MySQL timezone tables: mysql_tzinfo_to_sql docs are incorrect

A basic installation of MySQL creates, but does not populate, the several timezone-related tables in database "mysql". To populate those tables, you might consult: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-g11n-excerpt/8.0/en/time-zone-support.html (or similar for version 5.7). ... where the following command is shown

/usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u root -p mysql

However, this command fails. Solution in the answers below.