Chapter 5 MySQL Server Administration

The MySQL server, mysqld, has many command options and system variables that can be set at startup to configure its operation. To determine the command option and system variable values used by the server, execute this command:

shell> mysqld --verbose --help

The command produces a list of all mysqld options and configurable system variables. Its output includes the default option and variable values and looks something like this:

abort-slave-event-count           0
allow-suspicious-udfs             FALSE
archive                           ON
auto-increment-increment          1
auto-increment-offset             1
autocommit                        TRUE
automatic-sp-privileges           TRUE
avoid-temporal-upgrade            FALSE
back-log                          80
basedir                           /home/jon/bin/mysql-8.0/
...
tmpdir                            /tmp
transaction-alloc-block-size      8192
transaction-isolation             REPEATABLE-READ
transaction-prealloc-size         4096
transaction-read-only             FALSE
transaction-write-set-extraction  OFF
updatable-views-with-limit        YES
validate-user-plugins             TRUE
verbose                           TRUE
wait-timeout                      28800

To see the current system variable values used by the server as it runs, connect to it and execute this statement:

mysql> SHOW VARIABLES;

To see some statistical and status indicators for a running server, execute this statement:

mysql> SHOW STATUS;

System variable and status information also is available using the mysqladmin command:

shell> mysqladmin variables
shell> mysqladmin extended-status

For a full description of all command options, system variables, and status variables, see these sections:

More detailed monitoring information is available from the Performance Schema; see Chapter 25, MySQL Performance Schema.

If you specify an option on the command line for mysqld or mysqld_safe, it remains in effect only for that invocation of the server. To use the option every time the server runs, put it in an option file. See Section 4.2.6, “Using Option Files”.

The MySQL server has many operating parameters, which you can change at server startup using command-line options or configuration files (option files). It is also possible to change many parameters at runtime. For general instructions on setting parameters at startup or runtime, see Section 5.1.6, “Server Command Options”, and Section 5.1.7, “Server System Variables”.

On Windows, MySQL Installer interacts with the user and creates a file named my.ini in the base installation directory as the default option file.

After completing the installation process, you can edit the default option file at any time to modify the parameters used by the server. For example, to use a parameter setting in the file that is commented with a # character at the beginning of the line, remove the #, and modify the parameter value if necessary. To disable a setting, either add a # to the beginning of the line or remove it.

For non-Windows platforms, no default option file is created during either the server installation or the data directory initialization process. Create your option file by following the instructions given in Section 4.2.6, “Using Option Files”. Without an option file, the server just starts with its default settings—see Section 5.1.2, “Server Configuration Defaults” on how to check those settings.

For additional information about option file format and syntax, see Section 4.2.6, “Using Option Files”.

The following table provides a list of all the command line options, system variables, and status variables applicable within mysqld.

The table lists command-line options (Cmd-line), options valid in configuration files (Option file), server system variables (System Var), and status variables (Status var) in one unified list, with notification of where each option/variable is valid. If a server option set on the command line or in an option file differs from the name of the corresponding server system, the variable name is noted immediately below the corresponding option. For system and status variables, the scope of the variable is shown (Var Scope) as either global, session, or both. Please see the corresponding sections for details on setting and using the options and variables. Where appropriate, a direct link to further information on the item as available.