I am losing my mind with mysql and OS X

Please forgive me - I jus spent a week restoring mysql databases to our Panther server so I'm just going totally crazy. Could someone be so kind as to give me answers to the following : I realise that OS X keeps some binaries in 'non-default locations' but : In usr/local, I have an alias, mysql, which points to mysql-standard-4 (etc) which resides in the same directory. However, I also have mysql in private/var. whereis returns usr/bin/mysql. I have set up webmin to point to, for instance, /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin. The whole thing seems a mess. I lost some data then when I use mysql-tool it restores to I'm not sure where - I tried to set up a root password with webmin and actually deleted root access, which took years off my life modifying commands until I actually got it back . . . 1. Where is mysql supposed to be? 2. Will every app acces the one location? 3. Do I need both root and local installations? Honestly, I've seached and searched and all the info seems Linux not OS X. Tonight I've spent hours trying to restore data and I'm feeling really depressed . . .any pointers to info on mysql on a Mac would be so much appreciated as I'm trying to change the world too . . . Regards, PK (pksupportAToptusnet.com.au