Installing and Using the MySQL Launch Daemon MySQL server is now installed. If you chose to not start MySQL, then use either launchctl from the command line or start MySQL by clicking "Start" using the MySQL preference pane. For additional information, see Section 2.4.3, “Installing and Using the MySQL Launch Daemon” , and Section 2.4.4, “Installing and Using the MySQL Preference Pane” . Use the MySQL Preference Pane or launchd to configure MySQL to automatically start at bootup. When installing using the package installer, the files are installed into a directory within  /usr/ local  matching the name of the installation version and platform. For example, the installer file mysql-8.0.25- macos10.15-x86_64.dmg  installs MySQL into  /usr/local/mysql-8.0.25- macos10.15-x86_64/   with a symlink to  /usr/local/mysql . The following table shows the layout of this MySQL installation directory. The macOS installation process does not create nor install a sample  my.cnf MySQL configuration file. Table 2.7 MySQL Installation Layout on macOS Note 2.4.3 Installing and Using the MySQL Launch Daemon macOS uses launch daemons to automatically start, stop, and manage processes and applications such as MySQL. By default, the installation package (DMG) on macOS installs a launchd file named  /Library/ LaunchDaemons/com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist  that contains a plist definition similar to: 162 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>Label</key> <string>com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld</string> <key>ProcessType</key> <string>Interactive</string> Directory Contents of Directory bin mysqld  server, client and utility programs data Log files, databases, where  /usr/local/mysql/ data/mysqld.local.err  is the default error log docs Helper documents, like the Release Notes and build information include Include (header) files lib Libraries man Unix manual pages mysql-test MySQL test suite (’MySQL Test’ is disabled by default during the installation process when using the installer package (DMG)) share Miscellaneous support files, including error messages,  dictionary.txt , and rewriter SQL support-files Support scripts, such as  mysqld_multi.server , mysql.server , and  mysql-log-rotate . /tmp/mysql.sock Location of the MySQL Unix socket