Prerequisites

• Python 2.3.4 or higher
  • http://www.python.org/
  • Versions lower than 2.2 WON'T WORK.
  • 2.2.x MIGHT work, or have partial functionality.
  • 2.4 is tested and works.
  • Red Hat Linux:
    • Make sure you have the Python development headers and libraries (python-devel).
• MySQL 3.23.32 or higher
  • http://www.mysql.com/downloads/
  • Versions lower than 3.22 definitely WON'T WORK.
  • Versions lower than 3.22.19 might not work.
  • MySQL-3.22 is deprecated in favor of 3.23, but still supported.
  • MySQL-3.23 is supported, but slightly deprecated.
  • MySQL-4.0 is supported.
  • MySQL-4.1 is mostly supported; the new prepared statements API is not yet supported, and probably won't be until MySQLdb-1.3 or 2.0.
  • MySQL-5.0 and newer are not currently supported, but might work.
  • MaxDB, formerly known as SAP DB (and maybe Adabas D?), is a completely different animal. Use the sapdb.sql module that comes with MaxDB.
  • Red Hat Linux packages:
    • mysql-devel to compile
    • mysql and/or mysql-devel to run
  • MySQL.com RPM packages:
    • MySQL-devel to compile
    • MySQL-shared if you want to use their shared library. Otherwise you'll get a statically-linked module, which may or may not be what you want.
    • MySQL-shared to run if you compiled with MySQL-shared installed
  • Transactions (particularly InnoDB tables) are supported for MySQL-3.23 and up. You may need a special package from your vendor with this support turned on. If you have Gentoo Linux, set either of the berkdb or innodb USE flags on your server, and comment out "skip-innodb" in /etc/mysql/my.cnf for InnoDB table support.
• zlib
  • Required for MySQL-3.23 and newer.
  • Red Hat Linux
    • zlib-devel to compile
    • zlib to run
• openssl
  • May be needed for MySQL-4.0 or newer, depending on compilation options.
• C compiler
  • Most free software-based systems already have this, usually gcc.
  • Most commercial UNIX platforms also come with a C compiler, or you can also use gcc.
  • If you have some Windows flavor, you usually have to pay extra for this, or you can use Cygwin.

Building and installing

The setup.py script uses mysql_config to find all compiler and linker options, and should work as is on any POSIX-like platform, so long as mysql_config is in your path.

Depending on which version of MySQL you have, you may have the option of using three different client libraries:

mysqlclient

mostly but not guaranteed thread-safe

mysqlclient_r

thread-safe, use if you can

mysqld

embedded server

mysqlclient_r is used by default. To use one of the others, set the environment variable mysqlclient to the name of the library you want to use. In a Bourne-style shell, use:

$ export mysqlclient=mysqlclient

Only do this if you don't have the thread-safe library (mysqlclient_r) or you want to use the embedded server (mysqld).

Finally, putting it together:

$ tar xfz MySQL-python-1.1.10.tar.gz
$ cd MySQL-python-1.1.10
$ python setup.py build
$ su # or use sudo
# python setup.py install

NOTE: You must export environment variables for setup.py to see them. Depending on what shell you prefer, you may need to use "export" or "set -x" (bash and other Bourne-like shells) or "setenv" (csh-like shells).

C:\...> python setup.py install
C:\...> python setup.py bdist_wininst

$ export ZOPEBIN=".../Zope-2.5.1-linux2-x86/bin" # wherever you unpacked it
$ $ZOPEBIN/python setup.py install # builds and installs

Binary Packages

I don't plan to make binary packages any more. However, if someone contributes one, I will make it available. Several OS vendors have their own packages available.

# apt-get install python-mysql

# emerge sync
# emerge mysql-python
# emerge zmysqlda # if you use Zope

License

GPL or the original license based on Python 1.5.2's license.