I suspect that the sudo yum -y install mysql-devel will install the headers into /usr/include/mysql which is searched in the cc command via -I/usr/include/mysql. you would not need a specific copy for "local perl". The same can be said about the client libraries

G'day Perl300,

In the first instance, I would check DBD::mysql::INSTALL. This has a lot of information, including "How to get development headers and mysql client libraries".

While I'm very much guessing here, I suspect the source of your problem occurs before make is run. It could be the value of environment variables, the location or content of mysql_config, or something else like that. DBD::mysql::INSTALL discusses these things.

I'd also check your $PATH. A common problem (using cpan as an example) is that `which cpan` returns /system/path/bin/cpan instead of /local/path/bin/cpan.

I'm also a little concerned about seeing pathnames starting with '~/'. At one point you talk about an "application owned directory"; I assume you have your own account; and perhaps, at times, you're operating as the superuser. Does '~/' equal '/home/application/', '/home/perl300/' or '/home/root/'? I'm not saying don't use '~/', I use it myself a lot on the command line; however, there are times when an absolute pathname makes it unequivocally obvious what file(s) you're referencing.

You might also consider using perlbrew. I know many people here use and recommend it (including myself). It's a very easy way of keeping your local and system Perl installations separate. It also allows you to have multiple Perl versions installed locally and to quickly switch from one to another with a single, short command.

UPDATE: First I added /www/application/localperl/bin to my $PATH:
I added it to ~/.bashrc file by adding following line:
export PATH=$PATH:/www/application/localperl/bin
Then ran:
source ~/.bashrc

Then I followed huck's advise to get devel package using sudo yum -y install make gcc mysql-devel mysql-libs mysql-server I tried to install DBD::mysql from CPAN shell (/www/application/localperl/bin/cpan).

It was failing during make test and the log entries just before failure are:

Running make test
Running Mkbootstrap for DBD::mysql ()
chmod 644 "mysql.bs"
PERL_DL_NONLAZY=1 "/www/application/localperl/bin/perl" "-MExtUtils::C
+ommand::MM" "-MTest::Harness" "-e" "undef *Test::Harness::Switches; t
+est_harness(0, 'blib/lib', 'blib/arch')" t/*.t
t/00base.t .............................. 1/6 # Driver version is 4.04
+1
t/00base.t .............................. ok
t/05dbcreate.t .......................... 1/2 # Database 'test' access
+ible
t/05dbcreate.t .......................... ok
t/10connect.t ........................... 1/? # mysql_clientinfo is: 5
+.1.73
# mysql_clientversion is: 50173
# mysql_serverversion is: 50173
# mysql_hostinfo is: Localhost via UNIX socket
# mysql_serverinfo is: 5.1.73
# mysql_stat is: Uptime: 4761821  Threads: 1  Questions: 4535919  Slow
+ queries: 2  Opens: 357  Flush tables: 1  Open tables: 41  Queries pe
+r second avg: 0.952
# mysql_protoinfo is: 10
# SQL_DBMS_VER is 5.1.73
# Default storage engine is: MyISAM
t/10connect.t ........................... ok
t/15reconnect.t ......................... ok
t/16dbi-get_info.t ...................... ok
t/20createdrop.t ........................ ok
t/25lockunlock.t ........................ ok
t/29warnings.t .......................... ok
t/30insertfetch.t ....................... ok
t/31insertid.t .......................... ok
t/32insert_error.t ...................... ok
t/35limit.t ............................. ok
t/35prepare.t ........................... ok
t/40bindparam.t ......................... ok
t/40bindparam2.t ........................ ok
t/40bit.t ............................... ok
t/40blobs.t ............................. ok
t/40catalog.t ........................... ok
t/40keyinfo.t ........................... ok
t/40listfields.t ........................ ok
t/40nulls.t ............................. ok
t/40nulls_prepare.t ..................... ok
t/40numrows.t ........................... ok
t/40server_prepare.t .................... 1/31 DBD::mysql::st DESTROY 
+failed: MySQL server has gone away at t/40server_prepare.t line 98.
        (in cleanup) DBD::mysql::st DESTROY failed: MySQL server has g
+one away at t/40server_prepare.t line 98.
t/40server_prepare.t .................... ok
t/40server_prepare_crash.t .............. ok
[download]

So I sudo as root and tried to install DBD::mysql using CPAN shell (/www/application/localperl/bin/cpan) and the installation completed successfully. many tests from make test were skipped with message skipped: no database connection but I think that was because I didn't add db password by setting environment variable. I was not very comfortable doing it so I tried installation with setting environment variable and it still completed successfully.

Thank you again Ken and huck for your inputs. I am marking this as Solved.

$ echo $PATH
/usr/lib64/qt-3.3/bin:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/us
+r/sbin:/sbin:/www/application/bin
[download]

And as you suspected which cpan returns /usr/bin/cpan instead of /www/application/localperl/bin/cpan

Also, '~/' is equal to '/www/application/'. I did check DBD::mysql::INSTALL and saw the yum option there to install devel but was not sure if it would install it for system perl.

So this is what I'll try next: I'll add /www/application/localperl/bin to my $PATH and follow huck's advise to get devel package and see how it goes from there.