Removing MySQL from OSX Lion

Removing MySQL from OSX Lion

Recently I've had to remove a version of MySQL 5.5 from my Macbook so that I could go back to a 5.1 version. However it appears that there isn't an automatic way to remove and install an older version. A few google searches revealed a bulk of the removal process, but additional searching revealed a few more steps.

sudo rm /usr/local/mysql
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/mysql*
sudo rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM
sudo rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/My*
rm -rf ~/Library/PreferencePanes/My*
sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/mysql*
sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/MySQL*
sudo rm -rf /var/db/receipts/com.mysql.*
vim /etc/hostconfig # and remove the line MYSQLCOM=-YES-

9/28/2011 - added comment on last line. Thanks Justin for pointing this out! 

Web references:

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1436425/how-do-you-uninstall-mysql-from-mac-os-x
• http://akrabat.com/computing/uninstalling-mysql-on-mac-os-x-leopard/

taken from: http://johnmcostaiii.net/2011/removing-mysql-osx-lion/