Interesting thing.  I was trying to find binary rpms of mysql 3.23.32 or better
for my lowly little DEC alpha multia and was not successful.  What I did find
however was a src.rpm.  I didn't feel like mucking around with tarballs directly
so I downloaded.  After checking out the install instructions on the mysql
website, I did the rpm --rebuild option and watched as the src rpm was untarred
and then compiled and turned into the 5 binary rpms for mysql.  Something I did
not know and now that I've found it am very interested.  Makes it a lot easier
to get programs that are built for my system and still have an easy way to be
removed.