Installing the MySQL database server

Practically all operating systems that come with a package management solution for open source software make MySQL packages available for installation. In this recipe, we will install MySQL from a package and set it up on your system. The server package automatically installs MySQL's command-line client package as well.

How to do it...

Follow these steps to set up MySQL on your server:

1. Follow the steps described in the Installing software packages recipe in Chapter 1, Setting Up Your System, to find and install the MySQL database server package.

   Note

   Most distributions make multiple versions of MySQL available in their package repositories. On some systems, you will find a meta-package called mysql-server that installs the latest version. On other systems, you will find packages with version numbers in the name, for instance mysql-server-5.5 or mysql55-server for version 5.5.x. Pick the package with the latest version unless you have reasons to stick to an...