Create a mysql User and Group shell>  groupadd mysql shell>  useradd -r -g mysql -s /bin/false mysql shell>  cd /usr/local shell>  tar xvf  /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS .tar.xz shell>  ln -s  full-path-to-mysql-VERSION-OS  mysql shell>  cd mysql shell>  mkdir mysql-files shell>  chown mysql:mysql mysql-files shell>  chmod 750 mysql-files shell>  bin/mysqld --initialize --user=mysql shell>  bin/mysql_ssl_rsa_setup shell>  bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql & # Next command is optional shell>  cp support-files/mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql.server Obtain and Unpack the Distribution Note Create a mysql User and Group Note 113 Unpack the distribution, which creates the installation directory.  tar  can uncompress and unpack the distribution if it has  z  option support: Obtain a distribution file using the instructions in Section 2.1.3, “How to Get MySQL” . For a given release, binary distributions for all platforms are built from the same MySQL source distribution. Pick the directory under which you want to unpack the distribution and change location into it. The example here unpacks the distribution under  /usr/local . The instructions, therefore, assume that you have permission to create files and directories in  /usr/local . If that directory is protected, you must perform the installation as  root . Because the user is required only for ownership purposes, not login purposes, the useradd  command uses the  -r  and  -s /bin/false  options to create a user that does not have login permissions to your server host. Omit these options if your useradd  does not support them. If your system does not already have a user and group to use for running  mysqld , you may need to create them. The following commands add the  mysql  group and the  mysql  user. You might want to call the user and group something else instead of  mysql . If so, substitute the appropriate name in the following instructions. The syntax for  useradd  and  groupadd  may differ slightly on different versions of Unix/Linux, or they may have different names such as  adduser  and  addgroup . A more detailed version of the preceding description for installing a binary distribution follows. The  mysql-files  directory provides a convenient location to use as the value for the secure_file_priv  system variable, which limits import and export operations to a specific directory. See Section 5.1.8, “Server System Variables” . This procedure assumes that you have  root  (administrator) access to your system. Alternatively, you can prefix each command using the  sudo  (Linux) or  pfexec (Solaris) command. shell>  cd /usr/local shell>  groupadd mysql shell>  useradd -r -g mysql -s /bin/false mysql