Installation

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## Installation

The `mysqli` extension was introduced with PHP version 5.0.0. The MySQL Native Driver was included in PHP version 5.3.0.

## Installation on Linux

The common Unix distributions include binary versions of PHP that can be installed. Although these binary versions are typically built with support for the MySQL extensions, the extension libraries themselves may need to be installed using an additional package. Check the package manager that comes with your chosen distribution for availability.

For example, on Ubuntu the `php5-mysql` package installs the ext/mysql, ext/mysqli, and pdo_mysql PHP extensions. On CentOS, the `php-mysql` package also installs these three PHP extensions.

Alternatively, you can compile this extension yourself. Building PHP from source allows you to specify the MySQL extensions you want to use, as well as your choice of client library for each extension.

The MySQL Native Driver is the recommended client library option, as it results in improved performance and gives access to features not available when using the MySQL Client Library. Refer to What is PHP's MySQL Native Driver? for a brief overview of the advantages of MySQL Native Driver.

The `/path/to/mysql_config` represents the location of the `mysql_config` program that comes with MySQL Server.

mysqli compile time support matrix
PHP Version | Default | Configure Options: mysqlnd | Configure Options: `libmysqlclient` | Changelog
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
5.4.x and above | mysqlnd | --with-mysqli | --with-mysqli=/path/to/mysql_config | mysqlnd is the default
5.3.x | libmysqlclient | --with-mysqli=mysqlnd | --with-mysqli=/path/to/mysql_config | mysqlnd is supported
5.0.x, 5.1.x, 5.2.x | libmysqlclient | Not Available | --with-mysqli=/path/to/mysql_config | mysqlnd is not supported

Note that it is possible to freely mix MySQL extensions and client libraries. For example, it is possible to enable the MySQL extension to use the MySQL Client Library (libmysqlclient), while configuring the `mysqli` extension to use the MySQL Native Driver. However, all permutations of extension and client library are possible.

## Installation on Windows Systems

On Windows, php_mysqli.dll DLL must be enabled in php.ini.

As with enabling any PHP extension (such as php_mysqli.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 is c:\php\ext.

> Note:

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