1,检查默认安装的mysql的字符集
mysql> show variables like '%char%';
+--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+| Variable_name | Value |+--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+| character_set_client | utf8 || character_set_connection | utf8 || character_set_database | latin1 || character_set_filesystem | binary || character_set_results | utf8 || character_set_server | latin1 || character_set_system | utf8 || character_sets_dir | /usr/local/mysql-5.5.23-osx10.6-x86_64/share/charsets/ |+--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+8 rows in set (0.00 sec)character_set_database和character_set_server依然是latin1的字符集，也就是说mysql后续创建的表都是latin1字符集的，不是utf8，会造成一些麻烦。所以有必要修改my.cnf，在修改my.cnf之前一定要关闭mysql进程，不然会遇到mysql的sock不能连接的问题。
2，关闭mysqld后台进程
系统偏好设置里面控制mysqld，避免了去找mysqld安装位置的麻烦。
点击 Stop MySQL Server
3，修改mysql配置文件/etc/my.cnf
sudo cp /usr/local/mysql/support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
sudo vi /etc/my.cnf
[client]部分加入：
default-character-set=utf8
[mysqld]部分加入：
character-set-server=utf8
修改完毕之后再启动mysql
4，检查结果：
mysql> show variables like '%char%';
+--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+| Variable_name | Value |+--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+| character_set_client | utf8 || character_set_connection | utf8 || character_set_database | utf8 || character_set_filesystem | binary || character_set_results | utf8 || character_set_server | utf8 || character_set_system | utf8 || character_sets_dir | /usr/local/mysql-5.5.23-osx10.6-x86_64/share/charsets/ |+--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+8 rows in set (0.00 sec)修改完毕＃