How to Install MySQL on macOS

MySQL is a relational database management system. MySQL is the widely used database server in the world. This tutorial helps you to install MySQL database server on macOS Sierra 10.12 and High Sierra 10.13 and other supported versions using Homebrew.

Step 1 – Prerequisites

Before starting the installation of MySQL using this tutorial you must have the following prerequisites

• Terminal: You must have Mac Terminal access and little knowledge about working with the terminal application.
• Homebrew: Homebrew is a popular package management tools used for installing most open source software like Node. Here is the Homebrew installation tutorial

Step 2 – Install MySQL on macOS

At this time of writing this tutorial, Homebrew has MySQL 5.7.21 version in its main repository. Start a terminal and run command to install MySQL:

brew install mysql

Wait for the installation process finish. Now you just need to configure things so that your MySQL server is auto-started

brew services start mysql

Also, you have to set a strong password for the MySQL root account. Use the following command to set a new password. Make sure to use a strong password.

mysqladmin -u root password 'newpassword'

Step 3 – MySQL Configuration

MySQL server has been installed on your system. The binary files are installed under /usr/local/bin directory and all the MySQL related files are created under “/usr/local/var/mysql” directory. The main confiugration file is created at:

Configuration file:  /usr/local/etc/my.cnf

You can use above file to customize your MySQL server. Now, Connect to MySQL server using the command:

mysql -u root -p

Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 4
Server version: 5.7.21 Homebrew

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql>

Step 4 – Manage MySQL Service

There are mysql.server command available under /usr/local/bin directory, which is used to manage MySQL service. You can use mysql.server command with options status, stop, start, or restart MySQL service on your system.

mysql.server status        ## Show status of MySQL
mysql.server stop          ## Stop MySQL service
mysql.server start         ## Start MySQL service
mysql.server restart       ## Restart MySQL service

All done. You have running MySQL server on your system. What next? Visit our MySQL tutorial section to create and manage databases from the command line.