Options that affect security: See Section 5.3.3, “Security-Related mysqld Options”.

SSL-related options: See Section 5.5.7.3, “SSL Command Options”.

Binary log control options: See Section 15.1.2.4, “Binary Log Options and Variables”.

Replication-related options: See Section 15.1.2, “Replication and Binary Logging Options and Variables”.

Options specific to particular storage engines: See Section 13.1.1, “MyISAM Startup Options”, Section 13.5.3, “BDB Startup Options”, Section 13.2.4, “InnoDB Startup Options and System Variables”, and Section 16.4.2, “MySQL Cluster-Related Command Options for mysqld”.

--help, -?

Display a short help message and exit. Use both the --verbose and --help options to see the full message.

--abort-slave-event-count

When this option is set to some positive integer value other than 0 (the default) it affects replication behavior as follows: After the slave SQL thread has started, value log events are allowed to be executed; after that, the slave SQL thread does not receive any more events, just as if the network connection from the master were cut. The slave thread continues to run, and the output from SHOW SLAVE STATUS displays Yes in both the Slave_IO_Running and the Slave_SQL_Running columns, but no further events are read from the relay log.

This option is used internally by the MySQL test suite for replication testing and debugging. It is not intended for use in a production setting.

--allow-suspicious-udfs

This option controls whether user-defined functions that have only an xxx symbol for the main function can be loaded. By default, the option is off and only UDFs that have at least one auxiliary symbol can be loaded; this prevents attempts at loading functions from shared object files other than those containing legitimate UDFs. This option was added in version 5.0.3. See Section 20.2.2.6, “User-Defined Function Security Precautions”.

--ansi

Use standard (ANSI) SQL syntax instead of MySQL syntax. For more precise control over the server SQL mode, use the --sql-mode option instead. See Section 1.7.3, “Running MySQL in ANSI Mode”, and Section 5.1.7, “SQL Modes”.

--basedir=path, -b path

The path to the MySQL installation directory. All paths are usually resolved relative to this directory.

--big-tables

Allow large result sets by saving all temporary sets in files. This option prevents most “table full” errors, but also slows down queries for which in-memory tables would suffice. Since MySQL 3.23.2, the server is able to handle large result sets automatically by using memory for small temporary tables and switching to disk tables where necessary.

--bind-address=IP

The IP address to bind to. Only one address can be selected. If this option is specified multiple times, the last address given is used.

--bootstrap

This option is used by the mysql_install_db script to create the MySQL privilege tables without having to start a full MySQL server.

This option is unavailable if MySQL was configured with the --disable-grant-options option. See Section 2.16.2, “Typical configure Options”.

--character-sets-dir=path

The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 9.2, “The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting”.

--character-set-client-handshake

Don't ignore character set information sent by the client. To ignore client information and use the default server character set, use --skip-character-set-client-handshake; this makes MySQL behave like MySQL 4.0.

--character-set-filesystem=charset_name

The filesystem character set. This option sets the character_set_filesystem system variable. It was added in MySQL 5.0.19.

--character-set-server=charset_name, -C charset_name

Use charset_name as the default server character set. See Section 9.2, “The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting”. If you use this option to specify a non-default character set, you should also use --collation-server to specify the collation.

--chroot=path, -r path

Put the mysqld server in a closed environment during startup by using the chroot() system call. This is a recommended security measure. Note that use of this option somewhat limits LOAD DATA INFILE and SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE.

--collation-server=collation_name

Use collation_name as the default server collation. See Section 9.2, “The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting”.

--console

(Windows only.) Write error log messages to stderr and stdout even if --log-error is specified. mysqld does not close the console window if this option is used.

--core-file

Write a core file if mysqld dies. For some systems, you must also specify the --core-file-size option to mysqld_safe. See Section 4.3.2, “mysqld_safe — MySQL Server Startup Script”. Note that on some systems, such as Solaris, you do not get a core file if you are also using the --user option.

--datadir=path, -h path

The path to the data directory.

--debug[=debug_options], -# [debug_options]

If MySQL is configured with --with-debug, you can use this option to get a trace file of what mysqld is doing. The debug_options string often is 'd:t:o,file_name'. The default is 'd:t:i:o,mysqld.trace'. See MySQL Internals: Porting.

As of MySQL 5.0.25, using --with-debug to configure MySQL with debugging support enables you to use the --debug="d,parser_debug" option when you start the server. This causes the Bison parser that is used to process SQL statements to dump a parser trace to the server's standard error output. Typically, this output is written to the error log.

--default-character-set=charset_name (DEPRECATED)

Use charset_name as the default character set. This option is deprecated in favor of --character-set-server. See Section 9.2, “The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting”.

--default-collation=collation_name

Use collation_name as the default collation. This option is deprecated in favor of --collation-server. See Section 9.2, “The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting”.

--default-storage-engine=type

Set the default storage engine (table type) for tables. See Chapter 13, Storage Engines.

--default-table-type=type

This option is a deprecated synonym for --default-storage-engine.

--default-time-zone=timezone

Set the default server time zone. This option sets the global time_zone system variable. If this option is not given, the default time zone is the same as the system time zone (given by the value of the system_time_zone system variable.

--delay-key-write[={OFF|ON|ALL}]

Specify how to use delayed key writes. Delayed key writing causes key buffers not to be flushed between writes for MyISAM tables. OFF disables delayed key writes. ON enables delayed key writes for those tables that were created with the DELAY_KEY_WRITE option. ALL delays key writes for all MyISAM tables. See Section 7.5.2, “Tuning Server Parameters”, and Section 13.1.1, “MyISAM Startup Options”.

--des-key-file=file_name

Read the default DES keys from this file. These keys are used by the DES_ENCRYPT() and DES_DECRYPT() functions.

--enable-named-pipe

Enable support for named pipes. This option can be used only with the mysqld-nt and mysqld-debug servers that support named-pipe connections.

--enable-pstack

Print a symbolic stack trace on failure.

--engine-condition-pushdown={ON|OFF}

When the value of this option is 0 (OFF), a query such as SELECT * FROM t WHERE mycol = 42, where mycol is a non-indexed column, is executed as a full table scan. The storage engine sends every row to the MySQL server, which applies the WHERE condition. If engine_condition_pushdown is set to 1 (ON), the condition is “pushed down” to the storage engine, which uses the condition to perform the scan, and sends back to the MySQL server only those rows that match the condition. By default, this variable is OFF.

In MySQL 5.0, this option is useful only with the NDBCLUSTER storage engine. However, we intend to implement it for additional storage engines in future MySQL releases.

Setting this option to ON on a MySQL Server acting as a MySQL Cluster SQL node causes WHERE conditions on unindexed columns to be evaluated on the cluster's data nodes and only the rows that match to be sent back to the SQL node that issued the query. This means the amount of cluster data that must be sent over the network is greatly reduced, increasing the efficiency with which results are returned.

For more information, see Section 7.2.7, “Condition Pushdown Optimization”.

This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.3.

--exit-info[=flags], -T [flags]

This is a bit mask of different flags that you can use for debugging the mysqld server. Do not use this option unless you know exactly what it does!

--external-locking

Enable external locking (system locking), which is disabled by default as of MySQL 4.0. Note that if you use this option on a system on which lockd does not fully work (such as Linux), it is easy for mysqld to deadlock. This option previously was named --enable-locking.

For more information about external locking, including conditions under which it can and cannot be used, see Section 7.3.4, “External Locking”.

--flush

Flush (synchronize) all changes to disk after each SQL statement. Normally, MySQL does a write of all changes to disk only after each SQL statement and lets the operating system handle the synchronizing to disk. See Section B.1.4.2, “What to Do If MySQL Keeps Crashing”.

--gdb

Install an interrupt handler for SIGINT (needed to stop mysqld with ^C to set breakpoints) and disable stack tracing and core file handling. See MySQL Internals: Porting.

--init-file=file_name

Read SQL statements from this file at startup. Each statement must be on a single line and should not include comments.

This option is unavailable if MySQL was configured with the --disable-grant-options option. See Section 2.16.2, “Typical configure Options”.

--innodb-safe-binlog

Adds consistency guarantees between the content of InnoDB tables and the binary log. See Section 5.2.3, “The Binary Log”. This option was removed in MySQL 5.0.3, having been made obsolete by the introduction of XA transaction support.

--innodb-xxx

The InnoDB options are listed in Section 13.2.4, “InnoDB Startup Options and System Variables”.

--language=lang_name, -L lang_name

Return client error messages in the given language. lang_name can be given as the language name or as the full pathname to the directory where the language files are installed. See Section 9.3, “Setting the Error Message Language”.

--large-pages

Some hardware/operating system architectures support memory pages greater than the default (usually 4KB). The actual implementation of this support depends on the underlying hardware and OS. Applications that perform a lot of memory accesses may obtain performance improvements by using large pages due to reduced Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) misses.

Currently, MySQL supports only the Linux implementation of large pages support (which is called HugeTLB in Linux). We have plans to extend this support to FreeBSD, Solaris and possibly other platforms.

Before large pages can be used on Linux, it is necessary to configure the HugeTLB memory pool. For reference, consult the hugetlbpage.txt file in the Linux kernel source.

This option is disabled by default. It was added in MySQL 5.0.3.

--log[=file_name], -l [file_name]

Log connections and SQL statements received from clients to this file. See Section 5.2.2, “The General Query Log”. If you omit the filename, MySQL uses host_name.log as the filename.

--log-error[=file_name]

Log errors and startup messages to this file. See Section 5.2.1, “The Error Log”. If you omit the filename, MySQL uses host_name.err. If the filename has no extension, the server adds an extension of .err.

--log-isam[=file_name]

Log all MyISAM changes to this file (used only when debugging MyISAM).

--log-long-format (DEPRECATED)

Log extra information to the update log, binary update log, and slow query log, if they have been activated. For example, the username and timestamp are logged for all queries. This option is deprecated, as it now represents the default logging behavior. (See the description for --log-short-format.) The --log-queries-not-using-indexes option is available for the purpose of logging queries that do not use indexes to the slow query log.

--log-queries-not-using-indexes

If you are using this option with the slow query log enabled, queries that are expected to retrieve all rows are logged. See Section 5.2.4, “The Slow Query Log”. This option does not necessarily mean that no index is used. For example, a query that uses a full index scan uses an index but would be logged because the index would not limit the number of rows.

--log-short-format

Log less information to the update log, binary update log, and slow query log, if they have been activated. For example, the username and timestamp are not logged for queries.

--log-slow-admin-statements

Log slow administrative statements such as OPTIMIZE TABLE, ANALYZE TABLE, and ALTER TABLE to the slow query log.

--log-slow-queries[=file_name]

Log all queries that have taken more than long_query_time seconds to execute to this file. See Section 5.2.4, “The Slow Query Log”. See the descriptions of the --log-long-format and --log-short-format options for details.

--log-tc=file_name

The name of the memory-mapped transaction coordinator log file (for XA transactions that affect multiple storage engines when the binary log is disabled). The default name is tc.log. The file is created under the data directory if not given as a full pathname. Currently, this option is unused. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

--log-tc-size=size

The size in bytes of the memory-mapped transaction coordinator log. The default size is 24KB. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

--log-warnings[=level], -W [level]

Print out warnings such as Aborted connection... to the error log. Enabling this option is recommended, for example, if you use replication (you get more information about what is happening, such as messages about network failures and reconnections). This option is enabled (1) by default, and the default level value if omitted is 1. To disable this option, use --log-warnings=0. If the value is greater than 1, aborted connections are written to the error log. See Section B.1.2.11, “Communication Errors and Aborted Connections”.

If a slave server was started with --log-warnings enabled, the slave prints messages to the error log to provide information about its status, such as the binary log and relay log coordinates where it starts its job, when it is switching to another relay log, when it reconnects after a disconnect, and so forth.

--low-priority-updates

Give table-modifying operations (INSERT, REPLACE, DELETE, UPDATE) lower priority than selects. This can also be done via {INSERT | REPLACE | DELETE | UPDATE} LOW_PRIORITY ... to lower the priority of only one query, or by SET LOW_PRIORITY_UPDATES=1 to change the priority in one thread. This affects only storage engines that use only table-level locking (MyISAM, MEMORY, MERGE). See Section 7.3.2, “Table Locking Issues”.

--memlock

Lock the mysqld process in memory. This option might help if you have a problem where the operating system is causing mysqld to swap to disk.

--memlock works on systems that support the mlockall() system call; this includes Solaris as well as most Linux distributions that use a 2.4 or newer kernel. On Linux systems, you can tell whether or not mlockall() (and thus this option) is supported by checking to see whether or not it is defined in the system mman.h file, like this:

shell> grep mlockall /usr/include/sys/mman.h 

If mlockall() is supported, you should see in the output of the previous command something like the following:

extern int mlockall (int __flags) __THROW;

--myisam_block_size=size

The block size to be used for MyISAM index pages.

--myisam-recover[=option[,option]...]]

Set the MyISAM storage engine recovery mode. The option value is any combination of the values of DEFAULT, BACKUP, FORCE, or QUICK. If you specify multiple values, separate them by commas. Specifying the option with no argument is the same as specifying DEFAULT, and specifying with an explicit value of "" disables recovery (same as not giving the option). If recovery is enabled, each time mysqld opens a MyISAM table, it checks whether the table is marked as crashed or wasn't closed properly. (The last option works only if you are running with external locking disabled.) If this is the case, mysqld runs a check on the table. If the table was corrupted, mysqld attempts to repair it.

The following options affect how the repair works:

Before the server automatically repairs a table, it writes a note about the repair to the error log. If you want to be able to recover from most problems without user intervention, you should use the options BACKUP,FORCE. This forces a repair of a table even if some rows would be deleted, but it keeps the old data file as a backup so that you can later examine what happened.

See Section 13.1.1, “MyISAM Startup Options”.

--old-passwords

Force the server to generate short (pre-4.1) password hashes for new passwords. This is useful for compatibility when the server must support older client programs. See Section 5.4.8, “Password Hashing as of MySQL 4.1”.

--old-style-user-limits

Enable old-style user limits. (Before MySQL 5.0.3, account resource limits were counted separately for each host from which a user connected rather than per account row in the user table.) See Section 5.5.4, “Limiting Account Resources”. This option was added in MySQL 5.0.3.

--one-thread

Only use one thread (for debugging under Linux). This option is available only if the server is built with debugging enabled. See MySQL Internals: Porting.

--open-files-limit=count

Changes the number of file descriptors available to mysqld. You should try increasing the value of this option if mysqld gives you the error Too many open files. mysqld uses the option value to reserve descriptors with setrlimit(). If the requested number of file descriptors cannot be allocated, mysqld writes a warning to the error log.

mysqld may attempt to allocate more than the requested number of descriptors (if they are available), using the values of max_connections and table_cache to estimate whether more descriptors will be needed.

--pid-file=path

The pathname of the process ID file. This file is used by other programs such as mysqld_safe to determine the server's process ID.

--port=port_num, -P port_num

The port number to use when listening for TCP/IP connections. The port number must be 1024 or higher unless the server is started by the root system user.

--port-open-timeout=num

On some systems, when the server is stopped, the TCP/IP port might not become available immediately. If the server is restarted quickly afterward, its attempt to reopen the port can fail. This option indicates how many seconds the server should wait for the TCP/IP port to become free if it cannot be opened. The default is not to wait. This option was added in MySQL 5.0.19.

--safe-mode

Skip some optimization stages.

--safe-show-database (DEPRECATED)

See Section 5.4.3, “Privileges Provided by MySQL”.

--safe-user-create

If this option is enabled, a user cannot create new MySQL users by using the GRANT statement unless the user has the INSERT privilege for the mysql.user table or any column in the table. If you want a user to have the ability to create new users that have those privileges that the user has the right to grant, you should grant the user the following privilege:

GRANT INSERT(user) ON mysql.user TO 'user_name'@'host_name';

This ensures that the user cannot change any privilege columns directly, but has to use the GRANT statement to give privileges to other users.

--secure-auth

Disallow authentication by clients that attempt to use accounts that have old (pre-4.1) passwords.

--secure-file-priv=path

This option limits the effect of the LOAD_FILE() function and the LOAD DATA and SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE statements to work only with files in the specified directory.

This option was added in MySQL 5.0.38.

--shared-memory

Enable shared-memory connections by local clients. This option is available only on Windows.

--shared-memory-base-name=name

The name of shared memory to use for shared-memory connections. This option is available only on Windows. The default name is MYSQL. The name is case sensitive.

--skip-bdb

Disable the BDB storage engine. This saves memory and might speed up some operations. Do not use this option if you require BDB tables.

--skip-concurrent-insert

Turn off the ability to select and insert at the same time on MyISAM tables. (This is to be used only if you think you have found a bug in this feature.) See Section 7.3.3, “Concurrent Inserts”.

--skip-external-locking

Do not use external locking (system locking). For more information about external locking, including conditions under which it can and cannot be used, see Section 7.3.4, “External Locking”.

External locking has been disabled by default since MySQL 4.0.

--skip-grant-tables

This option causes the server not to use the privilege system at all, which gives anyone with access to the server unrestricted access to all databases. You can cause a running server to start using the grant tables again by executing mysqladmin flush-privileges or mysqladmin reload command from a system shell, or by issuing a MySQL FLUSH PRIVILEGES statement after connecting to the server. This option also suppresses loading of user-defined functions (UDFs).

This option is unavailable if MySQL was configured with the --disable-grant-options option. See Section 2.16.2, “Typical configure Options”.

--skip-host-cache

Do not use the internal hostname cache for faster name-to-IP resolution. Instead, query the DNS server every time a client connects. See Section 7.5.10, “How MySQL Uses DNS”.

--skip-innodb

Disable the InnoDB storage engine. This saves memory and disk space and might speed up some operations. Do not use this option if you require InnoDB tables.

--skip-merge

Disable the MERGE storage engine. This option was added in MySQL 5.0.24. It can be used if the following behavior is undesirable: If a user has access to MyISAM table t, that user can create a MERGE table m that accesses t. However, if the user's privileges on t are subsequently revoked, the user can continue to access t by doing so through m.

--skip-name-resolve

Do not resolve hostnames when checking client connections. Use only IP numbers. If you use this option, all Host column values in the grant tables must be IP numbers or localhost. See Section 7.5.10, “How MySQL Uses DNS”.

--skip-networking

Don't listen for TCP/IP connections at all. All interaction with mysqld must be made via named pipes or shared memory (on Windows) or Unix socket files (on Unix). This option is highly recommended for systems where only local clients are allowed. See Section 7.5.10, “How MySQL Uses DNS”.

--ssl*

Options that begin with --ssl specify whether to allow clients to connect via SSL and indicate where to find SSL keys and certificates. See Section 5.5.7.3, “SSL Command Options”.

--standalone

Instructs the MySQL server not to run as a service.

--symbolic-links, --skip-symbolic-links

Enable or disable symbolic link support. This option has different effects on Windows and Unix:

--skip-safemalloc

If MySQL is configured with --with-debug=full, all MySQL programs check for memory overruns during each memory allocation and memory freeing operation. This checking is very slow, so for the server you can avoid it when you don't need it by using the --skip-safemalloc option.

--skip-show-database

With this option, the SHOW DATABASES statement is allowed only to users who have the SHOW DATABASES privilege, and the statement displays all database names. Without this option, SHOW DATABASES is allowed to all users, but displays each database name only if the user has the SHOW DATABASES privilege or some privilege for the database. Note that any global privilege is considered a privilege for the database.

--skip-stack-trace

Don't write stack traces. This option is useful when you are running mysqld under a debugger. On some systems, you also must use this option to get a core file. See MySQL Internals: Porting.

--skip-thread-priority

Disable using thread priorities for faster response time.

--socket=path

On Unix, this option specifies the Unix socket file to use when listening for local connections. The default value is /tmp/mysql.sock. On Windows, the option specifies the pipe name to use when listening for local connections that use a named pipe. The default value is MySQL (not case sensitive).

--sql-mode=value[,value[,value...]]

Set the SQL mode. See Section 5.1.7, “SQL Modes”.

--sysdate-is-now

As of MySQL 5.0.13, SYSDATE()