The recommended way to install MySQL on RPM-based Linux distributions is by using the RPM packages. The RPMs that we provide to the community should work on all versions of Linux that support RPM packages and use glibc 2.3. To obtain RPM packages, see Section 2.1.3, "How to Get MySQL".

For non-RPM Linux distributions, you can install MySQL using a .tar.gz package. See Section 2.2, "Installing MySQL on Unix/Linux Using Generic Binaries".

Installations created from our Linux RPM distributions result in files under the system directories shown in the following table.

In most cases, you need to install only the MySQL-server and MySQL-client packages to get a functional MySQL installation. The other packages are not required for a standard installation.

New RPM install operations (not upgrades) invoke mysql_install_db with the --random-passwords option that provides for more secure MySQL installation. Invoking mysql_install_db with --random-passwords causes it to assign a random password to the MySQL root accounts, set the "password expired" flag for those accounts, and remove the anonymous-user MySQL accounts. It will be necessary after installation to start the server, connect as root using the password written to the $HOME/.mysql_secret file, and assign a new root password. Until this is done, root cannot do anything else. This must be done for each root account you intend to use. To change the password, you can use the SET PASSWORD statement (for example, with the mysql client). You can also use mysqladmin or mysql_secure_installation. For additional details, see Section 4.4.3, "mysql_install_db — Initialize MySQL Data Directory". (Install operations using RPMs for Unbreakable Linux Network are unaffected because they do not use mysql_install_db.)

For upgrades, if your installation was originally produced by installing multiple RPM packages, it is best to upgrade all the packages, not just some. For example, if you previously installed the server and client RPMs, do not upgrade just the server RPM.

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

The RPM packages shown in the following list are available. The names shown here use a suffix of .glibc23.i386.rpm, but particular packages can have different suffixes, described later.

The suffix of RPM package names (following the VERSION value) has the following syntax:

.PLATFORM.CPU.rpm

The PLATFORM and CPU values indicate the type of system for which the package is built. PLATFORM indicates the platform and CPU indicates the processor type or family.

All packages are dynamically linked against glibc 2.3. The PLATFORM value indicates whether the package is platform independent or intended for a specific platform, as shown in the following table.

In MySQL 5.7, only glibc23 packages are available currently.

The CPU value indicates the processor type or family for which the package is built.

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

shell> rpm -qpl MySQL-server-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpm

To perform a standard minimal installation, install the server and client RPMs:

shell> rpm -i MySQL-server-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpmshell> rpm -i MySQL-client-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpm

To install only the client programs, install just the client RPM:

shell> rpm -i MySQL-client-VERSION.glibc23.i386.rpm

RPM provides a feature to verify the integrity and authenticity of packages before installing them. To learn more about this feature, see Section 2.1.4, "Verifying Package Integrity Using MD5 Checksums or GnuPG".

The server RPM places data under the /var/lib/mysql directory. The RPM also creates a login account for a user named mysql (if one does not exist) to use for running the MySQL server, and 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 that you do not lose it when you install a newer RPM.) See Section 2.10.1.2, "Starting and Stopping MySQL Automatically", for more information on how MySQL can be started automatically on system startup.

In MySQL 5.7, during a new installation, the server boot scripts are installed, but the MySQL server is not started at the end of the installation, since the status of the server during an unattended installation is not known.

In MySQL 5.7, during an upgrade installation using the RPM packages, if the MySQL server is running when the upgrade occurs, the MySQL server is stopped, the upgrade occurs, and the MySQL server is restarted. If the MySQL server is not already running when the RPM upgrade occurs, the MySQL server is not started at the end of the installation.

If something goes wrong, you can find more information in the binary installation section. See Section 2.2, "Installing MySQL on Unix/Linux Using Generic Binaries".

During RPM installation, a user named mysql and a group named mysql are created on the system. This is done using the useradd, groupadd, and usermod commands. Those commands require appropriate administrative privileges, which is required for locally managed users and groups (as listed in the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files) by the RPM installation process being run by root.

If you log in as the mysql user, you may find that MySQL displays "Invalid (old?) table or database name" errors that mention .mysqlgui, lost+found, .mysqlgui, .bash_history, .fonts.cache-1, .lesshst, .mysql_history, .profile, .viminfo, and similar files created by MySQL or operating system utilities. You can safely ignore these error messages or remove the files or directories that cause them if you do not need them.

For nonlocal user management (LDAP, NIS, and so forth), the administrative tools may require additional authentication (such as a password), and will fail if the installing user does not provide this authentication. Even if they fail, the RPM installation will not abort but succeed, and this is intentional. If they failed, some of the intended transfer of ownership may be missing, and it is recommended that the system administrator then manually ensures some appropriate user and group exists and manually transfers ownership following the actions in the RPM spec file.

In MySQL 5.7.2, the RPM spec file has been updated, which has the following consequences:

Additional details follow.

For a non-upgrade installation of MySQL 5.7.2, it is possible to install using yum:

shell> yum install MySQL-server-NEWVERSION.glibc23.i386.rpm

For upgrades to MySQL 5.7.2, the upgrade is performed by removing the old installation and installing the new one. To do this, use the following procedure:

Alternatively, the removal and installation can be done using yum:

shell> yum remove MySQL-server-OLDVERSION.glibc23.i386.rpmshell> yum install MySQL-server-NEWVERSION.glibc23.i386.rpm