https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/c-api-implementations.html There are two ways to obtain the C API header and library files required to build C API client programs:

Install a MySQL Server distribution. Server distributions include both libmysqlclient and libmysqld.

Install a Connector/C distribution. Connector/C distributions include only libmysqlclient. They do not include libmysqld.

For both MySQL Server and Connector/C, you can install a binary distribution that contains the C API files pre-built, or you can use a source distribution and build the C API files yourself.

Normally, you install either a MySQL Server distribution or a Connector/C distribution, but not both .