In Note 1369139.1 Oracle make this statement...

"Due to the easier maintenance when using the RPM installations, Oracle recommends using these if possible, although considerations such as installing into a non-default location will tend to favor using the tar-ball."

Opinion: In an Enterprise environment where separate teams are responsible for OS and database and where an Enterprise Management solution is in place to raise automated alerts on conditions such as filesystems filling, I believe the tar-ball installation can help maintain clear lines of responsibility (e.g. if /mysql filesystem usage breaches a threshold then DBA team will be engaged, if /opt usage breaches a threshold then UNIX team will be engaged. Also, UNIX patching can be done on a separate schedule to MySQL patching, thus helping support teams more easily identify root cause of issues associated with the patches and allowing MySQL patches to be delayed whilst they are tested on other servers without impacting critical OS level patching). Note that you can have the best of both worlds by making the default install location a separate mount point.

The steps shown are based on a tarball installation for Oracle Enterprise Linux 7

TAR

cd /mysql

unzip ${ZIPFILE}

tar xvf ${TARFILE}.tar.gz
ln -s ${TARFILE} mysql-shell
mv README.txt mysql-shell
rm -f ${TARFILE}.tar.gz
rm -f ${TARFILE}.tar.gz.asc
rm -f ${TARFILE}.tar.gz.md5
rm -f ${ZIPFILE}.zip
export PATH=/mysql/mysql-shell/bin:$PATH

Add this to the .bash_profile for the root user

8.0.23 (EL7)

8.0.24 (Generic)

8.0.26 (Generic)