This section describes the default layout of the directories created by installing binary or source distributions provided by Oracle Corporation. A distribution provided by another vendor might use a layout different from those shown here.

On Windows, the default installation directory is C:\mysql. With MySQL version 4.1.5 and higher, this has changed to C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 4.1, where 4.1 is the major version of the installation. The folder has the following subdirectories:

Installations created from our Linux RPM distributions result in files under the following system directories:

On Unix, a tar file binary distribution is installed by unpacking it at the installation location you choose (typically /usr/local/mysql) and creates the following directories in that location:

By default, when you install MySQL after compiling it from a source distribution, the installation step installs files under /usr/local. Components are installed in the directories shown in the following table. To configure particular installation locations, use the options described at Section 2.9.3, “MySQL Source-Configuration Options”.

Within its installation directory, the layout of a source installation differs from that of a binary installation in the following ways:

To create your own binary installation from a compiled source distribution, execute the scripts/make_binary_distribution script from the top directory of the source distribution.