You can install MySQL on Mac OS X 10.2.x (“Jaguar”) and up using a Mac OS X binary package in PKG format instead of the binary tarball distribution. Please note that older versions of Mac OS X (for example, 10.1.x) are not supported by this package.
The package is located inside a disk image (.dmg) file that you first need to mount by double-clicking its icon in the Finder. It should then mount the image and display its contents.
Note: Before proceeding with the installation, be sure to shut down all running MySQL server instances by either using the MySQL Manager Application (on Mac OS X Server) or via mysqladmin shutdown on the command line.
To actually install the MySQL PKG file, double-click on the package icon. This launches the Mac OS X Package Installer, which guides you through the installation of MySQL.
Due to a bug in the Mac OS X package installer, you may see this error message in the destination disk selection dialog:
You cannot install this software on this disk. (null)
If this error occurs, simply click the Go Back button once to return to the previous screen. Then click Continue to advance to the destination disk selection again, and you should be able to choose the destination disk correctly. We have reported this bug to Apple and it is investigating this problem.
The Mac OS X PKG of MySQL installs itself into /usr/local/mysql-VERSION and also installs a symbolic link, /usr/local/mysql, pointing to the new location. If a directory named /usr/local/mysql exists, it is renamed to /usr/local/mysql.bak first. Additionally, the installer creates the grant tables in the mysql database by executing mysql_install_db after the installation.
The installation layout is similar to that of a tar file binary distribution; all MySQL binaries are located in the directory /usr/local/mysql/bin. The MySQL socket file is created as /tmp/mysql.sock by default.
MySQL installation requires a Mac OS X user account named mysql. A user account with this name should exist by default on Mac OS X 10.2 and up.
If you are running Mac OS X Server, you have a version of MySQL installed. The versions of MySQL that ship with Mac OS X Server versions are shown in the following table:
Mac OS X Server Version