PHP
By Web Monkey
Page 2 — Installing MySQL
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Let's jump straight in, grab ourselves a copy of these great
packages, and get hacking! This isn't simple stuff. There
are lots of options available to you for obtaining, compiling,
and installing the software. Let's deal with MySQL first,
as we'll need it before we get PHP going.
MySQL central is http://www.mysql.com/. As befits a program
of its stature, there are a zillion mirrors located all over
the globe, so do the Internet a favor and pick the one closest
to you.
You've got plenty of choices at this point. If you're a do-it-yourselfer,
then grab the source code. If you're not that brave, there
are some precompiled binaries for other platforms already
available for download.
In addition, there is a shareware version of MySQL for Windows
users. It is an older version of MySQL. If you want the latest
version, you'll have to purchase a license. There are also
ODBC drivers that let your applications talk to MySQL. Various
other exciting bits and pieces are lurking about on the site,
too, so take a look.
The precompiled Unix versions and the Windows version are
as simple as unpacking and going, and they don't require much
explanation. So let's compile from the source code. Windows
users, please keep in mind that you need to run mysqld in
the mysql/bin directory.
Download the compressed file into your source directory and
uncompress and untar it using gzip and tar. The fast way of
doing this is to type:
gunzip
< mysql-xxxx.tar.gz | tar xvf -
The xxxx is where you put the version number. This will create
a directory called mysql-xxxx, which contains all the source
files. Move to that directory by typing cd mysql-xxxx and
check out the various README and INSTALL files. They're lifesavers
in sticky situations.
MySQL comes with a handy configuration script. Simply type
./configure and let things take care of themselves. If you
need to specify what happens and where, typing ./configure
--help gives you a list of options to choose from. For example,
if you're compiling on a machine with little memory, you can
opt for the --with-low-memory flag. I like MySQL to install
in one handy directory tree rather then in various locations
on my machine, so I specify an install location with the --prefix
flag.
You can also specify lots of other options, such as what
to compile and what to skip. Let's assume that we want everything
under /usr/local/mysql on our server. This means we'd type
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql.
The configure script will run and inspect your system and
then build the necessary files to successfully compile. If
it fails, you'll usually get a helpful error message saying
why. Quite often, you'll find the script will fail when it's
looking for threading libraries. Check that you've got MIT-pthreads
installed on your machine, and if not, add them. Linux users
will have to download LinuxThreads. These are critical libraries
that allow MySQL to multithread (i.e., run multiple versions
of itself). Recent distributions of Linux may already have
these libraries installed.
If everything goes according to plan, simply type make and
go get a coffee. MySQL is a complex program and takes some
time to compile. If you get an error, check the documentation
to see if there is anything specific that you've missed for
your particular OS.
Next, type make install and all the necessary files will
be installed in all the necessary spots. Now you're almost
ready to roll! If you are a MySQL virgin and you've never
installed MySQL before, you need to create the default permissions,
so type ... scripts/mysql_install_db to set these up.
That's it. We're ready to roll. All we need to do is add
the ability to start and stop the server at boot-up and shutdown
times. And yes, there's a script for that as well. Typing
mysql.server start starts the server, and mysql.server stop
stops the server. It's kind of obvious, really. To start the
server manually (so you can play without rebooting) enter
the root directory in your MySQL installation (/usr/local/mysql)
and type bin/safe_mysqld &.
You're halfway there. Now on to PHP.
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