How does one start mysql after installing from ports

[Bob]

To autostart mysql at boot add this to /etc/rc.conf
mysql_enable="YES"

Add this to /etc/rc.conf to direct to use location where there is a large
enough free disk space
to hold your databases
mysql_dbdir="/usr/local/mysql"

To start or stop mysql server do this
/usr/local/share/mysql/mysql.server start
/usr/local/share/mysql/mysql.server stop

You have to tell mysql to create its internel control db
by running this command one time first before trying to create databases.
mysql_install_db --user=mysql

To verify mysql is operational issue these commands
mysqladmin version
mysqladmin variables

To start command line session with mysql server to
create a DB enter
mysql -u root

The online mysql manual is at
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/index.html