[ Thanks to Falko
Timme for this link. ]
“This tutorial shows how to create a portable MySQL installation
on GNU/Linux. It applies to: MySQL 5.5.19, CentOS 6.x / Ubuntu
11.10 Oneiric Ocelot.“At the end of this guide you will obtain a portable MySQL
installation on a target directory with its own databases,
binaries, logs, pid files, etc. Consider always the use of a
permission preserving packaging (like TAR) for moving the
installation between systems or removable storages.”