Install MariaDB on Arch

Open source SQL database, a community-developed drop-in replacement for MySQL.

Databasesqlrdbmsrelationaldatabaseacidmysql-compatible

Installation

Server (Arch repositories) · pacman

$ sudo pacman -S mariadb

On Arch, mariadb is the native MySQL-compatible database (no AUR needed).

Initialize the data directory · pacman

$ sudo mariadb-install-db --user=mysql --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql

MANDATORY before the first start: the data directory is not created automatically.

Verify the installation

Verify

$ mariadb --version

Service

Start

$ sudo systemctl start mariadb

Stop

$ sudo systemctl stop mariadb

Status

$ sudo systemctl status mariadb

Restart

$ sudo systemctl restart mariadb

On boot

$ sudo systemctl enable mariadb

Important files

Type	Path	Description
config	/etc/my.cnf.d	Configuration directory (drop-in .cnf files).
data	/var/lib/mysql	Data directory created by mariadb-install-db.

Default ports

3306

Command-line tools

mariadbInteractive SQL client (mysql is kept as a symlink).
mariadbdThe database server daemon.
mariadb-adminAdministrative client.
mariadb-secure-installationHardening script for the installation.

Uninstall

sudo systemctl stop mariadb
sudo pacman -Rs mariadb

The /var/lib/mysql directory remains; delete it manually to wipe everything.

Good to know

Unlike Debian/Fedora, Arch does NOT initialize the data directory automatically: run mariadb-install-db before the first start.
On Arch, the official mysql package IS MariaDB, so this is the native route.
Run mariadb-secure-installation after the first start to set the root password.

Installation on Arch Linux

On Arch, the official mysql provider is MariaDB, so sudo pacman -S mariadb is the native, repository-supported route (no AUR required). This is the platform MySQL itself cannot cover natively.

Mandatory step: initialize the data directory

Unlike Debian/Ubuntu and Fedora, Arch does not create the data directory at install time. Initialize it explicitly before the first start:

sudo mariadb-install-db --user=mysql --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql

Only then can you sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb. Forgetting this command is the most common cause of startup failure on Arch.

Securing the installation

After the first start, run sudo mariadb-secure-installation to set the root password, remove anonymous accounts, and drop the test database. The configuration lives in /etc/my.cnf.d/ as drop-in files.