7.4 Installing MySQL on Linux Using RPM Packages from Oracle

The recommended way to install MySQL on RPM-based Linux distributions is by using the RPM packages provided by Oracle. There are two sources for obtaining them, for the Community Edition of MySQL:

• From the MySQL software repositories:

  • The MySQL Yum repository (see Section 7.1, “Installing MySQL on Linux Using the MySQL Yum Repository” for details).

  • The MySQL SLES repository (see Section 7.3, “Installing MySQL on Linux Using the MySQL SLES Repository” for details).

• From the Download MySQL Community Server page in the MySQL Developer Zone.

Note

RPM distributions of MySQL are also provided by other vendors. Be aware that they may differ from those built by Oracle in features, capabilities, and conventions (including communication setup), and that the installation instructions in this manual do not necessarily apply to them. The vendor's instructions should be consulted instead.

MySQL RPM Packages

Table 7.2 RPM Packages for MySQL Community Edition

Package Name	Summary
mysql-community-client	MySQL client applications and tools
mysql-community-client-plugins	Shared plugins for MySQL client applications
mysql-community-common	Common files for server and client libraries
mysql-community-devel	Development header files and libraries for MySQL database client applications
mysql-community-embedded-compat	MySQL server as an embedded library with compatibility for applications using version 18 of the library
mysql-community-icu-data-files	MySQL packaging of ICU data files needed by MySQL regular expressions
mysql-community-libs	Shared libraries for MySQL database client applications
mysql-community-libs-compat	Shared compatibility libraries for previous MySQL installations; only present if previous MySQL versions are supported by the platform
mysql-community-server	Database server and related tools
mysql-community-server-debug	Debug server and plugin binaries
mysql-community-test	Test suite for the MySQL server
mysql-community	The source code RPM looks similar to mysql-community-8.0.40-1.el7.src.rpm, depending on selected OS
Additional *debuginfo* RPMs	There are several debuginfo packages: mysql-community-client-debuginfo, mysql-community-libs-debuginfo mysql-community-server-debug-debuginfo mysql-community-server-debuginfo, and mysql-community-test-debuginfo.

Table 7.3 RPM Packages for the MySQL Enterprise Edition

Package Name	Summary
mysql-commercial-backup	MySQL Enterprise Backup (added in 8.0.11)
mysql-commercial-client	MySQL client applications and tools
mysql-commercial-client-plugins	Shared plugins for MySQL client applications
mysql-commercial-common	Common files for server and client libraries
mysql-commercial-devel	Development header files and libraries for MySQL database client applications
mysql-commercial-embedded-compat	MySQL server as an embedded library with compatibility for applications using version 18 of the library
mysql-commercial-icu-data-files	MySQL packaging of ICU data files needed by MySQL regular expressions
mysql-commercial-libs	Shared libraries for MySQL database client applications
mysql-commercial-libs-compat	Shared compatibility libraries for previous MySQL installations; only present if previous MySQL versions are supported by the platform. The version of the libraries matches the version of the libraries installed by default by the distribution you are using.
mysql-commercial-server	Database server and related tools
mysql-commercial-test	Test suite for the MySQL server
Additional *debuginfo* RPMs	There are several debuginfo packages: mysql-commercial-client-debuginfo, mysql-commercial-libs-debuginfo mysql-commercial-server-debug-debuginfo mysql-commercial-server-debuginfo, and mysql-commercial-test-debuginfo.

The full names for the RPMs have the following syntax:

packagename-version-distribution-arch.rpm

The distribution and arch values indicate the Linux distribution and the processor type for which the package was built. See the table below for lists of the distribution identifiers:

Table 7.4 MySQL Linux RPM Package Distribution Identifiers

Distribution Value	Intended Use
el{version} where {version} is the major Enterprise Linux version, such as el8	EL6 (8.0), EL7, EL8, and EL9-based platforms (for example, the corresponding versions of Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and CentOS)
fc{version} where {version} is the major Fedora version, such as fc37	Fedora 39, 40, and 41
sles12	SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12

To see all files in an RPM package (for example, mysql-community-server), use the following command:

$> rpm -qpl mysql-community-server-version-distribution-arch.rpm

The discussion in the rest of this section applies only to an installation process using the RPM packages directly downloaded from Oracle, instead of through a MySQL repository.

Dependency relationships exist among some of the packages. If you plan to install many of the packages, you may wish to download the RPM bundle tar file instead, which contains all the RPM packages listed above, so that you need not download them separately.

In most cases, you need to install the mysql-community-server, mysql-community-client, mysql-community-client-plugins, mysql-community-libs, mysql-community-icu-data-files, mysql-community-common, and mysql-community-libs-compat packages to get a functional, standard MySQL installation. To perform such a standard, basic installation, go to the folder that contains all those packages (and, preferably, no other RPM packages with similar names), and issue the following command:

$> sudo yum install mysql-community-{server,client,client-plugins,icu-data-files,common,libs}-*

Replace yum with zypper for SLES, and with dnf for Fedora.

While it is much preferable to use a high-level package management tool like yum to install the packages, users who prefer direct rpm commands can replace the yum install command with the rpm -Uvh command; however, using rpm -Uvh instead makes the installation process more prone to failure, due to potential dependency issues the installation process might run into.

To install only the client programs, you can skip mysql-community-server in your list of packages to install; issue the following command:

$> sudo yum install mysql-community-{client,client-plugins,common,libs}-*

Replace yum with zypper for SLES, and with dnf for Fedora.

A standard installation of MySQL using the RPM packages result in files and resources created under the system directories, shown in the following table.

Table 7.5 MySQL Installation Layout for Linux RPM Packages from the MySQL Developer Zone

Files or Resources	Location
Client programs and scripts	/usr/bin
mysqld server	/usr/sbin
Configuration file	/etc/my.cnf
Data directory	/var/lib/mysql
Error log file	For RHEL, Oracle Linux, CentOS or Fedora platforms: /var/log/mysqld.log For SLES: /var/log/mysql/mysqld.log
Value of secure_file_priv	/var/lib/mysql-files
System V init script	For RHEL, Oracle Linux, CentOS or Fedora platforms: /etc/init.d/mysqld For SLES: /etc/init.d/mysql
Systemd service	For RHEL, Oracle Linux, CentOS or Fedora platforms: mysqld For SLES: mysql
Pid file	/var/run/mysql/mysqld.pid
Socket	/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
Keyring directory	/var/lib/mysql-keyring
Unix manual pages	/usr/share/man
Include (header) files	/usr/include/mysql
Libraries	/usr/lib/mysql
Miscellaneous support files (for example, error messages, and character set files)	/usr/share/mysql

The installation also creates a user named mysql and a group named mysql on the system.

Notes

• The mysql user is created using the -r and -s /bin/false options of the useradd command, so that it does not have login permissions to your server host (see Creating the mysql User and Group for details). To switch to the mysql user on your OS, use the --shell=/bin/bash option for the su command:

  su - mysql --shell=/bin/bash

• Installation of previous versions of MySQL using older packages might have created a configuration file named /usr/my.cnf. It is highly recommended that you examine the contents of the file and migrate the desired settings inside to the file /etc/my.cnf file, then remove /usr/my.cnf.

MySQL is NOT automatically started at the end of the installation process. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux, CentOS, and Fedora systems, use the following command to start MySQL:

$> systemctl start mysqld

For SLES systems, the command is the same, but the service name is different:

$> systemctl start mysql

If the operating system is systemd enabled, standard systemctl (or alternatively, service with the arguments reversed) commands such as stop, start, status, and restart should be used to manage the MySQL server service. The mysqld service is enabled by default, and it starts at system reboot. Notice that certain things might work differently on systemd platforms: for example, changing the location of the data directory might cause issues. See Section 7.9, “Managing MySQL Server with systemd” for additional information.

During an upgrade installation using RPM and DEB packages, if the MySQL server is running when the upgrade occurs then the MySQL server is stopped, the upgrade occurs, and the MySQL server is restarted. One exception: if the edition also changes during an upgrade (such as community to commercial, or vice-versa), then MySQL server is not restarted.

At the initial start up of the server, the following happens, given that the data directory of the server is empty:

• The server is initialized.

• An SSL certificate and key files are generated in the data directory.

• validate_password is installed and enabled.

• A superuser account 'root'@'localhost' is created. A password for the superuser is set and stored in the error log file. To reveal it, use the following command for RHEL, Oracle Linux, CentOS, and Fedora systems:

  $> sudo grep 'temporary password' /var/log/mysqld.log

  Use the following command for SLES systems:

  $> sudo grep 'temporary password' /var/log/mysql/mysqld.log

  The next step is to log in with the generated, temporary password and set a custom password for the superuser account:

$> mysql -uroot -p

mysql> ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'MyNewPass4!';

Note

validate_password is installed by default. The default password policy implemented by validate_password requires that passwords contain at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one digit, and one special character, and that the total password length is at least 8 characters.

If something goes wrong during installation, you might find debug information in the error log file /var/log/mysqld.log.

For some Linux distributions, it might be necessary to increase the limit on number of file descriptors available to mysqld. See File Not Found and Similar Errors

Installing Client Libraries from Multiple MySQL Versions.  It is possible to install multiple client library versions, such as for the case that you want to maintain compatibility with older applications linked against previous libraries. To install an older client library, use the --oldpackage option with rpm. For example, to install mysql-community-libs-5.5 on an EL6 system that has libmysqlclient.21 from MySQL 8.0, use a command like this:

$> rpm --oldpackage -ivh mysql-community-libs-5.5.50-2.el6.x86_64.rpm

Debug Package.  A special variant of MySQL Server compiled with the debug package has been included in the server RPM packages. It performs debugging and memory allocation checks and produces a trace file when the server is running. To use that debug version, start MySQL with /usr/sbin/mysqld-debug, instead of starting it as a service or with /usr/sbin/mysqld. See The DBUG Package for the debug options you can use.

Note

The default plugin directory for debug builds changed from /usr/lib64/mysql/plugin to /usr/lib64/mysql/plugin/debug in MySQL 8.0.4. Previously, it was necessary to change plugin_dir to /usr/lib64/mysql/plugin/debug for debug builds.

Rebuilding RPMs from source SRPMs.  Source code SRPM packages for MySQL are available for download. They can be used as-is to rebuild the MySQL RPMs with the standard rpmbuild tool chain.