UPDATE: This post is probably very out of date. Please use at your own risk.

Recently, while doing some development on my Mac, I realized I didn’t have MySQL installed. I could have loaded up an instance of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on VirtualBox and used that. However, I thought it would be much more convenient to have it available directly instead in a virtualized environment. Here are the instructions for installing it on a Mac using Homebrew.

This guide assumes Homebrew is installed and properly functioning.

 

First, ensure that Homebrew is update to date and ready to brew:

 
 
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brew update
brew doctor
brew upgrade

Next, install MySQL:

 
 
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brew install mysql

Start MySQL:

 
 
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mysql . server restart
 

Secure your MySQL installation. The main purpose of doing this is to ensure that the configuration of the local environment is set up as close as possible to the production environment.

 
 
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mysql_secure_installation

Run the following two commands to allow MySQL to run under your user account:

 
 
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unset TMPDIR
mysql_install_db -- verbose -- user = ` whoami ` \ \
-- basedir = "$(brew --prefix mysql)" \ \
-- datadir = / usr / local / var / mysql -- tmpdir = / tmp

Add the following my.cnf file to /etc:

 
 
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#
# The MySQL database server configuration file.
#
# You can copy this to one of:
# - "/etc/mysql/my.cnf" to set global options,
# - "~/.my.cnf" to set user-specific options.
#
# One can use all long options that the program supports.
# Run program with --help to get a list of available options and with
# --print-defaults to see which it would actually understand and use.
#
# For explanations see
# http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/server-system-variables.html
 
# This will be passed to all mysql clients
# It has been reported that passwords should be enclosed with
# ticks/quotes escpecially if they contain "#" chars...
# Remember to edit /etc/mysql/debian.cnf when changing
# the socket location.
[ client ]
port          = 3306
#socket     = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
 
# Here is entries for some specific programs
# The following values assume you have at least 32M ram
 
# This was formally known as [safe_mysqld]. Both versions
# are currently parsed.
[ mysqld_safe ]
#socket     = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
#nice       = 0
 
[ mysqld ]
#
# * Basic Settings
#
 
#
# * IMPORTANT
#   If you make changes to these settings and your system uses
#   apparmor, you may also need to also adjust
#   /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld.
#
 
#user       = mysql
#socket     = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
port          = 3306
#basedir    = /usr
#datadir    = /var/lib/mysql
#tmpdir     = /tmp
skip - external - locking
#
# Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on
# localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure.
bind - address          = 127.0.0.1
#
# * Fine Tuning
#
key_buffer            = 16M
max_allowed_packet    = 16M
thread_stack          = 192K
thread_cache_size    = 8
# This replaces the startup script and checks MyISAM tables if needed
# the first time they are touched
myisam - recover          = BACKUP
#max_connections       = 100
#table_cache           = 64
#thread_concurrency    = 10
#
# * Query Cache Configuration
#
query_cache_limit    = 1M
query_cache_size      = 16M
#
# * Logging and Replication
#
# Both location gets rotated by the cronjob.
# Be aware that this log type is a performance killer.
# As of 5.1 you can enable the log at runtime!
#general_log_file        = /var/log/mysql/mysql.log
#general_log             = 1
 
log_error                  = / var / log / mysql / error . log
 
# Here you can see queries with especially long duration
#log_slow_queries   = /var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log
#long_query_time = 2
#log-queries-not-using-indexes
#
# The following can be used as easy to replay backup logs or
# for replication.
# note: if you are setting up a replication slave, see
#       README.Debian about other settings you may need
#       to change.
#server-id          = 1
#log_bin            = /var/log/mysql/mysql-bin.log
expire_logs_days      = 10
max_binlog_size      = 100M
#binlog_do_db       = include_database_name
#binlog_ignore_db   = include_database_name
#
# * InnoDB
#
# InnoDB is enabled by default with a 10MB datafile in /var/lib/mysql/.
# Read the manual for more InnoDB related options. There are many!
#
# * Security Features
#
# Read the manual, too, if you want chroot!
# chroot = /var/lib/mysql/
#
# For generating SSL certificates I recommend the OpenSSL GUI "tinyca".
#
# ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/cacert.pem
# ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/server-cert.pem
# ssl-key=/etc/mysql/server-key.pem
 
# Query Caching
query - cache - type = 1
 
# Default to InnoDB
default - storage - engine = innodb
 
[ mysqldump ]
quick
quote - names
max_allowed_packet    = 16M
 
[ mysql ]
#no-auto-rehash # faster start of mysql but no tab completition
 
[ isamchk ]
key_buffer        = 16M

Restart the MySQL server:

 
 
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mysql . server restart