Getting MySQL working on OSX 10.7 Lion

You can download a MySQL installer as a DMG file, complete with an installer, system preferences pane and a startup script directly from MySQL. Go to MySQL's community server download page, select Mac OS X as the platform and pick the DMG file.

You can skip the registration form (there a little link under the signup form) and you should be on your way.

Once the file is downloaded, double-click on the DMG, launch the installer and complete the installation. After that, install the startup script using its installer and finally the preferences pane by double-clicking on it. I highly recommend choosing to install it for all users on the computer.

You'll find this way much easier than compiling from source.

You should check out Sequel Pro if you need a great OS X tool to manage your MySQL databases.

A drop in replacement for mysql is mariadb. You can install with 'brew install mariadb'. It builds on Lion.

Existing mysql drivers and clients just work. I'm using it with python-mysql and django.

It's even called mysql so you won't even know the difference.