MySQL

MySQL is a fast, multi-threaded, multi-user, and robust SQL database server. It is intended for mission-critical, heavy-load production systems as well as for embedding into mass-deployed software.

Installation

To install MySQL, run the following command from a terminal prompt:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

During the installation process you will be prompted to enter a password for the MySQL root user.

Once the installation is complete, the MySQL server should be started automatically. You can run the following command from a terminal prompt to check whether the MySQL server is running:

sudo netstat -tap | grep mysql

When you run this command, you should see the following line or something similar:

tcp 0 0 localhost.localdomain:mysql *:* LISTEN -

If the server is not running correctly, you can type the following command to start it:

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart

Configuration

You can edit the /etc/mysql/my.cnf file to configure the basic settings -- log file, port number, etc. For example, to configure MySQL to listen for connections from network hosts, change the bind_address directive to the server's IP address:

bind-address = 192.168.0.5
[Note]

Replace 192.168.0.5 with the appropriate address.

After making a change to /etc/mysql/my.cnf the mysql daemon will need to be restarted:

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart

Resources

  • See the MySQL Home Page for more information.

  • The MySQL Handbook is also available in the mysql-doc-5.0 package. To install the package enter the following in a terminal:

    sudo apt-get install mysql-doc-5.0

    The documentation is in HTML format, to view them enter file:///usr/share/doc/mysql-doc-5.0/refman-5.0-en.html-chapter/index.html in your browser's address bar.

  • For general SQL information see Using SQL Special Edition by Rafe Colburn.