I want to create my Rails application with MySQL, because I like it so much. How can I do that in the latest version of Rails instead of the default SQLite?
19 Answers
Normally, you would create a new Rails app using
rails ProjectName
To use MySQL, use
rails new ProjectName -d mysql

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If you already have a rails project, change the adapter in the config/database.yml
file to mysql
and make sure you specify a valid username and password, and optionally, a socket:
development:
adapter: mysql2
database: db_name_dev
username: koploper
password:
host: localhost
socket: /tmp/mysql.sock
Next, make sure you edit your Gemfile to include the mysql2 or activerecord-jdbcmysql-adapter (if using jruby).

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2This is helpful; as the other answers just use the generator. This answer works for adding MySQL to an app after it's already been created, either to replace an existing (e.g. SQLite) DB or to add a secondary database. Also, mysql2 seems to be the go-to gem these days for Rails. – rcd Jan 05 '14 at 21:27
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14you'll also have to update the Gemfile; remove `gem 'sqlite3'` and add `gem 'mysql2'` – raddrick Jan 23 '14 at 15:05
For Rails 3 you can use this command to create a new project using mysql:
$ rails new projectname -d mysql

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If you have not created your app yet, just go to cmd(for windows) or terminal(for linux/unix) and type the following command to create a rails application with mysql database:
$rails new <your_app_name> -d mysql
It works for anything above rails version 3. If you have already created your app, then you can do one of the 2 following things:
- Create a another_name app with mysql database, go to cd another_name/config/ and copy the database.yml file from this new app. Paste it into the database.yml of your_app_name app. But ensure to change the database names and set username/password of your database accordingly in the database.yml file after doing so.
OR
- Go to cd your_app_name/config/ and open database.yml. Rename as following:
development:
adapter: mysql2
database: db_name_name
username: root
password:
host: localhost
socket: /tmp/mysql.sock
Moreover, remove gem 'sqlite3' from your Gemfile and add the gem 'mysql2'

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rails new <project_name> -d mysql
OR
rails new projectname
Changes in config/database.yml
development:
adapter: mysql2
database: db_name_name
username: root
password:
host: localhost
socket: /tmp/mysql.sock

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$ rails --help
is always your best friend
usage:
$ rails new APP_PATH[options]
also note that options should be given after the application name
rails and mysql
$ rails new project_name -d mysql
rails and postgresql
$ rails new project_name -d postgresql

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You should use the switch -D instead of -d because it will generate two apps and mysql with no documentation folders.
rails -D mysql project_name (less than version 3)
rails new project_name -D mysql (version 3 and up)
Alternatively you just use the --database
option.

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If you are creating a new rails application you can set the database using the -d switch like this:
rails -d mysql myapp
Its always easy to switch your database later though, and using sqlite really is easier if you are developing on a Mac.

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Just go to rails console and type:
rails new YOURAPPNAME -d mysql

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In Rails 3, you could do
$rails new projectname --database=mysql

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On new project, easy peasy:
rails new your_new_project_name -d mysql
On existing project, definitely trickier. This has given me a number of issues on existing rails projects. This kind of works with me:
# On Gemfile:
gem 'mysql2', '>= 0.3.18', '< 0.5' # copied from a new project for rails 5.1 :)
gem 'activerecord-mysql-adapter' # needed for mysql..
# On Dockerfile or on CLI:
sudo apt-get install -y mysql-client libmysqlclient-dev

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First make sure that mysql gem is installed, if not? than type following command in your console
gem install mysql2
Than create new rails app and set mysql database as default database by typing following command in your console
rails new app-name -d mysql
Use following command to create new app for API with mysql database
rails new <appname> --api -d mysql
adapter: mysql2
encoding: utf8
pool: 5
username: root
password:
socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock

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database.yml
# MySQL. Versions 5.1.10 and up are supported.
#
# Install the MySQL driver
# gem install mysql2
#
# Ensure the MySQL gem is defined in your Gemfile
# gem 'mysql2'
#
# And be sure to use new-style password hashing:
# https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/password-hashing.html
#
default: &default
adapter: mysql2
encoding: utf8
pool: <%= ENV.fetch("RAILS_MAX_THREADS") { 5 } %>
host: localhost
database: database_name
username: username
password: secret
development:
<<: *default
# Warning: The database defined as "test" will be erased and
# re-generated from your development database when you run "rake".
# Do not set this db to the same as development or production.
test:
<<: *default
# As with config/secrets.yml, you never want to store sensitive information,
# like your database password, in your source code. If your source code is
# ever seen by anyone, they now have access to your database.
#
# Instead, provide the password as a unix environment variable when you boot
# the app. Read http://guides.rubyonrails.org/configuring.html#configuring-a-database
# for a full rundown on how to provide these environment variables in a
# production deployment.
#
# On Heroku and other platform providers, you may have a full connection URL
# available as an environment variable. For example:
#
# DATABASE_URL="mysql2://myuser:mypass@localhost/somedatabase"
#
# You can use this database configuration with:
#
# production:
# url: <%= ENV['DATABASE_URL'] %>
#
production:
<<: *default
Gemfile:
# Use mysql as the database for Active Record
gem 'mysql2', '>= 0.4.4', '< 0.6.0'

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you first should make sure that MySQL driver is on your system if not run this on your terminal if you are using Ubuntu or any Debian distro
sudo apt-get install mysql-client libmysqlclient-dev
and add this to your Gemfile
gem 'mysql2', '~> 0.3.16'
then run in your root directory of the project
bundle install
after that you can add the mysql config to config/database.yml as the previous answers

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