A more detailed version of the preceding description for installing a
binary distribution follows:

  1. Add a login 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, or they may have different names such
     as `adduser' and `addgroup'.

     You might want to call the user and group something else instead
     of `mysql'. If so, substitute the appropriate name in the
     following steps.

  2. Pick the directory under which you want to unpack the distribution
     and change location into it. In the following example, we unpack
     the distribution under `/usr/local'. (The instructions, therefore,
     assume that you have permission to create files and directories in
     `/usr/local'. If that directory is protected, you must perform the
     installation as `root'.)

          shell> cd /usr/local

  3. Obtain a distribution file using the instructions in *Note
     getting-mysql::. For a given release, binary distributions for all
     platforms are built from the same MySQL source distribution.

  4. Unpack the distribution, which creates the installation directory.
     Then create a symbolic link to that directory:

          shell> gunzip < /PATH/TO/MYSQL-VERSION-OS.tar.gz | tar xvf -
          shell> ln -s FULL-PATH-TO-MYSQL-VERSION-OS mysql

     The `tar' command creates a directory named `mysql-VERSION-OS'.
     The `ln' command makes a symbolic link to that directory. This
     lets you refer more easily to the installation directory as
     `/usr/local/mysql'.

     With GNU `tar', no separate invocation of `gunzip' is necessary.
     You can replace the first line with the following alternative
     command to uncompress and extract the distribution:

          shell> tar zxvf /PATH/TO/MYSQL-VERSION-OS.tar.gz

  5. Change location 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:

        * The `bin' 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 *Note environment-variables::.

        * The `scripts' directory contains the `mysql_install_db'
          script used to initialize the `mysql' database containing the
          grant tables that store the server access permissions.

  6. If you have not installed MySQL before, you must create the MySQL
     grant tables:

          shell> scripts/mysql_install_db --user=mysql

     If you run the command as `root', you must use the -user option as
     shown. The value of the option should be the name of the login
     account that you created in the first step to use for running the
     server. If you run the command while logged in as that user, you
     can omit the -user option.

     After creating or updating the grant tables, you need to restart
     the server manually.

  7. Change the ownership of program binaries to `root' and ownership
     of the data directory to the user that you run `mysqld' as.
     Assuming that you are located in the installation directory
     (`/usr/local/mysql'), the commands look like this:

          shell> chown -R root  .
          shell> chown -R mysql data
          shell> chgrp -R mysql .

     The first command changes the owner attribute of the files to the
     `root' user. The second changes the owner attribute of the data
     directory to the `mysql' user. The third changes the group
     attribute to the `mysql' group.

  8. If you want 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
     *Note automatic-start::.

  9. You can set up new accounts using the `bin/mysql_setpermission'
     script if you install the `DBI' and `DBD::mysql' Perl modules. For
     instructions, see *Note perl-support::.

 10. If you would like to use `mysqlaccess' and have the MySQL
     distribution in some non-standard location, 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, a `Broken pipe' error
     will occur when you run `mysqlaccess'.

After everything has been unpacked and installed, you should test your
distribution. To start the MySQL server, use the following command:

     shell> bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

If that command fails immediately and prints `mysqld ended', you can
find some information in the `HOST_NAME.err' file in the data directory.

More information about `mysqld_safe' is given in *Note mysqld-safe::.

*Note*: The accounts that are listed in the MySQL grant tables
initially have no passwords.  After starting the server, you should set
up passwords for them using the instructions in *Note
post-installation::.