While compiling MySQL for Windows from the source archive is not something that’s generally recommended--it’s far safer, not to mention easier, to use the provided binaries--it’s certainly doable, assuming you have a copy of the Visual C++ 6.0 compiler (with Service Pack 5 and the preprocessor package). Here’s how it’s done:

1. Unzip the source archive to a working directory on your system.

2. Launch the Visual C++ compiler, and open the mysql.dsw workspace from the working directory. You should see a window like Figure 19.

FIGURE 19  The MySQL workspace in Visual C++

3. Choose Build | Set Active Configuration to obtain a list of available configurations. Select mysqld – Win32 Release (see Figure 20). Click OK.

FIGURE 20  Selecting which version of MySQL
to build in Visual C++

4. Begin compiling by pressing the F7 key. The various MySQL binaries will be compiled--expect the process to take from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on the capabilities of your machine. During the compilation process, the Visual C++ compiler window will display a series of messages, such as those shown in Figure 21.

FIGURE 21  Compiling MySQL for Windows in Visual C++

5. After compilation is complete, create a separate installation directory to house the compiled binaries--for example, c:\program files\mysql.

6. Create a bin\ subdirectory under this directory, and move the compiled libraries and executables into this directory. While you’re at it, also move the data\, share\, docs\, and support-files\ directories from the working directory into this directory.

7. You should now be able to start the MySQL server by diving into the bin\ subdirectory of your MySQL installation and launching the MySQL server daemon directly (mysqld.exe or mysqld-nt.exe).

Once the server has started, proceed to test it as per the instructions in “Testing MySQL,” next.

Remember: this is chapter three of MySQL: The Complete Reference, by Vikram Vaswani (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, ISBN 0-07-222477-0, 2004). Vikram is the founder of Melonfire, and has had numerous articles featured on Dev Shed.  Buy this book now.