How to compile MySQL 5.5 from sources

MySQL released 5.5 version in December 2010. This version seems to be more efficient with improvements like better improved scalability on multi-core CPU, InnoDB storage engine becomes the default engine for new tables or integration of semisynchronous replication. This version is recommended for production environments. It's interesting for administrator to thinking about upgrading. Much systems executes 5.1 version and sometimes the upgrade can be scary ... Here we are going to see how to install 5.5 version on new systems. First we need to install some packages that are needed by MySQL. So installs (or be sure that they all have been installed): bison, bzr, cmake, gcc-c++ ncurses-devel.

yum install -y bison bzr cmake gcc-c++ ncurses-devel

Then add new mysql account and group:

groupadd mysql
useradd -r -g mysql mysql

Now we need download last mysql 5.5 tar.gz archive, choose the mirror directly on mysql website.

wget http://URL_OF_MIRROR/mysql-5.5.16.tar.gz

Extracting tar.gz archive

tar -xvzf /downloads/mysql-5.5.16.tar.gz

Now go into extracted directory and execute cmake:

cd /downloads/mysql-5.5.16/
cmake . -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt/mysql \
-DMYSQL_DATADIR=/var/lib/mysql \
-DSYSCONFDIR=/etc \
-DINSTALL_PLUGINDIR=/opt/mysql/lib/mysql/plugin

Note that I use /opt/mysql for basedir /var/lib/mysql for datadir, you can use others directories by specifing them with 'DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX' and '-DMYSQL_DATADIR' options. When cmake finish to work, we can launch the make .

make

Next, if we don't encounter errors, we launch the install:

make install

Now, we create symbolic links to have mysql commands in shell:

ln -s /opt/mysql/bin/* /usr/bin/

Assign owner and group:

cd /opt/mysql/
chgrp -R mysql .
chown -R root .
chown -R mysql data

Default database installation:

scripts/mysql_install_db --user=mysql \
--datadir=/var/lib/mysql/

Copy a mysql default configuration file:

cp support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf

Copy mysql init.d script and make it executable:

cp support-files/mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql.server
chmod 755 /etc/init.d/mysql.server

Now edit this init.d script for customize both basedir and datadir paths:

vim /etc/init.d/mysql.server
## replace
basedir=
basedir=

## by
basedir=/opt/mysql
datadir=/var/lib/mysql

## save and exit
:wq

Finally, we can launch mysql server and begin to use it:

/etc/init.d/mysql.server start