown otherwise).
  5. Exit the WinMySQLadmin program if it is running.
  6. Run the installation script of the Windows distribution, by clicking the "Install" button in WinZip and following the installation steps of the script.
  7. You may either overwrite your old MySQL installation (usually located at `C:\mysql'), or install it into a different directory, such as C:\mysql4. Overwriting the old installation is recommended.
  8. The version of MySQL that is started as a service is determined by the basedir parameter in the `my.ini' file of your Windows directory (for example, C:\WINNT).
  9. Restart the server (for example, with NET START mysql if you run MYSQL as a service, or by invoking mysqld directly otherwise).
  10. Update the grant tables. The procedure is described in section 2.5.6 Upgrading the Grant Tables.

Possible error situations:

A system error has occurred.
System error 1067 has occurred.
The process terminated unexpectedly.

This cryptic error means that your `my.cnf' file (by default `C:\my.cnf') contains an option that cannot be recognised by MySQL. You can verify that this is the case by trying to restart MySQL with the `my.cnf' file renamed, for example, to `my.cnf.old' to prevent the server from using it. Once you have verified it, you need to identify which option is the culprit. Create a new `my.cnf' file and move parts of the old file to it (restarting the server after you move each part) until you determine which part causes server startup to fail.

2.6 Operating System Specific Notes

2.6.1 Windows Notes

This section describes using MySQL on Windows. This information is also provided in the `README' file that comes with the MySQL Windows distribution. See section 2.1.1 Installing MySQL on Windows.

On Windows 95, 98, or Me, MySQL clients always connect to the server using TCP/IP. On NT-based systems such as Windows NT, 2000, or XP, clients have two options. They can use TCP/IP, or they can use a named pipe if the server supports named pipe connections.

For information about which server binary to run, see section 2.1.1.2 Preparing the Windows MySQL Environment.

The examples in this section assume that MySQL is installed under the default location of `C:\mysql'. Adjust the pathnames shown in the examples if you have MySQL installed in a different location.

2.6.1.1 Starting MySQL on Windows 95, 98, or Me

On these versions of Windows, MySQL uses TCP/IP to connect a client to a server. (This will allow any machine on your network to connect to your MySQL server.) Because of this, you must make sure that TCP/IP support is installed on your machine before starting MySQL. You can find TCP/IP on your Windows CD-ROM.

Note that if you are using an old Windows 95 release (for example, OSR2), it's likely that you have an old Winsock package; MySQL requires Winsock 2! You can get the newest Winsock from http://www.microsoft.com/. Windows 98 has the new Winsock 2 library, so it is unnecessary to update the library.

To start the mysqld server, you should start a console window (a ``DOS'' window) and enter this command:

shell> C:\mysql\bin\mysqld

This will start mysqld in the background. That is, after the server starts up, you should see another command prompt. (Note that if you start the server this way on Windows NT, 2000, or XP, the server will run in the foreground and the next command prompt will not appear until the server exits. To run client programs while the server is running, you should open another console window.)

You can stop the MySQL server by executing this command:

shell> C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root shutdown

This invokes the MySQL administrative utility mysqladmin to connect to the server as root, which is the default administrative account in the MySQL grant system. Please note that users in the MySQL grant system are wholly independent from any login users under Windows.

If mysqld doesn't start, please check the error log to see if the server wrote any messages there to indicate the cause of the problem. The error log is located in the `C:\mysql\data' directory. It is the file with a suffix of `.err'. You can also try to start the server as mysqld --console; in this case, you may get some useful information on the screen that may help solve the problem.

The last option is to start mysqld with --standalone --debug. In this case mysqld will write a log file `C:\mysqld.trace' that should contain the reason why mysqld doesn't start. See section E.1.2 Creating Trace Files.

Use mysqld --help to display all the options that mysqld understands!

2.6.1.2 Starting MySQL on Windows NT, 2000, or XP

To get MySQL to work with TCP/IP on Windows NT 4, you must install service pack 3 (or newer)!

Normally you should install MySQL as a service on Windows NT/2000/XP. In case the server was already running, first stop it using the following command:

shell> C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root shutdown

This invokes the MySQL administrative utility mysqladmin to connect to the server as root, which is the default administrative account in the MySQL grant system. Please note that users in the MySQL grant system are wholly independent from any login users under Windows.

Now install the server as a service:

shell> C:\mysql\bin\mysqld --install

The service is installed with the name MySql. Once installed, it can be immediately started from the Services utility, or by using the command NET START MySql.

Once running, mysqld can be stopped by using the Services utility, the command NET STOP MySql, or the command mysqladmin shutdown.

If any startup options are required, you can place them in the [mysqld] group of any of the standard option files. As of MySQL 4.0.3, you can place options in the [mysqld] group of any option file and use a --defaults-file option to tell the server the name of the file when you install the service. For example:

shell> C:\mysql\bin\mysqld --install MySql --defaults-file=C:\my-opts.cnf

You can also specify options as ``Start parameters'' in the Windows Services utility before you start the MySQL service.

The Services utility (Windows Service Control Manager) can be found in the Windows Control Panel (under Administrative Tools on Windows 2000). It is advisable to close the Services utility while performing the --install or --remove operations, this prevents some odd errors.

Please note that from MySQL version 3.23.44, you have the choice of setting up the service as Manual instead (if you don't wish the service to be started automatically during the boot process):

shell> C:\mysql\bin\mysqld --install-manual

When MySQL is running as a service, the operating system will automatically stop the server on computer shutdown. In MySQL versions older than 3.23.47, Windows waited only for a few seconds for the shutdown to complete, and killed the database server process if the time limit was exceeded. This had the potential to cause problems. (For example, at the next startup the InnoDB storage engine had to do crash recovery.) Starting from MySQL version 3.23.48, Windows waits longer for the MySQL server shutdown to complete. If you notice this still is not enough for your installation, it is safest not to run the MySQL server as a service. Instead, run it from the command-line prompt, and shut it down with mysqladmin shutdown.

There is a problem that Windows NT (but not Windows 2000/XP) by default only waits 20 seconds for a service to shut down, and after that kills the service process. You can increase this default by opening the Registry Editor `\winnt\system32\regedt32.exe' and editing the value of WaitToKillServiceTimeout at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control in the Registry tree. Specify the new larger value in milliseconds (for example, 120000 to have Windows NT wait up to 120 seconds).

Please note that when run as a service, mysqld has no access to a console and so no messages can be seen. Errors can be checked in the error log, which is located in the `C:\mysql\data' directory. It is the file with a suffix of `.err'.

If you have problems installing mysqld as a service using just the server name, try installing it using its full pathname:

shell> C:\mysql\bin\mysqld --install

If that doesn't work, you can get mysqld to start properly by fixing the path in the registry!

If you don't want to start mysqld as a service, you can start it from the command line the same way as for Windows 95, 98, or Me. For instructions, see section 2.6.1.1 Starting MySQL on Windows 95, 98, or Me.

2.6.1.3 Running MySQL on Windows

MySQL supports TCP/IP on all Windows platforms. The mysqld-nt and mysql-max-nt servers support named pipes on NT, 2000, and XP. The default is to use TCP/IP regardless of the platform, because named pipes are actually slower than TCP/IP, and because some users have experienced problems shutting down the MySQL server when named pipes are used. Starting from 3.23.50, named pipes are only enabled for mysqld-nt and mysql-max-nt if they are started with the --enable-named-pipe option.

You can force a MySQL client to use named pipes by specifying the --pipe option or by specifying . as the host name. Use the --socket option to specify the name of the pipe. In MySQL 4.1, you should use the --protocol=PIPE option.

You can test whether the MySQL server is working by executing any of the following commands:

C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysqlshow
C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysqlshow -u root mysql
C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin version status proc
C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysql test

If mysqld is slow to answer to connections on Windows 9x/Me, there is probably a problem with your DNS. In this case, start mysqld with the --skip-name-resolve option and use only localhost and IP numbers in the Host column of the MySQL grant tables.

There are two versions of the MySQL command-line tool:
Binary Description
mysql Compiled on native Windows, offering limited text editing capabilities.
mysqlc Compiled with the Cygnus GNU compiler and libraries, which offers readline editing.

If you want to use mysqlc, you must have a copy of the `cygwinb19.dll' library installed somewhere that mysqlc can find it. If your distribution of MySQL doesn't have this library installed in the same directory as mysqlc (the `bin' directory under the base directory of your MySQL installation, look in the lib directory to find it and copy it to your Windows system directory (`\windows\system' or similar place).

The default privileges on Windows give all local users full privileges to all databases without specifying a password. To make MySQL more secure, you should set a password for all users and remove the row in the mysql.user table that has Host='localhost' and User=''.

You should also add a password for the root user. The following example starts by removing the anonymous user that has all privileges, then sets a root user password:

C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysql mysql
mysql> DELETE FROM user WHERE Host='localhost' AND User='';
mysql> QUIT
C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin reload
C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root password your_password

After you've set the password, if you want to shut down the mysqld server, you can do so using this command:

C:\> mysqladmin --user=root --password=your_password shutdown

If you are using the old shareware version of MySQL Version 3.21 under Windows, the above command will fail with an error: parse error near 'SET password'. The solution to this problem is to upgrade to a newer version of MySQL.

With the current MySQL versions you can easily add new users and change privileges with GRANT and REVOKE commands. See section 4.3.1 GRANT and REVOKE Syntax.

2.6.1.4 Connecting to MySQL Remotely from Windows with SSH

Here is a note about how to connect to get a secure connection to remote MySQL server with SSH (by David Carlson dcarlson@mplcomm.com):

  1. Install an SSH client on your Windows machine. As a user, the best non-free one I've found is from SecureCRT from http://www.vandyke.com/. Another option is f-secure from http://www.f-secure.com/. You can also find some free ones on Google at http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Security/Products_and_Tools/Cryptography/SSH/Clients/Windows/.
  2. Start your Windows SSH client. Set Host_Name = yourmysqlserver_URL_or_IP. Set userid=your_userid to log in to your server (probably not the same as your MySQL login/password.
  3. Set up port forwarding. Either do a remote forward (Set local_port: 3306, remote_host: yourmysqlservername_or_ip, remote_port: 3306 ) or a local forward (Set port: 3306, host: localhost, remote port: 3306).
  4. Save everything, otherwise you'll have to redo it the next time.
  5. Log in to your server with SSH session you just created.
  6. On your Windows machine, start some ODBC application (such as Access).
  7. Create a new file in Windows and link to MySQL using the ODBC driver the same way you normally do, except type in localhost for the MySQL host server--not yourmysqlservername.

You should now have an ODBC connection to MySQL, encrypted using SSH.

2.6.1.5 Distributing Data Across Different Disks on Windows

Beginning with MySQL Version 3.23.16, the mysqld-max and mysql-max-nt servers in the MySQL distribution are compiled with the -DUSE_SYMDIR option. This allows you to put a database on a different disk by setting up a symbolic link to it (in a manner similar to the way that symbolic links work on Unix).

On Windows, you make a symbolic link to a database by creating a file that contains the path to the destination directory and saving this in the data directory using the filename `db_name.sym', where db_name is the database name. Note that the symbolic link will not be used if a directory with the database name exists.

For example, if the MySQL data directory is `C:\mysql\data' and you want to have database foo located at `D:\data\foo', you should create the file `C:\mysql\data\foo.sym' that contains the text D:\data\foo\. After that, all tables created in the database foo will be created in `D:\data\foo'.

Note that because of the speed penalty you get when opening every table, we have not enabled this by default even if you have compiled MySQL with support for this. To enable symlinks you should put in your `my.cnf' or `my.ini' file the following entry:

[mysqld]
symbolic-links

In MySQL 4.0, symbolic links are enabled by default. If you don't need them, you can disable them with the skip-symbolic-links option.

2.6.1.6 Compiling MySQL Clients on Windows

In your source files, you should include `my_global.h' before `mysql.h':

#include <my_global.h>
#include <mysql.h>

`my_global.h' includes any other files needed for Windows compatibility (such as `windows.h') if you compile your program on Windows.

You can either link your code with the dynamic `libmysql.lib' library, which is just a wrapper to load in `libmysql.dll' on demand, or link with the static `mysqlclient.lib' library.

Note that because the MySQL client libraries are compiled as threaded libraries, you should also compile your code to be multi-threaded!

2.6.1.7 MySQL for Windows Compared to Unix MySQL

MySQL for Windows has by now proven itself to be very stable. The Windows version of MySQL has the same features as the corresponding Unix version, with the following exceptions:

Windows 95 and threads
Windows 95 leaks about 200 bytes of main memory for each thread creation. Each connection in MySQL creates a new thread, so you shouldn't run mysqld for an extended time on Windows 95 if your server handles many connections! Other versions of Windows don't suffer from this bug.
Concurrent reads
MySQL depends on the pread() and pwrite() calls to be able to mix INSERT and SELECT. Currently we use mutexes to emulate pread()/pwrite(). We will, in the long run, replace the file level interface with a virtual interface so that we can use the readfile()/writefile() interface on NT/2000/XP to get more speed. The current implementation limits the number of open files MySQL can use to 1024, which means that you will not be able to run as many concurrent threads on NT/2000/XP as on Unix.
Blocking read
MySQL uses a blocking read for each connection, which has the following implications: We plan to fix this problem when our Windows developers have figured out a nice workaround.
DROP DATABASE
You can't drop a database that is in use by some thread.
Killing MySQL from the task manager
You can't kill MySQL from the task manager or with the shutdown utility in Windows 95. You must take it down with mysqladmin shutdown.
Case-insensitive names
Filenames are case-insensitive on Windows, so database and table names are also case-insensitive in MySQL for Windows. The only restriction is that database and table names must be specified using the same case throughout a given statement. See section 6.1.3 Case Sensitivity in Names.
The `\' directory character
Pathname components in Windows 95 are separated by the `\' character, which is also the escape character in MySQL. If you are using LOAD DATA INFILE or SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE, you must double the `\' character:
mysql> LOAD DATA INFILE "C:\\tmp\\skr.txt" INTO TABLE skr;
mysql> SELECT * INTO OUTFILE 'C:\\tmp\\skr.txt' FROM skr;
Alternatively, use Unix style filenames with `/' characters:
mysql> LOAD DATA INFILE "C:/tmp/skr.txt" INTO TABLE skr;
mysql> SELECT * INTO OUTFILE 'C:/tmp/skr.txt' FROM skr;
Problems with pipes.
Pipes doesn't work reliably in the Windows command-line prompt. If the pipe includes the character ^Z / CHAR(24), Windows will think it has encountered end-of-file and abort the program. This is mainly a problem when you try to apply a binary log as follows:
mysqlbinlog binary-log-name | mysql --user=root
If you get a problem applying the log and suspect it's because of an ^Z / CHAR(24) character you can use the following workaround:
mysqlbinlog binary-log-file --result-file=/tmp/bin.sql
mysql --user=root --execute "source /tmp/bin.sql"
The latter command also can be used to reliably read in any SQL file that may contain binary data.
Can't open named pipe error
If you use a MySQL 3.22 version on NT with the newest mysql-clients you will get the following error:
error 2017: can't open named pipe to host: . pipe...
This is because the release version of MySQL uses named pipes on NT by default. You can avoid this error by using the --host=localhost option to the new MySQL clients or create an option file `C:\my.cnf' that contains the following information:
[client]
host = localhost
Starting from 3.23.50, named pipes are enabled only if mysqld-nt or mysqld-max-nt is started with --enable-named-pipe.
Access denied for user error
If you get the error Access denied for user: 'some-user@unknown' to database 'mysql' when accessing a MySQL server on the same machine, this means that MySQL can't resolve your host name properly. To fix this, you should create a file `\windows\hosts' with the following information:
127.0.0.1       localhost
ALTER TABLE
While you are executing an ALTER TABLE statement, the table is locked from usage by other threads. This has to do with the fact that on Windows, you can't delete a file that is in use by another threads. (In the future, we may find some way to work around this problem.)
DROP TABLE
DROP TABLE on a table that is in use by a MERGE table will not work on Windows because the MERGE handler does the table mapping hidden from the upper layer of MySQL. Because Windows doesn't allow you to drop files that are open, you first must flush all MERGE tables (with FLUSH TABLES) or drop the MERGE table before dropping the table. We will fix this at the same time we introduce VIEWs.
DATA DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY
The DATA DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY options for CREATE TABLE are ignored on Windows, because Windows doesn't support symbolic links.

Here are some open issues for anyone who might want to help us with the Windows release:

Other Windows-specific issues are described in the `README' file that comes with the Windows distribution of MySQL.

2.6.2 Linux Notes (All Linux Versions)

The following notes regarding glibc apply only to the situation when you build MySQL yourself. If you are running Linux on an x86 machine, in most cases it is much better for you to just use our binary. We link our binaries against the best patched version of glibc we can come up with and with the best compiler options, in an attempt to make it suitable for a high-load server. So if you read the following text, and are in doubt about what you should do, try our binary first to see if it meets your needs, and worry about your own build only after you have discovered that our binary is not good enough. In that case, we would appreciate a note about it, so we can build a better binary next time. For a typical user, even for setups with a lot of concurrent connections and/or tables exceeding the 2G limit, our binary in most cases is the best choice.

MySQL uses LinuxThreads on Linux. If you are using an old Linux version that doesn't have glibc2, you must install LinuxThreads before trying to compile MySQL. You can get LinuxThreads at http://www.mysql.com/downloads/os-linux.html.

Note: we have seen some strange problems with Linux 2.2.14 and MySQL on SMP systems. If you have a SMP system, we recommend you upgrade to Linux 2.4 as soon as possible. Your system will be faster and more stable by doing this.

Note that glibc versions before and including Version 2.1.1 have a fatal bug in pthread_mutex_timedwait handling, which is used when you do INSERT DELAYED. We recommend that you not use INSERT DELAYED before upgrading glibc.

If you plan to have 1000+ concurrent connections, you will need to make some changes to LinuxThreads, recompile it, and relink MySQL against the new `libpthread.a'. Increase PTHREAD_THREADS_MAX in `sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/bits/local_lim.h' to 4096 and decrease STACK_SIZE in `linuxthreads/internals.h' to 256 KB. The paths are relative to the root of glibc Note that MySQL will not be stable with around 600-1000 connections if STACK_SIZE is the default of 2 MB.

If MySQL can't open enough files, or connections, it may be that you haven't configured Linux to handle enough files.

In Linux 2.2 and onward, you can check the number of allocated file handles by doing:

cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max
cat /proc/sys/fs/dquot-max
cat /proc/sys/fs/super-max

If you have more than 16 MB of memory, you should add something like the following to your init scripts (for example, `/etc/init.d/boot.local' on SuSE Linux):

echo 65536 > /proc/sys/fs/file-max
echo 8192 > /proc/sys/fs/dquot-max
echo 1024 > /proc/sys/fs/super-max

You can also run the preceding commands from the command-line as root, but these settings will be lost the next time your computer reboots.

Alternatively, you can set these parameters on bootup by using the sysctl tool, which is used by many Linux distributions (SuSE has added it as well, beginning with SuSE Linux 8.0). Just put the following values into a file named `/etc/sysctl.conf':

# Increase some values for MySQL
fs.file-max = 65536
fs.dquot-max = 8192
fs.super-max = 1024

You should also add the following to `/etc/my.cnf':

[mysqld_safe]
open-files-limit=8192

This should allow MySQL to create up to 8192 connections + files.

The STACK_SIZE constant in LinuxThreads controls the spacing of thread stacks in the address space. It needs to be large enough so that there will be plenty of room for the stack of each individual thread, but small enough to keep the stack of some threads from running into the global mysqld data. Unfortunately, the Linux implementation of mmap(), as we have experimentally discovered, will successfully unmap an already mapped region if you ask it to map out an address already in use, zeroing out the data on the entire page, instead of returning an error. So, the safety of mysqld or any other threaded application depends on the "gentleman" behaviour of the code that creates threads. The user must take measures to make sure the number of running threads at any time is sufficiently low for thread stacks to stay away from the global heap. With mysqld, you should enforce this "gentleman" behaviour by setting a reasonable value for the max_connections variable.

If you build MySQL yourself and do not want to mess with patching LinuxThreads, you should set max_connections to a value no higher than 500. It should be even less if you have a large key buffer, large heap tables, or some other things that make mysqld allocate a lot of memory, or if you are running a 2.2 kernel with a 2G patch. If you are using our binary or RPM version 3.23.25 or later, you can safely set max_connections at 1500, assuming no large key buffer or heap tables with lots of data. The more you reduce STACK_SIZE in LinuxThreads the more threads you can safely create. We recommend the values between 128K and 256K.

If you use a lot of concurrent connections, you may suffer from a "feature" in the 2.2 kernel that penalises a process for forking or cloning a child in an attempt to prevent a fork bomb attack. This will cause MySQL not to scale well as you increase the number of concurrent clients. On single-CPU systems, we have seen this manifested in a very slow thread creation, which means it may take a long time to connect to MySQL (as long as 1 minute), and it may take just as long to shut it down. On multiple-CPU systems, we have observed a gradual drop in query speed as the number of clients increases. In the process of trying to find a solution, we have received a kernel patch from one of our users, who claimed it made a lot of difference for his site. The patch is available at http://www.mysql.com/Downloads/Patches/linux-fork.patch. We have now done rather extensive testing of this patch on both development and production systems. It has significantly improved MySQL performance without causing any problems and we now recommend it to our users who are still running high-load servers on 2.2 kernels. This issue has been fixed in the 2.4 kernel, so if you are not satisfied with the current performance of your system, rather than patching your 2.2 kernel, it might be easier to just upgrade to 2.4, which will also give you a nice SMP boost in addition to fixing this fairness bug.

We have tested MySQL on the 2.4 kernel on a 2-CPU machine and found MySQL scales much better--there was virtually no slowdown on queries throughput all the way up to 1000 clients, and the MySQL scaling factor (computed as the ratio of maximum throughput to the throughput with one client) was 180%. We have observed similar results on a 4-CPU system--virtually no slowdown as the number of clients was increased up to 1000, and 300% scaling factor. So for a high-load SMP server we would definitely recommend the 2.4 kernel at this point. We have discovered that it is essential to run mysqld process with the highest possible priority on the 2.4 kernel to achieve maximum performance. This can be done by adding renice -20 $$ command to mysqld_safe. In our testing on a 4-CPU machine, increasing the priority gave 60% increase in throughput with 400 clients.

We are currently also trying to collect more information on how well MySQL performs on 2.4 kernel on 4-way and 8-way systems. If you have access such a system and have done some benchmarks, please send a mail to docs@mysql.com with the results - we will include them in the manual.

There is another issue that greatly hurts MySQL performance, especially on SMP systems. The implementation of mutex in LinuxThreads in glibc-2.1 is very bad for programs with many threads that only hold the mutex for a short time. On an SMP system, ironic as it is, if you link MySQL against unmodified LinuxThreads, removing processors from the machine improves MySQL performance in many cases. We have made a patch available for glibc 2.1.3 to correct this behaviour (http://www.mysql.com/Downloads/Linux/linuxthreads-2.1-patch).

With glibc-2.2.2 MySQL version 3.23.36 will use the adaptive mutex, which is much better than even the patched one in glibc-2.1.3. Be warned, however, that under some conditions, the current mutex code in glibc-2.2.2 overspins, which hurts MySQL performance. The chance of this condition can be reduced by renicing mysqld process to the highest priority. We have also been able to correct the overspin behaviour with a patch, available at http://www.mysql.com/Downloads/Linux/linuxthreads-2.2.2.patch. It combines the correction of overspin, maximum number of threads, and stack spacing all in one. You will need to apply it in the linuxthreads directory with patch -p0 </tmp/linuxthreads-2.2.2.patch. We hope it will be included in some form in to the future releases of glibc-2.2. In any case, if you link against glibc-2.2.2 you still need to correct STACK_SIZE and PTHREAD_THREADS_MAX. We hope that the defaults will be corrected to some more acceptable values for high-load MySQL setup in the future, so that your own build can be reduced to ./configure; make; make install.

We recommend that you use the above patches to build a special static version of libpthread.a and use it only for statically linking against MySQL. We know that the patches are safe for MySQL and significantly improve its performance, but we cannot say anything about other applications. If you link other applications against the patched version of the library, or build a patched shared version and install it on your system, you are doing it at your own risk with regard to other applications that depend on LinuxThreads.

If you experience any strange problems during the installation of MySQL, or with some common utilities hanging, it is very likely that they are either library or compiler related. If this is the case, using our binary will resolve them.

One known problem with the binary distribution is that with older Linux systems that use libc (like Red Hat 4.x or Slackware), you will get some non-fatal problems with hostname resolution. See section 2.6.2.1 Linux Notes for Binary Distributions.

When using LinuxThreads you will see a minimum of three processes running. These are in fact threads. There will be one thread for the LinuxThreads manager, one thread to handle connections, and one thread to handle alarms and signals.

Note that the Linux kernel and the LinuxThread library can by default only have 1024 threads. This means that you can only have up to 1021 connections to MySQL on an unpatched system. The page http://www.volano.com/linuxnotes.html contains information how to go around this limit.

If you see a dead mysqld daemon process with ps, this usually means that you have found a bug in MySQL or you have a corrupted table. See section A.4.1 What To Do If MySQL Keeps Crashing.

To get a core dump on Linux if mysqld dies with a SIGSEGV signal, you can start mysqld with the --core-file option. Note that you also probably need to raise the core file size by adding ulimit -c 1000000 to mysqld_safe or starting mysqld_safe with --core-file-size=1000000. See section 4.7.2 mysqld_safe, The Wrapper Around mysqld.

If you are linking your own MySQL client and get the error:

ld.so.1: ./my: fatal: libmysqlclient.so.4:
open failed: No such file or directory

When executing them, the problem can be avoided by one of the following methods:

If you are using the Fujitsu compiler (fcc / FCC) you will have some problems compiling MySQL because the Linux header files are very gcc oriented.

The following configure line should work with fcc/FCC:

CC=fcc CFLAGS="-O -K fast -K lib -K omitfp -Kpreex -D_GNU_SOURCE \
-DCONST=const -DNO_STRTOLL_PROTO" CXX=FCC CXXFLAGS="-O -K fast -K lib \
-K omitfp -K preex --no_exceptions --no_rtti -D_GNU_SOURCE -DCONST=const \
-Dalloca=__builtin_alloca -DNO_STRTOLL_PROTO \
'-D_EXTERN_INLINE=static __inline'" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql \
--enable-assembler --with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static --disable-shared \
--with-low-memory

2.6.2.1 Linux Notes for Binary Distributions

MySQL needs at least Linux Version 2.0.

Warning: We have reports from some MySQL users that they have got serious stability problems with MySQL with Linux kernel 2.2.14. If you are using this kernel you should upgrade to 2.2.19 (or newer) or to a 2.4 kernel. If you have a multi-cpu box, then you should seriously consider using 2.4 as this will give you a significant speed boost.

The binary release is linked with -static, which means you do not normally need to worry about which version of the system libraries you have. You need not install LinuxThreads, either. A program linked with -static is slightly bigger than a dynamically linked program but also slightly faster (3-5%). One problem, however, is that you can't use user-definable functions (UDFs) with a statically linked program. If you are going to write or use UDFs (this is something for C or C++ programmers only), you must compile MySQL yourself, using dynamic linking.

If you are using a libc-based system (instead of a glibc2 system), you will probably get some problems with hostname resolving and getpwnam() with the binary release. (This is because glibc unfortunately depends on some external libraries to resolve hostnames and getpwent(), even when compiled with -static). In this case you probably get the following error message when you run mysql_install_db:

Sorry, the host 'xxxx' could not be looked up

or the following error when you try to run mysqld with the --user option:

getpwnam: No such file or directory

You can solve this problem in one of the following ways:

The Linux-Intel binary and RPM releases of MySQL are configured for the highest possible speed. We are always trying to use the fastest stable compiler available.

MySQL Perl support requires Version Perl 5.004_03 or newer.

On some Linux 2.2 versions, you may get the error Resource temporarily unavailable when you do a lot of new connections to a mysqld server over TCP/IP.

The problem is that Linux has a delay between when you close a TCP/IP socket and until this is actually freed by the system. As there is only room for a finite number of TCP/IP slots, you will get the above error if you try to do too many new TCP/IP connections during a small time, like when you run the MySQL `test-connect' benchmark over TCP/IP.

We have mailed about this problem a couple of times to different Linux mailing lists but have never been able to resolve this properly.

The only known 'fix' to this problem is to use persistent connections in your clients or use sockets, if you are running the database server and clients on the same machine. We hope that the Linux 2.4 kernel will fix this problem in the future.

2.6.2.2 Linux x86 Notes

MySQL requires libc Version 5.4.12 or newer. It's known to work with libc 5.4.46. glibc Version 2.0.6 and later should also work. There have been some problems with the glibc RPMs from Red Hat, so if you have problems, check whether there are any updates. The glibc 2.0.7-19 and 2.0.7-29 RPMs are known to work.

If you are using Red Hat 8.0 or a new glibc 2.2.x library, you should start mysqld with the option --thread-stack=192K. (Use -O thread_stack=192K before MySQL 4.) If you don't do this, mysqld will die in gethostbyaddr() because the new glibc library requires a stack size greater than 128K for this call. This stack size is now the default on MySQL 4.0.10 and above.

If you are using gcc 3.0 and above to compile MySQL, you must install the libstdc++v3 library before compiling MySQL; if you don't do this, you will get an error about a missing __cxa_pure_virtual symbol during linking.

On some older Linux distributions, configure may produce an error like this:

Syntax error in sched.h. Change _P to __P in the /usr/include/sched.h file.
See the Installation chapter in the Reference Manual.

Just do what the error message says and add an extra underscore to the _P macro that has only one underscore, then try again.

You may get some warnings when compiling; those shown here can be ignored:

mysqld.cc -o objs-thread/mysqld.o
mysqld.cc: In function `void init_signals()':
mysqld.cc:315: warning: assignment of negative value `-1' to
`long unsigned int'
mysqld.cc: In function `void * signal_hand(void *)':
mysqld.cc:346: warning: assignment of negative value `-1' to
`long unsigned int'

mysql.server can be found in the `share/mysql' directory under the MySQL installation directory or in the `support-files' directory of the MySQL source tree.

If mysqld always core dumps when it starts up, the problem may be that you have an old `/lib/libc.a'. Try renaming it, then remove `sql/mysqld' and do a new make install and try again. This problem has been reported on some Slackware installations.

If you get the following error when linking mysqld, it means that your `libg++.a' is not installed correctly:

/usr/lib/libc.a(putc.o): In function `_IO_putc':
putc.o(.text+0x0): multiple definition of `_IO_putc'

You can avoid using `libg++.a' by running configure like this:

shell> CXX=gcc ./configure

2.6.2.3 Linux SPARC Notes

In some implementations, readdir_r() is broken. The symptom is that SHOW DATABASES always returns an empty set. This can be fixed by removing HAVE_READDIR_R from `config.h' after configuring and before compiling.

Some problems will require patching your Linux installation. The patch can be found at http://www.mysql.com/Downloads/patches/Linux-sparc-2.0.30.diff. This patch is against the Linux distribution `sparclinux-2.0.30.tar.gz' that is available at vger.rutgers.edu (a version of Linux that was never merged with the official 2.0.30). You must also install LinuxThreads Version 0.6 or newer.

2.6.2.4 Linux Alpha Notes

MySQL Version 3.23.12 is the first MySQL version that is tested on Linux-Alpha. If you plan to use MySQL on Linux-Alpha, you should ensure that you have this version or newer.

We have tested MySQL on Alpha with our benchmarks and test suite, and it appears to work nicely.

We currently build the MySQL binary packages on SuSE Linux 7.0 for AXP, kernel 2.4.4-SMP, Compaq C compiler (V6.2-505) and Compaq C++ compiler (V6.3-006) on a Compaq DS20 machine with an Alpha EV6 processor.

You can find the above compilers at http://www.support.compaq.com/alpha-tools/. By using these compilers, instead of gcc, we get about 9-14% better performance with MySQL.

Note that until MySQL version 3.23.52 and 4.0.2 we optimised the binary for the current CPU only (by using the -fast compile option); this meant that you could only use our binaries if you had an Alpha EV6 processor.

Starting with all following releases we added the -arch generic flag to our compile options, which makes sure the binary runs on all Alpha processors. We also compile statically to avoid library problems.

CC=ccc CFLAGS="-fast -arch generic" CXX=cxx \
CXXFLAGS="-fast -arch generic -noexceptions -nortti" \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --disable-shared \
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client \
--with-mysqld-ldflags=-non_shared --with-client-ldflags=-non_shared

If you want to use egcs the following configure line worked for us:

CFLAGS="-O3 -fomit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc \
CXXFLAGS="-O3 -fomit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors \
-fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql \
--disable-shared

Some known problems when running MySQL on Linux-Alpha:

2.6.2.5 Linux PowerPC Notes

MySQL should work on MkLinux with the newest glibc package (tested with glibc 2.0.7).

2.6.2.6 Linux MIPS Notes

To get MySQL to work on Qube2, (Linux Mips), you need the newest glibc libraries (glibc-2.0.7-29C2 is known to work). You must also use the egcs C++ compiler (egcs-1.0.2-9, gcc 2.95.2 or newer).

2.6.2.7 Linux IA-64 Notes

To get MySQL to compile on Linux IA-64, we use the following compile line: Using gcc-2.96:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc \
CXXFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors \
-fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql \
"--with-comment=Official MySQL binary" --with-extra-charsets=complex

On IA-64, the MySQL client binaries use shared libraries. This means that if you install our binary distribution in some other place than `/usr/local/mysql' you need to add the path of the directory where you have `libmysqlclient.so' installed either to the `/etc/ld.so.conf' file or to the value of your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

See section A.3.1 Problems When Linking with the MySQL Client Library.

2.6.3 Solaris Notes

On Solaris, you may run into trouble even before you get the MySQL distribution unpacked! Solaris tar can't handle long file names, so you may see an error like this when you unpack MySQL:

x mysql-3.22.12-beta/bench/Results/ATIS-mysql_odbc-NT_4.0-cmp-db2,\
informix,ms-sql,mysql,oracle,solid,sybase, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
tar: directory checksum error

In this case, you must use GNU tar (gtar) to unpack the distribution. You can find a precompiled copy for Solaris at http://www.mysql.com/downloads/os-solaris.html.

Sun native threads only work on Solaris 2.5 and higher. For Version 2.4 and earlier, MySQL will automatically use MIT-pthreads. See section 2.3.6 MIT-pthreads Notes.

If you get the following error from configure:

checking for restartable system calls... configure: error can not run test
programs while cross compiling

This means that you have something wrong with your compiler installation! In this case you should upgrade your compiler to a newer version. You may also be able to solve this problem by inserting the following row into the `config.cache' file:

ac_cv_sys_restartable_syscalls=${ac_cv_sys_restartable_syscalls='no'}

If you are using Solaris on a SPARC, the recommended compiler is gcc 2.95.2 or 3.2. You can find this at http://gcc.gnu.org/. Note that egcs 1.1.1 and gcc 2.8.1 don't work reliably on SPARC!

The recommended configure line when using gcc 2.95.2 is:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3" \
CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O3 -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-low-memory --enable-assembler

If you have an UltraSPARC, you can get 4% more performance by adding "-mcpu=v8 -Wa,-xarch=v8plusa" to CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS.

If you have Sun's Forte 5.0 (or newer) compiler, you can run configure like this:

CC=cc CFLAGS="-Xa -fast -native -xstrconst -mt" \
CXX=CC CXXFLAGS="-noex -mt" \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --enable-assembler

You can create a 64 bit binary using Sun's Forte compiler with the following compile flags:

CC=cc CFLAGS="-Xa -fast -native -xstrconst -mt -xarch=v9" \
CXX=CC CXXFLAGS="-noex -mt -xarch=v9" ASFLAGS="-xarch=v9" \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --enable-assembler

To create a 64bit Solaris binary using gcc, add -m64 to CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS. Note that this only works with MySQL 4.0 and up - MySQL 3.23 does not include the required modifications to support this.

In the MySQL benchmarks, we got a 4% speedup on an UltraSPARC when using Forte 5.0 in 32 bit mode compared to using gcc 3.2 with -mcpu flags.

If you create a 64 bit binary, it's 4 % slower than the 32 bit binary, but mysqld can instead handle more treads and memory.

If you get a problem with fdatasync or sched_yield, you can fix this by adding LIBS=-lrt to the configure line

The following paragraph is only relevant for older compilers than WorkShop 5.3:

You may also have to edit the configure script to change this line:

#if !defined(__STDC__) || __STDC__ != 1

to this:

#if !defined(__STDC__)

If you turn on __STDC__ with the -Xc option, the Sun compiler can't compile with the Solaris `pthread.h' header file. This is a Sun bug (broken compiler or broken include file).

If mysqld issues the error message shown here when you run it, you have tried to compile MySQL with the Sun compiler without enabling the multi-thread option (-mt):

libc internal error: _rmutex_unlock: rmutex not held

Add -mt to CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS and try again.

If you are using the SFW version of gcc (which comes with Solaris 8), you must add `/opt/sfw/lib' to the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH before running configure.

If you are using the gcc available from sunfreeware.com, you may have many problems. You should recompile gcc and GNU binutils on the machine you will be running them from to avoid any problems.

If you get the following error when compiling MySQL with gcc, it means that your gcc is not configured for your version of Solaris:

shell> gcc -O3 -g -O2 -DDBUG_OFF  -o thr_alarm ...
./thr_alarm.c: In function `signal_hand':
./thr_alarm.c:556: too many arguments to function `sigwait'

The proper thing to do in this case is to get the newest version of gcc and compile it with your current gcc compiler! At least for Solaris 2.5, almost all binary versions of gcc have old, unusable include files that will break all programs that use threads (and possibly other programs)!

Solaris doesn't provide static versions of all system libraries (libpthreads and libdl), so you can't compile MySQL with --static. If you try to do so, you will get the error:

ld: fatal: library -ldl: not found

or

undefined reference to `dlopen'

or

cannot find -lrt

If too many processes try to connect very rapidly to mysqld, you will see this error in the MySQL log:

Error in accept: Protocol error

You might try starting the server with the --set-variable back_log=50 option as a workaround for this. Please note that --set-variable is deprecated since MySQL 4.0, just use --back_log=50 on its own. See section 4.1.1 mysqld Command-line Options.

If you are linking your own MySQL client, you might get the following error when you try to execute it:

ld.so.1: ./my: fatal: libmysqlclient.so.#:
open failed: No such file or directory

The problem can be avoided by one of the following methods:

If you have problems with configure trying to link with -lz and you don't have zlib installed, you have two options:

If you are using gcc and have problems with loading user defined functions (UDFs) into MySQL, try adding -lgcc to the link line for the UDF.

If you would like MySQL to start automatically, you can copy `support-files/mysql.server' to `/etc/init.d' and create a symbolic link to it named `/etc/rc3.d/S99mysql.server'.

As Solaris doesn't support core files for setuid() applications, you can't get a core file from mysqld if you are using the --user option.

2.6.3.1 Solaris 2.7/2.8 Notes

You can normally use a Solaris 2.6 binary on Solaris 2.7 and 2.8. Most of the Solaris 2.6 issues also apply for Solaris 2.7 and 2.8.

Note that MySQL Version 3.23.4 and above should be able to autodetect new versions of Solaris and enable workarounds for the following problems!

Solaris 2.7 / 2.8 has some bugs in the include files. You may see the following error when you use gcc:

/usr/include/widec.h:42: warning: `getwc' redefined
/usr/include/wchar.h:326: warning: this is the location of the previous
definition

If this occurs, you can do the following to fix the problem:

Copy /usr/include/widec.h to .../lib/gcc-lib/os/gcc-version/include and change line 41 from:

#if     !defined(lint) && !defined(__lint)

to

#if     !defined(lint) && !defined(__lint) && !defined(getwc)

Alternatively, you can edit `/usr/include/widec.h' directly. Either way, after you make the fix, you should remove `config.cache' and run configure again!

If you get errors like this when you run make, it's because configure didn't detect the `curses.h' file (probably because of the error in `/usr/include/widec.h'):

In file included from mysql.cc:50:
/usr/include/term.h:1060: syntax error before `,'
/usr/include/term.h:1081: syntax error before `;'

The solution to this is to do one of the following:

If you get a problem that your linker can't find -lz when linking your client program, the problem is probably that your `libz.so' file is installed in `/usr/local/lib'. You can fix this by one of the following methods:

2.6.3.2 Solaris x86 Notes

On Solaris 8 on x86, mysqld will dump core if you remove the debug symbols using strip.

If you are using gcc or egcs on Solaris x86 and you experience problems with core dumps under load, you should use the following configure command:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fomit-frame-pointer -DHAVE_CURSES_H" \
CXX=gcc \
CXXFLAGS="-O3 -fomit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions \
-fno-rtti -DHAVE_CURSES_H" \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql

This will avoid problems with the libstdc++ library and with C++ exceptions.

If this doesn't help, you should compile a debug version and run it with a trace file or under gdb. See section E.1.3 Debugging mysqld under gdb.

2.6.4 BSD Notes

This section provides information for the various BSD flavours, as well as specific versions within those.

2.6.4.1 FreeBSD Notes

FreeBSD 4.x or newer is recommended for running MySQL since the thread package is much more integrated.

The easiest and therefore the preferred way to install is to use the mysql-server and mysql-client ports available on http://www.freebsd.org/.

Using these gives you:

It is recommended you use MIT-pthreads on FreeBSD 2.x and native threads on Versions 3 and up. It is possible to run with native threads on some late 2.2.x versions but you may encounter problems shutting down mysqld.

Unfortunately, certain function calls on FreeBSD are not yet fully thread-safe, most notably the gethostbyname() function, which is used by MySQL to convert host names into IP addresses. Under certain circumstances, the mysqld process will suddenly cause 100% CPU load and will be unresponsive. If you encounter this, try to start up MySQL using the --skip-name-resolve option.

Alternatively, you can link MySQL on FreeBSD 4.x against the LinuxThreads library, which avoids a few of the problems that the native FreeBSD thread implementation has. For a very good comparison of LinuxThreads vs. native threads have a look at Jeremy Zawodny's article "FreeBSD or Linux for your MySQL Server?" at http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/000697.html

The known problems when using LinuxThreads on FreeBSD are:

The MySQL `Makefile's require GNU make (gmake) to work. If you want to compile MySQL you need to install GNU make first.

Be sure to have your name resolver setup correct. Otherwise, you may experience resolver delays or failures when connecting to mysqld.

Make sure that the localhost entry in the `/etc/hosts' file is correct (otherwise, you will have problems connecting to the database). The `/etc/hosts' file should start with a line:

127.0.0.1       localhost localhost.your.domain

The recommended way to compile and install MySQL on FreeBSD with gcc (2.95.2 and up) is:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O2 -fno-strength-reduce" \
CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-O2 -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions -felide-constructors \
-fno-strength-reduce" \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --enable-assembler
gmake
gmake install
./scripts/mysql_install_db
cd /usr/local/mysql
./bin/mysqld_safe &

If you notice that configure will use MIT-pthreads, you should read the MIT-pthreads notes. See section 2.3.6 MIT-pthreads Notes.

If you get an error from make install that it can't find `/usr/include/pthreads', configure didn't detect that you need MIT-pthreads. This is fixed by executing these commands:

shell> rm config.cache
shell> ./configure --with-mit-threads

FreeBSD is also known to have a very low default file handle limit. See section A.2.17 File Not Found. Uncomment the ulimit -n section in mysqld_safe or raise the limits for the mysqld user in /etc/login.conf (and rebuild it with cap_mkdb /etc/login.conf). Also be sure you set the appropriate class for this user in the password file if you are not using the default (use: chpass mysqld-user-name). See section 4.7.2 mysqld_safe, The Wrapper Around mysqld.

If you have a lot of memory you should consider rebuilding the kernel to allow MySQL to take more than 512M of RAM. Take a look at option MAXDSIZ in the LINT config file for more info.

If you get problems with the current date in MySQL, setting the TZ variable will probably help. See section F Environment Variables.

To get a secure and stable system you should only use FreeBSD kernels that are marked -RELEASE.

2.6.4.2 NetBSD Notes

To compile on NetBSD you need GNU make. Otherwise, the compile will crash when make tries to run lint on C++ files.

2.6.4.3 OpenBSD 2.5 Notes

On OpenBSD Version 2.5, you can compile MySQL with native threads with the following options:

CFLAGS=-pthread CXXFLAGS=-pthread ./configure --with-mit-threads=no

2.6.4.4 OpenBSD 2.8 Notes

Our users have reported that OpenBSD 2.8 has a threading bug which causes problems with MySQL. The OpenBSD Developers have fixed the problem, but as of January 25th, 2001, it's only available in the ``-current'' branch. The symptoms of this threading bug are: slow response, high load, high CPU usage, and crashes.

If you get an error like Error in accept:: Bad file descriptor or error 9 when trying to open tables or directories, the problem is probably that you haven't allocated enough file descriptors for MySQL.

In this case, try starting mysqld_safe as root with the following options:

shell> mysqld_safe --user=mysql --open-files-limit=2048 &

2.6.4.5 BSD/OS Version 2.x Notes

If you get the following error when compiling MySQL, your ulimit value for virtual memory is too low:

item_func.h: In method `Item_func_ge::Item_func_ge(const Item_func_ge &)':
item_func.h:28: virtual memory exhausted
make[2]: *** [item_func.o] Error 1

Try using ulimit -v 80000 and run make again. If this doesn't work and you are using bash, try switching to csh or sh; some BSDI users have reported problems with bash and ulimit.

If you are using gcc, you may also use have to use the --with-low-memory flag for configure to be able to compile `sql_yacc.cc'.

If you get problems with the current date in MySQL, setting the TZ variable will probably help. See section F Environment Variables.

2.6.4.6 BSD/OS Version 3.x Notes

Upgrade to BSD/OS Version 3.1. If that is not possible, install BSDIpatch M300-038.

Use the following command when configuring MySQL:

shell> env CXX=shlicc++ CC=shlicc2 \
       ./configure \
           --prefix=/usr/local/mysql \
           --localstatedir=/var/mysql \
           --without-perl \
           --with-unix-socket-path=/var/mysql/mysql.sock

The following is also known to work:

shell> env CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O3 \
       ./configure \
           --prefix=/usr/local/mysql \
           --with-unix-socket-path=/var/mysql/mysql.sock

You can change the directory locations if you wish, or just use the defaults by not specifying any locations.

If you have problems with performance under heavy load, try using the --skip-thread-priority option to mysqld! This will run all threads with the same priority; on BSDI Version 3.1, this gives better performance (at least until BSDI fixes their thread scheduler).

If you get the error virtual memory exhausted while compiling, you should try using ulimit -v 80000 and run make again. If this doesn't work and you are using bash, try switching to csh or sh; some BSDI users have reported problems with bash and ulimit.

2.6.4.7 BSD/OS Version 4.x Notes

BSDI Version 4.x has some thread-related bugs. If you want to use MySQL on this, you should install all thread-related patches. At least M400-023 should be installed.

On some BSDI Version 4.x systems, you may get problems with shared libraries. The symptom is that you can't execute any client programs, for example, mysqladmin. In this case you need to reconfigure not to use shared libraries with the --disable-shared option to configure.

Some customers have had problems on BSDI 4.0.1 that the mysqld binary after a while can't open tables. This is because some library/system related bug causes mysqld to change current directory without asking for this!

The fix is to either upgrade to 3.23.34 or after running configure remove the line #define HAVE_REALPATH from config.h before running make.

Note that the above means that you can't symbolic link a database directories to another database directory or symbolic link a table to another database on BSDI! (Making a symbolic link to another disk is okay).

2.6.5 Mac OS X Notes

2.6.5.1 Mac OS X 10.x

MySQL should work without any problems on Mac OS X 10.x (Darwin). You don't need the pthread patches for this OS!

This also applies to Mac OS X 10.x Server. Compiling for the Server platform is the same as for the client version of Mac OS X. However please note that MySQL comes preinstalled on the Server!

Our binary for Mac OS X is compiled on Darwin 6.3 with the following configure line:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc \
CXXFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors \
-fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql \
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client \
--enable-local-infile --disable-shared

See section 2.1.3 Installing MySQL on Mac OS X.

2.6.5.2 Mac OS X Server 1.2 (Rhapsody)

Before trying to configure MySQL on Mac OS X Server 1.2 (aka Rhapsody) you must first install the pthread package from http://www.prnet.de/RegEx/mysql.html.

See section 2.1.3 Installing MySQL on Mac OS X.

2.6.6 Other Unix Notes

2.6.6.1 HP-UX Notes for Binary Distributions

Some of the binary distributions of MySQL for HP-UX are distributed as an HP depot file and as a tar file. To use the depot file you must be running at least HP-UX 10.x to have access to HP's software depot tools.

The HP version of MySQL was compiled on an HP 9000/8xx server under HP-UX 10.20, and uses MIT-pthreads. It is known to work well under this configuration. MySQL Version 3.22.26 and newer can also be built with HP's native thread package.

Other configurations that may work:

The following configurations almost definitely won't work:

To install the distribution, use one of the commands here, where /path/to/depot is the full pathname of the depot file:

The depot places binaries and libraries in `/opt/mysql' and data in `/var/opt/mysql'. The depot also creates the appropriate entries in `/etc/init.d' and `/etc/rc2.d' to start the server automatically at boot time. Obviously, this entails being root to install.

To install the HP-UX tar.gz distribution, you must have a copy of GNU tar.

2.6.6.2 HP-UX Version 10.20 Notes

There are a couple of small problems when compiling MySQL on HP-UX. We recommend that you use gcc instead of the HP-UX native compiler, because gcc produces better code!

We recommend using gcc 2.95 on HP-UX. Don't use high optimisation flags (like -O6) as this may not be safe on HP-UX.

The following configure line should work with gcc 2.95:

CFLAGS="-I/opt/dce/include -fpic" \
CXXFLAGS="-I/opt/dce/include -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions \
-fno-rtti" CXX=gcc ./configure --with-pthread \
--with-named-thread-libs='-ldce' --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --disable-shared

The following configure line should work with gcc 3.1:

CFLAGS="-DHPUX -I/opt/dce/include -O3 -fPIC" CXX=gcc \
CXXFLAGS="-DHPUX -I/opt/dce/include -felide-constructors -fno-exceptions \
-fno-rtti -O3 -fPIC" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql \
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client \
--enable-local-infile  --with-pthread \
--with-named-thread-libs=-ldce --with-lib-ccflags=-fPIC
--disable-shared

2.6.6.3 HP-UX Version 11.x Notes

For HP-UX Version 11.x, we recommend MySQL Version 3.23.15 or later.

Because of some critical bugs in the standard HP-UX libraries, you should install the following patches before trying to run MySQL on HP-UX 11.0:

PHKL_22840 Streams cumulative
PHNE_22397 ARPA cumulative

This will solve the problem of getting EWOULDBLOCK from recv() and EBADF from accept() in threaded applications.

If you are using gcc 2.95.1 on an unpatched HP-UX 11.x system, you will get the error:

In file included from /usr/include/unistd.h:11,
                 from ../include/global.h:125,
                 from mysql_priv.h:15,
                 from item.cc:19:
/usr/include/sys/unistd.h:184: declaration of C function ...
/usr/include/sys/pthread.h:440: previous declaration ...
In file included from item.h:306,
                 from mysql_priv.h:158,
                 from item.cc:19:

The problem is that HP-UX doesn't define pthreads_atfork() consistently. It has conflicting prototypes in `/usr/include/sys/unistd.h':184 and `/usr/include/sys/pthread.h':440 (details below).

One solution is to copy `/usr/include/sys/unistd.h' into `mysql/include' and edit `unistd.h' and change it to match the definition in `pthread.h'. Here's the diff:

183,184c183,184
<      extern int pthread_atfork(void (*prepare)(), void (*parent)(),
<                                                void (*child)());
---
>      extern int pthread_atfork(void (*prepare)(void), void (*parent)(void),
>                                                void (*child)(void));

After this, the following configure line should work:

CFLAGS="-fomit-frame-pointer -O3 -fpic" CXX=gcc \
CXXFLAGS="-felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti -O3" \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --disable-shared

If you are using MySQL 4.0.5 with the HP-UX compiler you can use: (tested with cc B.11.11.04):

CC=cc CXX=aCC CFLAGS=+DD64 CXXFLAGS=+DD64 ./configure --with-extra-character-set=complex

You can ignore any errors of the following type:

aCC: warning 901: unknown option: `-3': use +help for online documentation

If you get the following error from configure

checking for cc option to accept ANSI C... no
configure: error: MySQL requires a ANSI C compiler (and a C++ compiler).
Try gcc. See the Installation chapter in the Reference Manual.

Check that you don't have the path to the K&R compiler before the path to the HP-UX C and C++ compiler.

Another reason for not beeing able to compile is that you didn't define the +DD64 flags above.

Another possibility for HP-UX 11 is to use MySQL binaries for HP-UX 10.20. We have received reports from some users that these binaries work fine on HP-UX 11.00. If you encounter problems, be sure to check your HP-UX patch level.

2.6.6.4 IBM-AIX notes

Automatic detection of xlC is missing from Autoconf, so a configure command something like this is needed when compiling MySQL (This example uses the IBM compiler):

export CC="xlc_r -ma -O3 -qstrict -qoptimize=3 -qmaxmem=8192 "
export CXX="xlC_r -ma -O3 -qstrict -qoptimize=3 -qmaxmem=8192"
export CFLAGS="-I /usr/local/include"
export LDFLAGS="-L /usr/local/lib"
export CPPFLAGS=$CFLAGS
export CXXFLAGS=$CFLAGS

./configure --prefix=/usr/local \
                --localstatedir=/var/mysql \
                --sysconfdir=/etc/mysql \
                --sbindir='/usr/local/bin' \
                --libexecdir='/usr/local/bin' \
                --enable-thread-safe-client \
                --enable-large-files

Above are the options used to compile the MySQL distribution that can be found at http://www-frec.bull.com/.

If you change the -O3 to -O2 in the above configure line, you must also remove the -qstrict option (this is a limitation in the IBM C compiler).

If you are using gcc or egcs to compile MySQL, you must use the -fno-exceptions flag, as the exception handling in gcc/egcs is not thread-safe! (This is tested with egcs 1.1.) There are also some known problems with IBM's assembler, which may cause it to generate bad code when used with gcc.

We recommend the following configure line with egcs and gcc 2.95 on AIX:

CC="gcc -pipe -mcpu=power -Wa,-many" \
CXX="gcc -pipe -mcpu=power -Wa,-many" \
CXXFLAGS="-felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-low-memory

The -Wa,-many is necessary for the compile to be successful. IBM is aware of this problem but is in to hurry to fix it because of the workaround available. We don't know if the -fno-exceptions is required with gcc 2.95, but as MySQL doesn't use exceptions and the above option generates faster code, we recommend that you should always use this option with egcs / gcc.

If you get a problem with assembler code try changing the -mcpu=xxx to match your CPU. Typically power2, power, or powerpc may need to be used, alternatively you might need to use 604 or 604e. I'm not positive but I would think using "power" would likely be safe most of the time, even on a power2 machine.

If you don't know what your CPU is then do a "uname -m", this will give you back a string that looks like "000514676700", with a format of xxyyyyyymmss where xx and ss are always 0's, yyyyyy is a unique system id and mm is the id of the CPU Planar. A chart of these values can be found at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/doc_link/en_US/a_doc_lib/cmds/aixcmds5/uname.htm. This will give you a machine type and a machine model you can use to determine what type of CPU you have.

If you have problems with signals (MySQL dies unexpectedly under high load) you may have found an OS bug with threads and signals. In this case you can tell MySQL not to use signals by configuring with:

shell> CFLAGS=-DDONT_USE_THR_ALARM CXX=gcc \
       CXXFLAGS="-felide-constructors -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti \
       -DDONT_USE_THR_ALARM" \
       ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-debug --with-low-memory

This doesn't affect the performance of MySQL, but has the side effect that you can't kill clients that are ``sleeping'' on a connection with mysqladmin kill or mysqladmin shutdown. Instead, the client will die when it issues its next command.

On some versions of AIX, linking with libbind.a makes getservbyname core dump. This is an AIX bug and should be reported to IBM.

For AIX 4.2.1 and gcc you have to do the following changes.

After configuring, edit `config.h' and `include/my_config.h' and change the line that says

#define HAVE_SNPRINTF 1

to

#undef HAVE_SNPRINTF

And finally, in `mysqld.cc' you need to add a prototype for initgoups.

#ifdef _AIX41
extern "C" int initgroups(const char *,int);
#endif

If you need to allocate a lot of memory to the mysqld process, it's not enough to just set 'ulimit -d unlimited'. You may also have to set in mysqld_safe something like:

export LDR_CNTRL='MAXDATA=0x80000000'

You can find more about using a lot of memory at: http://publib16.boulder.ibm.com/pseries/en_US/aixprggd/genprogc/lrg_prg_support.htm.

2.6.6.5 SunOS 4 Notes

On SunOS 4, MIT-pthreads is needed to compile MySQL, which in turn means you will need GNU make.

Some SunOS 4 systems have problems with dynamic libraries and libtool. You can use the following configure line to avoid this problem:

shell> ./configure --disable-shared --with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static

When compiling readline, you may get warnings about duplicate defines. These may be ignored.

When compiling mysqld, there will be some implicit declaration of function warnings. These may be ignored.

2.6.6.6 Alpha-DEC-UNIX Notes (Tru64)

If you are using egcs 1.1.2 on Digital Unix, you should upgrade to gcc 2.95.2, as egcs on DEC has some serious bugs!

When compiling threaded programs under Digital Unix, the documentation recommends using the -pthread option for cc and cxx and the libraries -lmach -lexc (in addition to -lpthread). You should run configure something like this:

CC="cc -pthread" CXX="cxx -pthread -O" \
./configure --with-named-thread-libs="-lpthread -lmach -lexc -lc"

When compiling mysqld, you may see a couple of warnings like this:

mysqld.cc: In function void handle_connections()':
mysqld.cc:626: passing long unsigned int *' as argument 3 of
accept(int,sockadddr *, int *)'

You can safely ignore these warnings. They occur because configure can detect only errors, not warnings.

If you start the server directly from the command-line, you may have problems with it dying when you log out. (When you log out, your outstanding processes receive a SIGHUP signal.) If so, try starting the server like this:

shell> nohup mysqld [options] &

nohup causes the command following it to ignore any SIGHUP signal sent from the terminal. Alternatively, start the server by running mysqld_safe, which invokes mysqld using nohup for you. See section 4.7.2 mysqld_safe, The Wrapper Around mysqld.

If you get a problem when compiling mysys/get_opt.c, just remove the line #define _NO_PROTO from the start of that file!

If you are using Compaq's CC compiler, the following configure line should work:

CC="cc -pthread"
CFLAGS="-O4 -ansi_alias -ansi_args -fast -inline speed all -arch host"
CXX="cxx -pthread"
CXXFLAGS="-O4 -ansi_alias -ansi_args -fast -inline speed all -arch host \
-noexceptions -nortti"
export CC CFLAGS CXX CXXFLAGS
./configure \
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql \
--with-low-memory \
--enable-large-files \
--enable-shared=yes \
--with-named-thread-libs="-lpthread -lmach -lexc -lc"
gnumake

If you get a problem with libtool, when compiling with shared libraries as above, when linking mysql, you should be able to get around this by issuing:

cd mysql
/bin/sh ../libtool --mode=link cxx -pthread  -O3 -DDBUG_OFF \
-O4 -ansi_alias -ansi_args -fast -inline speed \
-speculate all \ -arch host  -DUNDEF_HAVE_GETHOSTBYNAME_R \
-o mysql  mysql.o readline.o sql_string.o completion_hash.o \
../readline/libreadline.a -lcurses \
../libmysql/.libs/libmysqlclient.so  -lm
cd ..
gnumake
gnumake install
scripts/mysql_install_db

2.6.6.7 Alpha-DEC-OSF/1 Notes

If you have problems compiling and have DEC CC and gcc installed, try running configure like this:

CC=cc CFLAGS=-O CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O3 \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql

If you get problems with the `c_asm.h' file, you can create and use a 'dummy' `c_asm.h' file with:

touch include/c_asm.h
CC=gcc CFLAGS=-I./include \
CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O3 \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql

Note that the following problems with the ld program can be fixed by downloading the latest DEC (Compaq) patch kit from: http://ftp.support.compaq.com/public/unix/.

On OSF/1 V4.0D and compiler "DEC C V5.6-071 on Digital Unix V4.0 (Rev. 878)" the compiler had some strange behaviour (undefined asm symbols). /bin/ld also appears to be broken (problems with _exit undefined errors occurring while linking mysqld). On this system, we have managed to compile MySQL with the following configure line, after replacing /bin/ld with the version from OSF 4.0C:

CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O3 ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql

With the Digital compiler "C++ V6.1-029", the following should work:

CC=cc -pthread
CFLAGS=-O4 -ansi_alias -ansi_args -fast -inline speed -speculate all \
       -arch host
CXX=cxx -pthread
CXXFLAGS=-O4 -ansi_alias -ansi_args -fast -inline speed -speculate all \
          -arch host -noexceptions -nortti
export CC CFLAGS CXX CXXFLAGS
./configure --prefix=/usr/mysql/mysql --with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static \
            --disable-shared --with-named-thread-libs="-lmach -lexc -lc"

In some versions of OSF/1, the alloca() function is broken. Fix this by removing the line in `config.h' that defines 'HAVE_ALLOCA'.

The alloca() function also may have an incorrect prototype in /usr/include/alloca.h. This warning resulting from this can be ignored.

configure will use the following thread libraries automatically: --with-named-thread-libs="-lpthread -lmach -lexc -lc".

When using gcc, you can also try running configure like this:

shell> CFLAGS=-D_PTHREAD_USE_D4 CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O3 ./configure ...

If you have problems with signals (MySQL dies unexpectedly under high load), you may have found an OS bug with threads and signals. In this case you can tell MySQL not to use signals by configuring with:

shell> CFLAGS=-DDONT_USE_THR_ALARM \
       CXXFLAGS=-DDONT_USE_THR_ALARM \
       ./configure ...

This doesn't affect the performance of MySQL, but has the side effect that you can't kill clients that are ``sleeping'' on a connection with mysqladmin kill or mysqladmin shutdown. Instead, the client will die when it issues its next command.

With gcc 2.95.2, you will probably run into the following compile error:

sql_acl.cc:1456: Internal compiler error in `scan_region', at except.c:2566
Please submit a full bug report.

To fix this you should change to the sql directory and do a ``cut and paste'' of the last gcc line, but change -O3 to -O0 (or add -O0 immediately after gcc if you don't have any -O option on your compile line). After this is done you can just change back to the top-level directly and run make again.

2.6.6.8 SGI Irix Notes

If you are using Irix Version 6.5.3 or newer mysqld will only be able to create threads if you run it as a user with CAP_SCHED_MGT privileges (like root) or give the mysqld server this privilege with the following shell command:

shell> chcap "CAP_SCHED_MGT+epi" /opt/mysql/libexec/mysqld

You may have to undefine some things in `config.h' after running configure and before compiling.

In some Irix implementations, the alloca() function is broken. If the mysqld server dies on some SELECT statements, remove the lines from `config.h' that define HAVE_ALLOC and HAVE_ALLOCA_H. If mysqladmin create doesn't work, remove the line from `config.h' that defines HAVE_READDIR_R. You may have to remove the HAVE_TERM_H line as well.

SGI recommends that you install all of the patches on this page as a set: http://support.sgi.com/surfzone/patches/patchset/6.2_indigo.rps.html

At the very minimum, you should install the latest kernel rollup, the latest rld rollup, and the latest libc rollup.

You definitely need all the POSIX patches on this page, for pthreads support:

http://support.sgi.com/surfzone/patches/patchset/6.2_posix.rps.html

If you get the something like the following error when compiling `mysql.cc':

"/usr/include/curses.h", line 82: error(1084): invalid combination of type

Type the following in the top-level directory of your MySQL source tree:

shell> extra/replace bool curses_bool < /usr/include/curses.h \
> include/curses.h
shell> make

There have also been reports of scheduling problems. If only one thread is running, things go slow. Avoid this by starting another client. This may lead to a 2-to-10-fold increase in execution speed thereafter for the other thread. This is a poorly understood problem with Irix threads; you may have to improvise to find solutions until this can be fixed.

If you are compiling with gcc, you can use the following configure command:

CC=gcc CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS=-O3 \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --enable-thread-safe-client \
--with-named-thread-libs=-lpthread

On Irix 6.5.11 with native Irix C and C++ compilers ver. 7.3.1.2, the following is reported to work

CC=cc CXX=CC CFLAGS='-O3 -n32 -TARG:platform=IP22 -I/usr/local/include \
-L/usr/local/lib' CXXFLAGS='-O3 -n32 -TARG:platform=IP22 \
-I/usr/local/include -L/usr/local/lib' ./configure \
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-innodb --with-berkeley-db \
--with-libwrap=/usr/local \
--with-named-curses-libs=/usr/local/lib/libncurses.a

2.6.6.9 SCO Notes

The current port is tested only on ``sco3.2v5.0.5'', ``sco3.2v5.0.6'' and ``sco3.2v5.0.7'' systems. There has also been a lot of progress on a port to ``sco 3.2v4.2''.

For the moment the recommended compiler on OpenServer is gcc 2.95.2. With this you should be able to compile MySQL with just:

CC=gcc CXX=gcc ./configure ... (options)
  1. For OpenServer 5.0.x you need to use gcc-2.95.2p1 or newer from the Skunkware. http://www.sco.com/skunkware/ and choose browser OpenServer packages or by ftp to ftp2.caldera.com in the pub/skunkware/osr5/devtools/gcc directory.
  2. You need the port of GCC 2.5.x for this product and the Development system. They are required on this version of SCO Unix. You cannot just use the GCC Dev system.
  3. You should get the FSU Pthreads package and install it first. This can be found at http://moss.csc.ncsu.edu/~mueller/ftp/pub/PART/pthreads.tar.gz. You can also get a precompiled package from http://www.mysql.com/Downloads/SCO/FSU-threads-3.5c.tar.gz.
  4. FSU Pthreads can be compiled with SCO Unix 4.2 with tcpip. Or OpenServer 3.0 or Open Desktop 3.0 (OS 3.0 ODT 3.0), with the SCO Development System installed using a good port of GCC 2.5.x ODT or OS 3.0 you will need a good port of GCC 2.5.x There are a lot of problems without a good port. The port for this product requires the SCO Unix Development system. Without it, you are missing the libraries and the linker that is needed.
  5. To build FSU Pthreads on your system, do the following:
    1. Run ./configure in the `threads/src' directory and select the SCO OpenServer option. This command copies `Makefile.SCO5' to `Makefile'.
    2. Run make.
    3. To install in the default `/usr/include' directory, login as root, then cd to the `thread/src' directory, and run make install.
  6. Remember to use GNU make when making MySQL.
  7. If you don't start mysqld_safe as root, you probably will get only the default 110 open files per process. mysqld will write a note about this in the log file.
  8. With SCO 3.2V5.0.5, you should use FSU Pthreads version 3.5c or newer. You should also use gcc 2.95.2 or newer! The following configure command should work:
    shell> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --disable-shared
    
  9. With SCO 3.2V4.2, you should use FSU Pthreads version 3.5c or newer. The following configure command should work:
    shell> CFLAGS="-D_XOPEN_XPG4" CXX=gcc CXXFLAGS="-D_XOPEN_XPG4" \
           ./configure \
               --prefix=/usr/local/mysql \
               --with-named-thread-libs="-lgthreads -lsocket -lgen -lgthreads" \
               --with-named-curses-libs="-lcurses"
    
    You may get some problems with some include files. In this case, you can find new SCO-specific include files at http://www.mysql.com/Downloads/SCO/SCO-3.2v4.2-includes.tar.gz. You should unpack this file in the `include' directory of your MySQL source tree.

SCO development notes:

If you want to install DBI on SCO, you have to edit the `Makefile' in DBI-xxx and each subdirectory.

Note that the following assumes gcc 2.95.2 or newer:

OLD:                                  NEW:
CC = cc                               CC = gcc
CCCDLFLAGS = -KPIC -W1,-Bexport       CCCDLFLAGS = -fpic
CCDLFLAGS = -wl,-Bexport              CCDLFLAGS =

LD = ld                               LD = gcc -G -fpic
LDDLFLAGS = -G -L/usr/local/lib       LDDLFLAGS = -L/usr/local/lib
LDFLAGS = -belf -L/usr/local/lib      LDFLAGS = -L/usr/local/lib

LD = ld                               LD = gcc -G -fpic
OPTIMISE = -Od                        OPTIMISE = -O1

OLD:
CCCFLAGS = -belf -dy -w0 -U M_XENIX -DPERL_SCO5 -I/usr/local/include

NEW:
CCFLAGS = -U M_XENIX -DPERL_SCO5 -I/usr/local/include

This is because the Perl dynaloader will not load the DBI modules if they were compiled with icc or cc.

Perl works best when compiled with cc.

2.6.6.10 SCO UnixWare Version 7.1.x Notes

You must use a version of MySQL at least as recent as Version 3.22.13 and of UnixWare 7.1.0 because these version fixes some portability and OS problems under UnixWare.

We have been able to compile MySQL with the following configure command on UnixWare Version 7.1.x:

CC=cc CXX=CC ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql

If you want to use gcc, you must use gcc 2.95.2 or newer.

CC=gcc CXX=g++ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql

  1. SCO provides Operating Systems Patches at ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/unixware7 for UnixWare 7.1.1 and 7.1.3 ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/openunix8 for OpenUNIX 8.0.0
  2. SCO provides information about Security Fixes at ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/security/OpenUNIX for OpenUNIX ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/security/UnixWare for UnixWare

2.6.7 OS/2 Notes

MySQL uses quite a few open files. Because of this, you should add something like the following to your `CONFIG.SYS' file:

SET EMXOPT=-c -n -h1024

If you don't do this, you will probably run into the following error:

File 'xxxx' not found (Errcode: 24)

When using MySQL with OS/2 Warp 3, FixPack 29 or above is required. With OS/2 Warp 4, FixPack 4 or above is required. This is a requirement of the Pthreads library. MySQL must be installed in a partition that supports long filenames such as HPFS, FAT32, etc.

The `INSTALL.CMD' script must be run from OS/2's own `CMD.EXE' and may not work with replacement shells such as `4OS2.EXE'.

The `scripts/mysql-install-db' script has been renamed. It is now called `install.cmd' and is a REXX script, which will set up the default MySQL security settings and create the WorkPlace Shell icons for MySQL.

Dynamic module support is compiled in but not fully tested. Dynamic modules should be compiled using the Pthreads run-time library.

gcc -Zdll -Zmt -Zcrtdll=pthrdrtl -I../include -I../regex -I.. \
    -o example udf_example.cc -L../lib -lmysqlclient udf_example.def
mv example.dll example.udf

Note: Due to limitations in OS/2, UDF module name stems must not exceed 8 characters. Modules are stored in the `/mysql2/udf' directory; the safe-mysqld.cmd script will put this directory in the BEGINLIBPATH environment variable. When using UDF modules, specified extensions are ignored--it is assumed to be `.udf'. For example, in Unix, the shared module might be named `example.so' and you would load a function from it like this:

mysql> CREATE FUNCTION metaphon RETURNS STRING SONAME "example.so";

In OS/2, the module would be named `example.udf', but you would not specify the module extension:

mysql> CREATE FUNCTION metaphon RETURNS STRING SONAME "example";

2.6.8 Novell NetWare Notes

Porting MySQL to NetWare was an effort spearheaded by Novell. Novell customers will be pleased to note that NetWare 6.5 will ship with bundled MySQL binaries, complete with an automatic commercial use license for all servers running that version of NetWare.

See section 2.1.4 Installing MySQL on NetWare.

MySQL for NetWare is compiled using a combination of Metrowerks Codewarrior for NetWare and special cross-compilation versions of the GNU autotools. Check back here in the future for more information on building and optimising MySQL for NetWare.

2.6.9 BeOS Notes

We have in the past talked with some BeOS developers that have said that MySQL is 80% ported to BeOS, but we haven't heard from them in a while.

2.7 Perl Installation Comments

2.7.1 Installing Perl on Unix

Perl support for MySQL is provided by means of the DBI/DBD client interface. See section 9.5 MySQL Perl API. The Perl DBD/DBI client code requires Perl Version 5.004 or later. The interface will not work if you have an older version of Perl.

MySQL Perl support also requires that you've installed MySQL client programming support. If you installed MySQL from RPM files, client programs are in the client RPM, but client programming support is in the developer RPM. Make sure you've installed the latter RPM.

As of Version 3.22.8, Perl support is distributed separately from the main MySQL distribution. If you want to install Perl support, the files you will need can be obtained from http://www.mysql.com/downloads/api-dbi.html.

The Perl distributions are provided as compressed tar archives and have names like `MODULE-VERSION.tar.gz', where MODULE is the module name and VERSION is the version number. You should get the Data-Dumper, DBI, and DBD-mysql distributions and install them in that order. The installation procedure is shown here. The example shown is for the Data-Dumper module, but the procedure is the same for all three distributions:

  1. Unpack the distribution into the current directory:
    shell> gunzip < Data-Dumper-VERSION.tar.gz | tar xvf -
    
    This command creates a directory named `Data-Dumper-VERSION'.
  2. Change into the top-level directory of the unpacked distribution:
    shell> cd Data-Dumper-VERSION
    
  3. Build the distribution and compile everything:
    shell> perl Makefile.PL
    shell> make
    shell> make test
    shell> make install
    

The make test command is important because it verifies that the module is working. Note that when you run that command during the DBD-mysql installation to exercise the interface code, the MySQL server must be running or the test will fail.

It is a good idea to rebuild and reinstall the DBD-mysql distribution whenever you install a new release of MySQL, particularly if you notice symptoms such as all your DBI scripts dumping core after you upgrade MySQL.

If you don't have the right to install Perl modules in the system directory or if you to install local Perl modules, the following reference may help you:

http://www.iserver.com/support/contrib/perl5/modules.html

Look under the heading Installing New Modules that Require Locally Installed Modules.

2.7.2 Installing ActiveState Perl on Windows

To install the MySQL DBD module with ActiveState Perl on Windows, you should do the following:

The above should work at least with ActiveState Perl Version 5.6.

If you can't get the above to work, you should instead install the MyODBC driver and connect to MySQL server through ODBC:

use DBI;
$dbh= DBI->connect("DBI:ODBC:$dsn","$user","$password") ||
  die "Got error $DBI::errstr when connecting to $dsn\n";

2.7.3 Problems Using the Perl DBI/DBD Interface

If Perl reports that it can't find the `../mysql/mysql.so' module, then the problem is probably that Perl can't locate the shared library `libmysqlclient.so'.

You can fix this by any of the following methods:

If you get the following errors from DBD-mysql, you are probably using gcc (or using an old binary compiled with gcc):

/usr/bin/perl: can't resolve symbol '__moddi3'
/usr/bin/perl: can't resolve symbol '__divdi3'

Add -L/usr/lib/gcc-lib/... -lgcc to the link command when the `mysql.so' library gets built (check the output from make for `mysql.so' when you compile the Perl client). The -L option should specify the pathname of the directory where `libgcc.a' is located on your system.

Another cause of this problem may be that Perl and MySQL aren't both compiled with gcc. In this case, you can solve the mismatch by compiling both with gcc.

If you get the following error from DBD-mysql when you run the tests:

t/00base............install_driver(mysql) failed:
Can't load '../blib/arch/auto/DBD/mysql/mysql.so' for module DBD::mysql:
../blib/arch/auto/DBD/mysql/mysql.so: undefined symbol:
uncompress at /usr/lib/perl5/5.00503/i586-linux/DynaLoader.pm line 169.

it means that you need to include the compression library, -lz, to the link line. This can be doing the following change in the file `lib/DBD/mysql/Install.pm':

$sysliblist .= " -lm";

to

$sysliblist .= " -lm -lz";

After this, you must run 'make realclean' and then proceed with the installation from the beginning.

If you want to use the Perl module on a system that doesn't support dynamic linking (like SCO) you can generate a static version of Perl that includes DBI and DBD-mysql. The way this works is that you generate a version of Perl with the DBI code linked in and install it on top of your current Perl. Then you use that to build a version of Perl that additionally has the DBD code linked in, and install that.

On SCO, you must have the following environment variables set:

shell> LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/local/lib:/usr/progressive/lib
or
shell> LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib:/lib:/usr/local/lib:/usr/ccs/lib:\
/usr/progressive/lib:/usr/skunk/lib
shell> LIBPATH=/usr/lib:/lib:/usr/local/lib:/usr/ccs/lib:\
/usr/progressive/lib:/usr/skunk/lib
shell> MANPATH=scohelp:/usr/man:/usr/local1/man:/usr/local/man:\
/usr/skunk/man:

First, create a Perl that includes a statically linked DBI by running these commands in the directory where your DBI distribution is located:

shell> perl Makefile.PL -static -config
shell> make
shell> make install
shell> make perl

Then you must install the new Perl. The output of make perl will indicate the exact make command you will need to execute to perform the installation. On SCO, this is make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl.

Next, use the just-created Perl to create another Perl that also includes a statically-linked DBD::mysql by running these commands in the directory where your DBD-mysql distribution is located:

shell> perl Makefile.PL -static -config
shell> make
shell> make install
shell> make perl

Finally, you should install this new Perl. Again, the output of make perl indicates the command to use.


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