So, I keep having to reinstall mysql5 and rubygems from time to time for various reasons. I always install mysql5 through MacPorts as a dependency for the php5 port (along with various other bits for the LA*P stack).

sudo port install php5 +mysql5 +pear +readline +sockets +apache2 +sqlite

Once this is installed then I have mysql and can setup my databases, etc.

Ignoring the rest of the LAMP stack, I then need to connect Ruby to the Mysql I just installed through MacPorts. Its quite simple to do, once you know the right argument to pass to it. The easiest way is to just tell it where the mysql5_conf file is and let it figure out the rest for itself.

sudo gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/opt/local/bin/mysql_config5

Hopefully this will save me 10 minutes of googling next time I need to do this!

Update 2009-01-21

I’m an idiot and typed the gem install command by hand, and ended up with --with-mysql-conf instead of --with-mysql-config. Updated now.

Update 2009-10-19

On Snow Leopard I needed to tell rubygems to install the gem as a 64-bit binary. Hattip to Philipp

sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install mysql -- \
  --with-mysql-config=/opt/local/bin/mysql_config5