How to Install MySQL on Mac OSX

This should be really straightforward, but I found myself googling around. I wrote a recent post about how to create a web app with the Laravel PHP framework but connecting to the database was tricky.

First step, find out what version of OS X you are running. Click the apple icon in the top right corner of your screen and click “About This Mac”. I got something like this:

Next step, head over to the MySQL downloads page.

A whole lot of options to choose from, discouraging for first time users

So with my computer I am running 10.11 and we want the .dmg file. Download Mac OS X 10.10 (x86, 64-bit), DMG Archive. Then you get to this lame screen:

MySQL is free and open source software (FOSS), you do not need to sign up or create an account. Click “No thanks, just start my download”. I let the download go directly to my “Downloads” folder when prompted, though you could place it anywhere. The download will take some time because it is 350mb, go get a coffee. Once the download is complete. Double click the file and a screen like this will open

The MySQL installer for OSX (**Mac OS X 10.10 (x86, 64-bit), DMG Archive)**, downloaded from https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/

Double click it and go through the install process.

When I did it I got an alert box:

This is okay, but copy and paste the password to have for future reference.

Add to path. This went in ~/.zshrc because I am using ZSH. If you are using bash for terminal (the default on OS X) this will be the ~/.bashrc file or ~/.bash_profile. This post explains the difference between the two files.

$ sublime ~/.zshrc
$ source ~/.zshrc

Add the mysql download to your path so that you can use the “mysql” command from the command line.

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

Then test it out:

$ mysql — version
mysql Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.7.10, for osx10.9 (x86_64) using EditLine wrapper