MySQLdb

Various BOINC tools depend on a Python extension module called "MySQLdb". You can get the source on ​mysql-python sourceforge project.

WARNING: currently (2003/08/28) BOINC requires version 0.9.2 of Python-MySQLdb, however this could be backported to 0.9.1 in the future as many Linux distributions seem to have 0.9.1.

Installation instructions

Lines beginning with "$" indicate example commands to type in bourne shell.

Lines beginning with "#" indicate example commands to type with write access to the install location (i.e. su or sudo)

Lines beginning with ">>> " indicate example commands to type in Python.

The 'shared module' options build a shared library for the Python-MySQLdb module that is loaded at Python run-time. This requires that you have a shared version of the MySQL client library installed, i.e. libmysqlclient.so.

Debian Linux: shared module

1. Install

   # apt-get install python-mysqldb
   

   If you have multiple Python versions installed you may want to do

    # apt-get install python2.2-mysqldb
   or
    # apt-get install python2.3-mysqldb
   

Red Hat Linux: shared module

1. Download MySQL-python

   $ wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/mysql-python/MySQL-python2-0.9.2-1.i386.rpm
   

2. Install

   # rpm -i MySQL-python2-0.9.2-1.i386.rpm
   

Other Unix/Linux?: shared module

1. Download MySQL-python

   $ wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/mysql-python/MySQL-python-0.9.2.tar.gz
   

2. Unpack

   $ gunzip -c MySQL-python-0.9.2.tar.gz | tar xf -
   

3. Build

   $ cd MySQL-python-0.9.2
   $ python setup.py build
   

4. Install

   # python setup.py install
   

Unix/Linux?: compiled statically into Python

1. Download MySQL-python

   $ wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/mysql-python/MySQL-python-0.9.2.tar.gz
   

2. Unpack

   $ gunzip -c MySQL-python-0.9.2.tar.gz | tar xf -
   

3. Download Python

   $ wget http://python.org/ftp/python/2.3/Python-2.3.tgz   
   

4. Unpack

   $ gunzip -c Python-2.3.tgz | tar xf -
   

5. Copy MySQL files

   $ cp MySQL-python-0.9.2/{*.c,*.h} Python-2.3/Modules/
   $ cp MySQL-python-0.9.2/_mysql_exceptions.py Python-2.3/Lib/
   $ cp -r MySQL-python-0.9.2/MySQLdb Python-2.3/Lib/
   

6. Enter the MySQL module in the Python extension setup file.

   $ cd Python-2.3/
   $ perl -wpi.bak -e "s,^_sre _sre.c,_mysql _mysql.c `mysql_config --cflags` `mysql_config --libs`\n$&," Modules/Setup
     (This adds the line '_mysql _msql.c [flags]' to Modules/Setup)
   
   $ perl -wpi.bak -e 's,^LIBSUBDIRS=\s+,$&MySQLdb ,' Makefile.pre.in
     (This adds MySQLdb to the list of libraries to install)
   

7. Configure python

   $ cd Python-2.3/
   $ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
    or whatever path you want instead of /usr/local]
   

8. Build

   $ make
   

   Troubleshooting: If you get undefined symbols or other compile errors in _mysql.c you probably didn't add the correct include directory for mysql. If you get unresolved symbols or other link errors involving _mysql.o or libmysql.a you probably didn't add the correct libraries. You may want to check Python and MySQLdb are working before installing by running ./python; see below for instructions.
9. Install

   $ cd ../Python-2.3/
   # make install
   

Does it work?

You can check if your Python and/or MySQLdb was compiled and installed correctly like this:

$ python
>>> import MySQLdb
>>> MySQLdb.version_info
>>> MySQLdb.connect(db='databasename', user='username')