MySQL Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Obtaining MySQL and Related Software

If you’re going to access a MySQL server run by somebody else, you need only the MySQL client software on your own machine. To run your own server, you’ll need a full MySQL distribution.

To write your own MySQL-based programs, you’ll need to communicate with the server through a language-specific API. The Perl, Ruby, PHP, and Python interfaces rely on the MySQL C API client library to handle the low-level client-server protocol. For Perl, Ruby, and Python, you must install the C client library and header files first. PHP includes the MySQL client support files, but must be compiled with MySQL support enabled or you won’t be able to use it. The Java JDBC driver for MySQL implements the client-server protocol itself, so it does not require the MySQL C client library.

You may not need to install the client software yourself—it might already have been built and installed for you by others. This is a common situation if you have an account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) for computing services such as a web server that is already enabled to provide access to MySQL. Under such circumstances, the MySQL libraries and header files will already have been installed by the ISP staff.

MySQL

Visit the following site to obtain a MySQL distribution:

http://dev.mysql.com/

MySQL distributions include installation instructions, and the MySQL Reference Manual also provides extensive installation information. The manual is available online at the MySQL site and ...