Perform Postinstallation Setup shell>  tar xvf  /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS .tar.xz The  tar  command creates a directory named  mysql- VERSION - OS . To install MySQL from a compressed  tar  file binary distribution, your system must have GNU  XZ Utils to uncompress the distribution and a reasonable  tar  to unpack it. The compression algorithm changed from Gzip to XZ in MySQL Server 8.0.12; and the generic binary’s file extension changed from .tar.gz to .tar.xz. GNU  tar  is known to work. The standard  tar  provided with some operating systems is not able to unpack the long file names in the MySQL distribution. You should download and install GNU  tar , or if available, use a preinstalled version of GNU tar. Usually this is available as  gnutar ,  gtar , or as  tar  within a GNU or Free Software directory, such as  /usr/sfw/bin  or  /usr/local/bin . GNU  tar  is available from http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/. If your  tar  does not support the  xz  format then use the  xz  command to unpack the distribution and  tar to unpack it. Replace the preceding  tar  command with the following alternative command to uncompress and extract the distribution: Next, create a symbolic link to the installation directory created by  tar : The  ln  command makes a symbolic link to the installation directory. This enables you to refer more easily to it as  /usr/local/mysql . To avoid having to type the path name of client programs always when you are working with MySQL, you can add the  /usr/local/mysql/bin  directory to your  PATH  variable: shell>  xz -dc  /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS .tar.xz | tar x shell>  ln -s  full-path-to-mysql-VERSION-OS  mysql shell>  export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/mysql/bin The remainder of the installation process involves setting distribution ownership and access permissions, initializing the data directory, starting the MySQL server, and setting up the configuration file. For instructions, see Section 2.10, “Postinstallation Setup and Testing” . MySQL 8.0 Server requires the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Package to run on Windows platforms. Users should make sure the package has been installed on the system before installing the server. The package is available at the Microsoft Download Center. Additionally, MySQL debug binaries require Visual Studio 2015 to be installed. MySQL is available for Microsoft Windows 64-bit operating systems only. For supported Windows platform information, see https://www.mysql.com/support/supportedplatforms/database.html. There are different methods to install MySQL on Microsoft Windows. The simplest and recommended method is to download MySQL Installer (for Windows) and let it install and configure a specific version of MySQL Server as follows: Note Perform Postinstallation Setup 2.3 Installing MySQL on Microsoft Windows Important MySQL Installer Method 114