Once testing is complete, you should perform two more tasks to complete your MySQL installation:

Alter the MySQL root Password

When MySQL is first installed, access to the database server is restricted to the MySQL administrator, aka root. By default, this user is initialized with a null password, which is generally considered a Bad Thing. You should therefore rectify this as soon as possible by setting a password for this user via the included mysqladmin utility, using the following syntax in UNIX

[root@host]# /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -u root password ' <new-password>'
C:\> c:\program files\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root password ' <new-password>'

This password change goes into effect immediately, with no requirement to restart the server or flush the privilege table.

NOTE  The MySQL root user is not the same as the system root user on UNIX.

Configure MySQL to Start Automatically When the System Boots up
On UNIX, MySQL comes with a startup/shutdown script, which is the recommended way of starting and stopping the MySQL database server. This script, named mysql.server, is available in the support-files subdirectory of your MySQL installation, and it can be invoked as follows:

[root@host]# /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server start
[root@host]# /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server stop

To have MySQL start automatically at boot time, you simply need to copy this script to the /etc/init.d/* directory hierarchy of your system, and then you can invoke it with appropriate parameters from your system’s bootup and shutdown scripts.

To start MySQL automatically on Windows, you can simply add a link to the mysqld server binary to your Startup group. For more information, please refer to Chapter 13.

With a Little Help from My Friends… In case you have problems starting the MySQL server, you can obtain fairly detailed information on what went wrong by looking at the MySQL error log. Most often, this log can be found in the var subdirectory of your MySQL installation, and it is named hostname.err. Other common problems, such as a forgotten superuser password or incorrect path settings, can also be discovered and resolved via a close study of this error log. You can also visit the following resources for advice on how to resolve problems you may encounter during the installation process: • The MySQL manual http://www.mysql.com/documentation • The MySQL mailing lists http://lists.mysql.com • Google http://www.google.com • Google Groups http://groups.google.com If you’re reporting a problem or a bug, remember to use the supplied mysqlbug script to gather necessary system information and include it in your report.

Summary

As a popular open-source application, MySQL is available for a wide variety of platforms and architectures, in both binary and source form. This chapter explained the distinction among the different versions of MySQL, together with recommendations on the most appropriate version for your requirements; it also demonstrated the process of installing MySQL on the two most common platforms, Linux and Windows. It provided installation and configuration instructions for both binary and source distributions and also provided pointers to online resources for other platforms and for detailed troubleshooting advice and assistance.

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.