Following the install directions for MySQL source distribution:

shell> groupadd mysql
shell> useradd -g mysql mysql
shell> gunzip < mysql-VERSION.tar.gz | tar -xvf –
shell> cd mysql-VERSION
shell> ./configure -prefix=/usr/local/mysql
shell> make
shell> make install
shell> cp support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
shell> cd /usr/local/mysql
shell> chown -R mysql .
shell> chgrp -R mysql .
shell> bin/mysql_install_db –user=mysql
shell> chown -R root .
shell> chown -R mysql var
shell> bin/mysqld_safe –user=mysql &

I ran the configure script for MySQL. It cannot find the termcap/ncurses library. Several dozen searches later I am trying an install of ncurses-devel.

$yum install ncurses-devel.i386
$yum install ncurses-devel.x86_64

That seems to work. OK now for the make.

$make
bash: make: command not found
$whereis make
make: /usr/share/man/man1p/make.1p.gz

Make is not around or can’t be found. Hmmmn.

$yum install make.x86_64

Error:

g++ -DDEFAULT_BASEDIR=”/usr/local” -DMYSQL_DATADIR=””/usr/local/var”” – DDEFAULT_CHARSET_HOME=””/usr/local”” -DSHAREDIR=””/usr/local/share/mysql”” –
DDEFAULT_HOME_ENV=MYSQL_HOME -DDEFAULT_GROUP_SUFFIX_ENV=MYSQL_GROUP_SUFFIX –
DDEFAULT_SYSCONFDIR=””/usr/local/etc”” -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../include -I../zlib -I../include –
I../include -I. -O -fno-implicit-templates -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti -c -o my_new.o my_new.cc
../depcomp: line 571: exec: g++: not found

Looking for g++

yum install gcc-c++

Error:

g++ -DDEFAULT_BASEDIR=”/usr/local” -DMYSQL_DATADIR=””/usr/local/var”” -DDEFAULT_CHARSET_HOME=””/usr/local”” -DSHAREDIR=””/usr/local/share/mysql”” -DDEFAULT_HOME_ENV=MYSQL_HOME -DDEFAULT_GROUP_SUFFIX_ENV=MYSQL_GROUP_SUFFIX -DDEFAULT_SYSCONFDIR=””/usr/local/etc”” -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../include -I../zlib -I../include -I../include -I. -O -fno-implicit-templates -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti -c -o my_new.o my_new.cc ../include/my_global.h:1105: error: redeclaration of C++ built-in type ‘bool’

MySQL forums lead to advice wiping with make clean and doing a configure again. Confusion between gcc and g++ compiler.

That worked. MySQL 5.1.39 installed.