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MySQL 5.0 Reference Manual :: 4 MySQL Programs :: 4.4 MySQL Installation-Related Programs :: 4.4.6 mysql_install_db — Initialize MySQL Data Directory
4.4.7 mysql_secure_installation — Improve MySQL Installation Security »
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4.4.6. mysql_install_db — Initialize MySQL Data Directory

mysql_install_db initializes the MySQL data directory and creates the system tables that it contains, if they do not exist. Because the MySQL server, mysqld, needs to access the data directory when it runs later, you should either run mysql_install_db from the same account that will be used for running mysqld or run it as root and use the --user option to indicate the username that mysqld will run as.

To invoke mysql_install_db, use the following syntax: 

shell> mysql_install_db [options]

mysql_install_db needs to invoke mysqld with the --bootstrap and --skip-grant-tables options (see Section 2.16.2, “Typical configure Options”). If MySQL was configured with the --disable-grant-options option, --bootstrap and --skip-grant-tables will be disabled. To handle this, set the MYSQLD_BOOTSTRAP environment variable to the full pathname of a server that has all options enabled. mysql_install_db will use that server.

mysql_install_db supports the following options:

  • --basedir=path

    The path to the MySQL installation directory.

  • --force

    Causes mysql_install_db to run even if DNS does not work. In that case, grant table entries that normally use hostnames will use IP addresses.

  • --datadir=path, --ldata=path

    The path to the MySQL data directory.

  • --rpm

    For internal use. This option is used by RPM files during the MySQL installation process.

  • --skip-name-resolve

    Use IP addresses rather than hostnames when creating grant table entries. This option can be useful if your DNS does not work.

  • --srcdir=path

    For internal use. The directory under which mysql_install_db looks for support files such as the error message file and the file for populating the help tables. This option was added in MySQL 5.0.32.

  • --user=user_name

    The login username to use for running mysqld. Files and directories created by mysqld will be owned by this user. You must be root to use this option. By default, mysqld runs using your current login name and files and directories that it creates will be owned by you.

  • --verbose

    Verbose mode. Print more information about what the program does.

  • --windows

    For internal use. This option is used for creating Windows distributions.


User Comments

Posted by Peter N. Hrebicek on April 8 2004 10:55pm[Delete] [Edit]

If you experience problems like "You have an error in your SQL Syntax near...", check net_buffer_length in your my.cnf.

In the "shipped" my-small.cnf/my-medium.cnf files its been set to 2K/8K.

For any reason mysql_install_db fails when net_buffer_length is set to anything under 16k. It also works with the default value if you just dont specify it in the my.cnf.

Posted by Gabriel Correa on April 23 2004 12:22pm[Delete] [Edit]

I'd like to add a probably obvious note to Peter's comment.

On linux, the mysql_install_db script will look in /etc for a my.cnf file. It is likely that it will look in the defaults on most/all systems. If you are installing mysql on a system that already had mysql installed on it, it will use this old values.

In my case, I was installing mysql4 on a machine that had 3.23 installed on it, and the old net_buffer_link value was set to 8K. I wanted to mention this, since the instructions I used didn't explicitly mention that it is wise to look for old configuration information.


Posted by Tarun Dua on May 21 2004 4:00pm[Delete] [Edit]

While instalingl mysql-4.0.20 from source on a Redhat 9 box which had mysql-3.23.xx preinstalled. I also needed to move the /etc/my.cnf to another location while I installed the privilege tables using bin/msyql_install_db

Posted by William Hooper on July 2 2004 1:25pm[Delete] [Edit]

I ran mysql_install_db as root. When I ran the shell command, "mysql_safe --user=mysql &", it failed to run, just as described in this section. The error message in my ~.local.err file was "...failed to find host.frm (errno 13)...". I listed data/mysql, and found that all the files were owned by--you guessed it--root. Duh!! The simple fix was a shell command, "chmod -R mysql.mysql data/mysql". Everything seems fine now; if you have a similar problem, I hope this helps.

Posted by Peter Flynn on September 13 2004 1:19pm[Delete] [Edit]

In a virgin installation of mysql-3.23.58-1.i386.rpm on RHEL3,
the installation directory appears to be /usr/share/mysql.

Running mysql_install_db gives the error message:
Didn't find /usr/libexec/mysqld
You should do a 'make install' before executing this script

There appears to be no documented solution to this at the moment.

Posted by Levente Móró on October 3 2004 10:30am[Delete] [Edit]

[Re: previous post by William Hooper on July 2 2004 5:25pm]

Instead of chmod, I assume you meant: chown -R mysql.mysql data/mysql

Posted by [name withheld] on January 5 2005 12:39pm[Delete] [Edit]

I ran into same problem as posted above. The problem comes because the SQL server is not installed. Install the right rpm (mysql-server-*) and you are done!
=== original posted problem ===========
In a virgin installation of mysql-3.23.58-1.i386.rpm on RHEL3,
the installation directory appears to be /usr/share/mysql.

Running mysql_install_db gives the error message:
Didn't find /usr/libexec/mysqld
You should do a 'make install' before executing this script

There appears to be no documented solution to this at the moment.

Posted by Bernhard Friedrichs on September 30 2005 1:54pm[Delete] [Edit]

Selbiges passiert auch wenn das loopback interface nicht konfiguriet ist, als ping localhost nicht antwortet

Posted by camden lindsay on January 5 2006 5:54pm[Delete] [Edit]

For all the linux Newbies out there--
I ran into an error 13- not allowing access to the /root/tmp folder. This essentially what is listed earlier on the page as you do not have write access to /tmp.

In my case this was due to the TMPDIR environtmental variable being set to /root/tmp. To view the environtmental variables, type 'env'.

By running the commands suggested, you temporarily change the TMPDIR environmental variable to /some_tmp_dir. If you have defined your MYSQL_UNIX_PORT in your build, it should probably be that directory.

shell> TMPDIR=/some_tmp_dir/
shell> MYSQL_UNIX_PORT=/some_tmp_dir/mysql.sock
shell> export TMPDIR MYSQL_UNIX_PORT

hope this helps someone

Posted by Jack Daniels on July 28 2006 11:10pm[Delete] [Edit]

If you suspect permission problems and but find all file and
directory permissions in place and ok then selinux must be
giving the problem. I know because I ran into it.

Try disabling selinux (by running system-config-securitylevel
on fedora core 3 which i have) and retry. It things work out
then fine tune selinux for your system

Posted by Rick Pelleg on December 23 2006 6:08am[Delete] [Edit]

After installing the distribution package mysql-standard-5.0.27-solaris8-sparc-64bit.pkg in its default location (/opt/mysql/mysql) I had to explicitely set the datadir when running "mysql_install_db":

mysql_install_db --user=mysql --datadir=/opt/mysql/mysql/data

otherwise, mysqld_safe failed with "Fatal error: Can't open and lock privilege tables: Table 'mysql.host' doesn't exist". I found the error by specifying --log-error:

mysqld_safe --user=mysql --verbose --log-error=/tmp/mysql.error.log



Posted by Don Cohen on September 11 2007 11:23pm[Delete] [Edit]

mysql_install_db by default reads /etc/my.cnf
If you want it to read configuration data from somewhere else:
bin/mysql_install_db -defaults-file=somewhere-else

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