Appendix A. Obtaining and Installing Software

This appendix describes how to obtain the sampdb distribution that is used for setting up the sample database that serves for examples throughout this book. To use the distribution, you'll also need to have MySQL running; to that end, the appendix also discusses how to obtain and install MySQL and related software such as the Perl DBI and CGI.pm modules, PHP, and Apache. It provides information for both Unix and Windows.

For the packages that are discussed here, the purpose of this appendix is to bring together in one place summary installation instructions for each of them, not to replace the instructions that come with the packages. In fact, I encourage you to read those instructions. This appendix provides general information that should suffice for many situations, but each package also contains instructions to help you troubleshoot problems when a standard installation procedure fails. For example, the MySQL manual contains a chapter that deals extensively with installation procedures and includes solutions for many operating system-specific problems.