A

P P E N D I X

B

Getting Started with 

MySQL

ySQL is probably the most popular open source database. It is

M

available for Linux and you can download and install it on your

Linux machine. The package is available in source code format as well as

binary files. The easiest way to install it is to download the RPM file and

install it on your Linux machine. I have used RedHat Linux 7.1 on my

machine and installed the MySQL package that came with it.

MySQL has two basic parts, the server and the utilities used to administer

the server and connect to it. If you install the RPM package, the startup

script will be copied into the /etc/init.d directory which you use to

start the database at boot time. Client utilities are available to manage the

database.

MySQL is an easy database to use. This appendix contains some very

basic commands that you can use to get started with the database.  This is

not a MySQL manual or tutorial by any means. Comprehensive informa 

tion about MySQL can be obtained from http://www.mysql.com/doc/ web

site.

223