Installation

Warning

This extension was deprecated in PHP 5.5.0, and it was removed in PHP 7.0.0. Instead, the MySQLi or PDO_MySQL extension should be used. See also MySQL: choosing an API guide. Alternatives to this function include:

For compiling, simply use the --with-mysql[=DIR] configuration option where the optional [DIR] points to the MySQL installation directory.

Although this MySQL extension is compatible with MySQL 4.1.0 and greater, it doesn't support the extra functionality that these versions provide. For that, use the MySQLi extension.

If you would like to install the mysql extension along with the mysqli extension you have to use the same client library to avoid any conflicts.

Installation on Linux Systems

Note: [DIR] is the path to the MySQL client library files (headers and libraries), which can be downloaded from » MySQL.

ext/mysql compile time support matrix
PHP Version Default Configure Options: mysqlnd Configure Options: libmysqlclient Changelog
4.x.x libmysqlclient Not Available --without-mysql to disable MySQL enabled by default, MySQL client libraries are bundled
5.0.x, 5.1.x, 5.2.x libmysqlclient Not Available --with-mysql=[DIR] MySQL is no longer enabled by default, and the MySQL client libraries are no longer bundled
5.3.x libmysqlclient --with-mysql=mysqlnd --with-mysql=[DIR] mysqlnd is now available
5.4.x mysqlnd --with-mysql --with-mysql=[DIR] mysqlnd is now the default

Installation on Windows Systems

PHP 5.0.x, 5.1.x, 5.2.x

MySQL is no longer enabled by default, so the php_mysql.dll DLL must be enabled inside of php.ini. Also, PHP needs access to the MySQL client library. A file named libmysql.dll is included in the Windows PHP distribution and in order for PHP to talk to MySQL this file needs to be available to the Windows systems PATH. See the FAQ titled "How do I add my PHP directory to the PATH on Windows" for information on how to do this. Although copying libmysql.dll to the Windows system directory also works (because the system directory is by default in the system's PATH), it's not recommended.

As with enabling any PHP extension (such as php_mysql.dll), the PHP directive extension_dir should be set to the directory where the PHP extensions are located. See also the Manual Windows Installation Instructions. An example extension_dir value for PHP 5 is c:\php\ext

Note:

If when starting the web server an error similar to the following occurs: "Unable to load dynamic library './php_mysql.dll'", this is because php_mysql.dll and/or libmysql.dll cannot be found by the system.

PHP 5.3.0+

The MySQL Native Driver is enabled by default. Include php_mysql.dll, but libmysql.dll is no longer required or used.

MySQL Installation Notes

Warning

Crashes and startup problems of PHP may be encountered when loading this extension in conjunction with the recode extension. See the recode extension for more information.

Note:

If you need charsets other than latin (default), you have to install external (not bundled) libmysqlclient with compiled charset support.

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User Contributed Notes 7 notes

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7
heneryville at gmail dot com
14 years ago
I believe that this is happens especially with Windows 7.  As far I I've been able to tell XP and Vista come with this line enabled, but windows 7 comments it out and notes that the DNS will handle this.
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jonnus
16 years ago
In windows systems, the same error "unable to load dynamic library php_mysql.dll" will happen, if there's an old version of the file in the "windows\system32" folder.
Either remove it or update it.
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buzzr515 at gmx dot de
14 years ago
i've experienced a similar (if not the same) problem.

to enable the mysql_... and mysqli_... funtionality, i opened the php.ini file to uncomment the following lines:
;extension=php_mysql.dll
;extension=php_mysqli.dll
;extension=php_pdo_mysql.dll

but phpinfo() still stated that no mysql extensions were loaded.
i tried the fixes and suggestions above with no success.
so i invoked the windows shell and typed ("Path" environment variable set to the PHP & MySQL directories):
php.exe -m

this returned the following error: "PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'C:\php5\php_mysql.dll' - Module not found."

this told me that PHP didn't recognize what i thought was the extensions directory. it searched all other places first (sys-dir, workin'-dir, the MySQL "bin" dir because of the "Path" variable set, and even a curious directory "C:\php5" that doesn't even exist on my mashine) but not the expected "ext" directory.

so the fix was to go to "php.ini" again and uncomment the following line:
;extension_dir="ext"

this fixed it for me.
so if module loading is done improperly, first of all check the "Path" environment variable and the "php.ini" file - especially the "extension_dir" config value - and check if all values are set to their correct values.

hope this helps any1.

----------------------------------------
OS: Win7 Ultimate x86
Apache v2.2.16
PHP v5.3.3
MySQL v5.1.50
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-3
mail dot umlcat at gee mail dot com
12 years ago
Could not install mysql, on windows, had several conflicts or bugs.

In order to solve it:

* Used the "libmysql.dll" provided by PHP zip files, not the one that comes with Mysql, the mysql file had to be moved or deleted from its folder. Put it on the "apache/bin" folder, altought some use it in "windows" folder.

* Originally, moved "*mysql*.dll" files from its extension folder, and returned back.

* enabled mysql driver extensions in the "php.ini" file, but also enabled some extensions, that seemed not to be required, but, it did, like "php_openssl.dll" or "php_pdo.dll" on an early version of php.

Added the "PHPIniDir xxx"" to the "httpd.conf" apache config. file, where xxx is the path to the folder where the "php.ini" file is located, and make sure its the same.

Be warned, that this fixes, may help or not, for your installation, since there are many ways to configure the same thing (to solve a problem).
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Steve in Weston-Super-Mare
13 years ago
I had problems when moving from a version of PHP that used the isapi dll to the fast cgi version. The script to register the script maps compained that there was already a script map in place.

I went to the IIS control panel, right clicked on websites and removed the php association in the Home Directory | Configuration screen.

However, the fastcgi script still complained about existing script map. Finally I tracked it down, I had to right click on Default Web Site and clear out the php mappings from there too.

Then it all worked, except that for some strange reason, the php.ini file that gets picked up is the one from my old PHP directory, not the latest upgrade one. But this can be detected by running phpinfo which shows the loaded php.ini file so I knew which one to amend with the fastcgi options.

Bit of a hassle to figure it all out but it does work in the end.
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amatsak at gmail dot com
15 years ago
I have experienced exactly the same problem as flo_stefi at yahoo dot com below. It appears that instead of loading libmysql.dll that came with the PHP package, the PHP engine was loading libmySQL.dll located in MySQL's bin directory, which was causing Apache to crash.

I fixed the problem by renaming MySQL's libmySQL.dll into libmySQL_renamed.dll. Now PHP loads the library that came with its package and everything works fine.
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o dot kochetilov at gmail dot com
13 years ago
Please note that libmySQL.dll in MySQL bin directory should be renamed in order to use right library (that comes with PHP).
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