Let's jump straight in, grab ourselves a copy of these great packages, and get hacking! This isn't simple stuff. There are lots of options available to you for obtaining, compiling, and installing the software. Let's deal with MySQL first, as we'll need it before we get PHP going.

MySQL central is http://www.mysql.com/. As befits a program of its stature, there are a zillion mirrors located all over the globe, so do the Internet a favor and pick the one closest to you.

You've got plenty of choices at this point. If you're a do-it-yourselfer, then grab the source code. If you're not that brave, there are some precompiled binaries for other platforms already available for download.

In addition, there is a shareware version of MySQL for Windows users. It is an older version of MySQL. If you want the latest version, you'll have to purchase a license. There are also ODBC drivers that let your applications talk to MySQL. Various other exciting bits and pieces are lurking about on the site, too, so take a look.

The precompiled Unix versions and the Windows version are as simple as unpacking and going, and they don't require much explanation. So let's compile from the source code. Windows users, please keep in mind that you need to run mysqld in the mysql/bin directory.

Download the compressed file into your source directory and uncompress and untar it using gzip and tar. The fast way of doing this is to type:

gunzip < mysql-xxxx.tar.gz | tar xvf -

The xxxx is where you put the version number. This will create a directory called mysql-xxxx, which contains all the source files. Move to that directory by typing cd mysql-xxxx and check out the various README and INSTALL files. They're lifesavers in sticky situations.

MySQL comes with a handy configuration script. Simply type ./configure and let things take care of themselves. If you need to specify what happens and where, typing ./configure --help gives you a list of options to choose from. For example, if you're compiling on a machine with little memory, you can opt for the --with-low-memory flag. I like MySQL to install in one handy directory tree rather then in various locations on my machine, so I specify an install location with the --prefix flag.

You can also specify lots of other options, such as what to compile and what to skip. Let's assume that we want everything under /usr/local/mysql on our server. This means we'd type ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql.

The configure script will run and inspect your system and then build the necessary files to successfully compile. If it fails, you'll usually get a helpful error message saying why. Quite often, you'll find the script will fail when it's looking for threading libraries. Check that you've got MIT-pthreads installed on your machine, and if not, add them. Linux users will have to download LinuxThreads. These are critical libraries that allow MySQL to multithread (i.e., run multiple versions of itself). Recent distributions of Linux may already have these libraries installed.

If everything goes according to plan, simply type make and go get a coffee. MySQL is a complex program and takes some time to compile. If you get an error, check the documentation to see if there is anything specific that you've missed for your particular OS.

Next, type make install and all the necessary files will be installed in all the necessary spots. Now you're almost ready to roll! If you are a MySQL virgin and you've never installed MySQL before, you need to create the default permissions, so type ... scripts/mysql_install_db to set these up.

That's it. We're ready to roll. All we need to do is add the ability to start and stop the server at boot-up and shutdown times. And yes, there's a script for that as well. Typing mysql.server start starts the server, and mysql.server stop stops the server. It's kind of obvious, really. To start the server manually (so you can play without rebooting) enter the root directory in your MySQL installation (/usr/local/mysql) and type bin/safe_mysqld &.

You're halfway there. Now on to PHP.