=head1 NAME

INSTALL - How to install and configure DBD::mysql

=head1 SYNOPSIS

  perl Makefile.PL [options]

  make

  make test

  make install

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This document describes the installation and configuration of

DBD::mysql, the Perl DBI driver for the MySQL database. Before

reading on, make sure that you have the prerequisites available:

Perl, MySQL and DBI. For details see the separate section.

L</PREREQUISITES>.

Depending on your version of Perl, it might be possible to

use a binary distribution of DBD::mysql. If possible, this is

recommended. Otherwise you need to install from the sources.

If so, you will definitely need a C compiler. Installation

from binaries and sources are both described in separate

sections. L<BINARY INSTALLATION>. L<SOURCE INSTALLATION>.

Finally, if you encounter any problems, do not forget to

read the section on known problems. L<KNOWN PROBLEMS>. If

that doesn't help, you should look into the archive of the

mailing list B<perl@lists.mysql.com>. See

http://www.mysql.com for archive locations. And if that

still doesn't help, please post a question on this mailing

list.

=head1 PREREQUISITES

=over

=item Perl

Preferrably a version of Perl, that comes preconfigured with

your system. For example, all Linux and FreeBSD distributions

come with Perl. For Windows, ActivePerl is recommended, see

http://www.activestate.com for details.

=item MySQL

You need not install the actual MySQL database server, the

client files and the devlopment files are sufficient. For

example, Fedora Core 4 Linux distribution comes with RPM files

(using YUM) B<mysql.i386> and B<mysql-server.i386> (use "yum search" 

to find exact package names). These are sufficient, if the MySQL 

server is located on a foreign machine.  You may also create client

files by compiling from the MySQL source distribution and using

  configure --without-server

If you are using Windows and need to compile from sources

(which is only the case if you are not using ActivePerl),

then you must ensure that the header and library files are

installed. This may require choosing a "Custom installation"

and selecting the appropriate option when running the

MySQL setup program.

=item DBI

DBD::mysql is a DBI driver, hence you need DBI. It is available

from the same source where you got the DBD::mysql distribution

from.

=item C compiler

A C compiler is only required, if you install from source. In

most cases there are binary distributions of DBD::mysql

available. However, if you need a C compiler, make sure, that

it is the same C compiler that was used for compiling Perl and

MySQL! Otherwise you will almost definitely encounter problems

because of differences in the underlying C runtime libraries.

In the worst case, this might mean to compile Perl and MySQL

yourself. But believe me, experience shows that a lot of problems

are fixed this way.

=item Gzip libraries

Late versions of MySQL come with support for compression. Thus

it B<may> be required that you have install an RPM package like

libz-devel, libgz-devel or something similar.

=back

=head1 BINARY INSTALLATION

Binary installation is possible in the most cases, depending

on your system. I give some examples:

=head2 Windows

ActivePerl offers a PPM archive of DBD::mysql. All you need to

do is typing

  ppm

  install DBI

  install DBD-mysql

This will fetch the modules via HTTP and install them. If you

need to use a WWW proxy server, the environment variable

HTTP_proxy must be set:

  set HTTP_proxy=http://my.proxy.server:8000/

  ppm

  install DBI

  install DBD-mysql

Of course you need to replace the host name C<my.proxy.server>

and the port number C<8000> with your local values.

If the above procedure doesn't work, please upgrade to the latest

version of ActivePerl. Versions before build 623 are known to

have problems.

PPM 3 is said to miss DBD::mysql in the repository. Thus use of

PPM 3 is discouraged, in favour of PPM 2. If you need to use

PPM 3, try

  ppm

  rep add PPM2 http://ppm.activestate.com/PPMPackages/5.6plus/

  rep 2

  install DBI

  install DBD-mysql

=head2 Red Hat Linux

As of version 7.1, Red Hat Linux comes with MySQL and DBD::mysql.

You need to ensure that the following RPM's are installed:

  mysql

  perl-DBI

  perl-DBD-MySQL

For installation from source the following RPM's are required

  mysql-devel

  libz-devel

Optional are

  mysql-server

=head2 Fedora Core Linux

As of version 3, Fedora Linux comes with MySQL and DBD::mysql.

You need to ensure that the following RPM's are installed:

  mysql or mysql-server

  perl-DBD-MySQL

For installation from source the following RPM's are required

  mysql-devel

  libz-devel

Please try 

  yum search mysql

To see the exact names

Note: (important) FC 3 comes with MySQL 3.x, and some people have

upgraded using MySQL RPMs for newer versions. If you do this, you 

must re-compile you DBD::mysql because your existing DBD::mysql will be

linked against the old version of MySQL's client libs. CPAN has no way to

know or detect that you have upgraded MySQL.

=head2 Other systems

In the case of Linux or FreeBSD distributions it is very likely

that all you need comes with your distribution, as in the case

of Red Hat Linux. I just cannot give you names, as I am not using

these systems.

Please let me know if you find the files in your SuSE Linux, Debian

Linux or FreeBSD distribution so that I can extend the above list.

=head1 SOURCE INSTALLATION

So you need to install from sources. If you are lucky, the Perl

module C<CPAN> will do all for you, thanks to the excellent work

of Andreas Koenig. Otherwise you will need to do a manual

installation. Some of you, in particular system administrators

of multiple sites, will choose automatic installation. All of

these installation types have an own section. L</CPAN installation>.

L</Manual installation>. L</Configuration>.

The DBD::mysql Makefile.PL needs to know where to find your MySQL

installation. This may be achieved using command line switches

(see L</Configuration>) or automatically using the mysql_config binary

which comes with most MySQL distributions. If your MySQL distribution

contains mysql_config the easiest method is to ensure this binary

is on your path.

e.g.

  PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/mysql/bin

  export PATH

=head2 CPAN installation

Installation of DBD::mysql can be incredibly easy:

  cpan

  install DBD::mysql

If you are using the CPAN module for the first time, just answer

the questions by accepting the defaults which are fine in most

cases. If you are using an older version of Perl, you might

instead need a

  perl -MCPAN -e shell

  install DBD::mysql

If you cannot get the CPAN module working, you might try manual

installation. If installation with CPAN fails because the your local

settings have been guessed wrong, you need to ensure MySQL's

mysql_config is on your path (see L</SOURCE INSTALLATION>) or

alternatively create a script called C<mysql_config>. This is

described in more details later. L</Configuration>.

=head2 Manual installation

For a manual installation you need to fetch the DBD::mysql

source distribution. The latest version is always available

from

  http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/DBD/

The name is typically something like

  DBD-mysql-1.2216.tar.gz

The archive needs to be extracted. On Windows you may use a tool

like WinZip, on Unix you type

  gzip -cd DBD-mysql-1.2216.tar.gz | tar xf -

This will create a subdirectory DBD-mysql-1.2216. Enter this

subdirectory and type

  perl Makefile.PL

  make

  make test

(On Windows you may need to replace "make" with "nmake" or

"dmake".) If the tests seem to look fine, you may continue with

  make install

If the compilation (make) or tests fail, you might need to

configure some settings.

For example you might choose a different database, the C

compiler or the linker might need some flags. L</Configuration>.

L</Compiler flags>. L</Linker flags>.

For Windows/CygWin there is a special section below.

L<Windows/CygWin>.

=head2 Configuration

The install script "Makefile.PL" can be configured via a lot of

switches. All switches can be used on the command line. For

example, the test database:

  perl Makefile.PL --testdb=<db>

If you do not like configuring these switches on the command

line, you may alternatively create a script called C<mysql_config>.

This is described later on.

Available switches are:

=over

=item testdb

Name of the test database, defaults to B<test>.

=item testuser

Name of the test user, defaults to empty. If the name is empty,

then the currently logged in users name will be used.

=item testpassword

Password of the test user, defaults to empty.

=item testhost

Host name or IP number of the test database; defaults to localhost.

=item testport

Port number of the test database

=item ps-protcol=1 or 0

Whether to run the test suite using server prepared statements or driver

emulated prepared statemetns. ps-protocol=1 means use server prepare,

ps-protocol=0 means driver emulated.

=item cflags

This is a list of flags that you want to give to the C compiler.

The most important flag is the location of the MySQL header files.

For example, on Red Hat Linux the header files are in /usr/include/mysql

and you might try

  -I/usr/include/mysql

On Windows the header files may be in C:\mysql\include and you might try

  -IC:\mysql\include

The default flags are determined by running

  mysql_config --cflags

More details on the C compiler flags can be found in the following

section. L</Compiler flags>.

=item libs

This is a list of flags that you want to give to the linker

or loader. The most important flags are the locations and names

of additional libraries. For example, on Red Hat Linux your

MySQL client libraries are in /usr/lib/mysql and you might try

  -L/usr/lib/mysql -lmysqlclient -lz

On Windows the libraries may be in C:\mysql\lib and

  -LC:\mysql\lib -lmysqlclient

might be a good choice. The default flags are determined by running

  mysql_config --libs

More details on the linker flags can be found in a separate section.

L<Linker flags>.

=back

If a switch is not present on the command line, then the

script C<mysql_config> will be executed. This script comes

as part of the MySQL distribution. For example, to determine

the C compiler flags, we are executing

  mysql_config --cflags

  mysql_config --libs

If you want to configure your own settings for database name,

database user and so on, then you have to create a script with

the same name, that replies

=head2 Compiler flags

Note: the folling info about compiler and linker flags, you shouldn't have

to use these options because Makefile.PL is pretty good at utilising

mysql_config to get the flags that you need for a successful compile.

It is typically not so difficult to determine the appropriate

flags for the C compiler. The linker flags, which you find in

the next section, are another story.

The determination of the C compiler flags is usually left to

a configuration script called F<mysql_config>, which can be

invoked with

  mysql_config --cflags

When doing so, it will emit a line with suggested C compiler

flags, for example like this:

  -L/usr/include/mysql

The C compiler must find some header files. Header files have

the extension C<.h>. MySQL header files are, for example,

F<mysql.h> and F<mysql_version.h>. In most cases the header

files are not installed by default. For example, on Windows

it is an installation option of the MySQL setup program

(Custom installation), whether the header files are installed

or not. On Red Hat Linux, you need to install an RPM archive

F<mysql-devel> or F<MySQL-devel>.

If you know the location of the header files, then you will

need to add an option

  -L<header directory>

to the C compiler flags, for example C<-L/usr/include/mysql>.

=head2 Linker flags

Appropriate linker flags are the most common source of problems

while installing DBD::mysql. I will only give a rough overview,

you'll find more details in the troubleshooting section.

L<KNOWN PROBLEMS>

The determination of the C compiler flags is usually left to

a configuration script called F<mysql_config>, which can be

invoked with

  mysql_config --libs

When doing so, it will emit a line with suggested C compiler

flags, for example like this:

   -L'/usr/lib/mysql' -lmysqlclient -lnsl -lm   -lz -lcrypt

The following items typically need to be configured for the

linker:

=over

=item The mysqlclient library

The MySQL client library comes as part of the MySQL distribution.

Depending on your system it may be a file called

  F<libmysqlclient.a>   statically linked library, Unix

  F<libmysqlclient.so>  dynamically linked library, Unix

  F<mysqlclient.lib>    statically linked library, Windows

  F<mysqlclient.dll>    dynamically linked library, Windows

or something similar.

As in the case of the header files, the client library is typically

not installed by default. On Windows you will need to select them

while running the MySQL setup program (Custom installation). On

Red Hat Linux an RPM archive F<mysql-devel> or F<MySQL-devel> must

be installed.

The linker needs to know the location and name of the mysqlclient

library. This can be done by adding the flags

  -L<lib directory> -lmysqlclient

or by adding the complete path name. Examples:

  -L/usr/lib/mysql -lmysqlclient

  -LC:\mysql\lib -lmysqlclient

If you would like to use the static libraries (and there are

excellent reasons to do so), you need to create a separate

directory, copy the static libraries to that place and use

the -L switch above to point to your new directory. For example:

  mkdir /tmp/mysql-static

  cp /usr/lib/mysql/*.a /tmp/mysql-static

  perl Makefile.PL --libs="-L/tmp/mysql-static -lmysqlclient"

  make

  make test

  make install

  rm -rf /tmp/mysql-static

=item The gzip library

The MySQL client can use compression when talking to the MySQL

server, a nice feature when sending or receiving large texts over

a slow network.

On Unix you typically find the appropriate file name by running

  ldconfig -p | grep libz

  ldconfig -p | grep libgz

Once you know the name (libz.a or libgz.a is best), just add it

to the list of linker flags. If this seems to be causing problem

you may also try to link without gzip libraries.

=back

=head1 SPECIAL SYSTEMS

Below you find information on particular systems:

=head2 Windows/CygWin

If you are a user of Cygwin (the Redhat distribution) you already

know, it contains a nicely running perl 5.6.1, installation of

additional modules usually works as a charme via the standard

procedure of

    perl makefile.PL

    make

    make test

    make install

The Windows binary distribution of MySQL runs smoothly under Cygwin.

You can start/stop the server and use all Windows clients without problem.

But to install DBD::mysql you have to take a little special action.

Don't attempt to build DBD::mysql against either the MySQL Windows or

Linux/Unix BINARY distributions: neither will work!

You MUST compile the MySQL clients yourself under Cygwin, to get a

'libmysqlclient.a' compiled under Cygwin. Really! You'll only need

that library and the header files, you don't need any other client parts.

Continue to use the Windows binaries. And don't attempt (currently) to

build the MySQL Server part, it is unneccessary, as MySQL AB does an

excellent job to deliver optimized binaries for the mainstream

operating systems, and it is told, that the server compiled under Cygwin is

unstable.