mysql.server(1)

NAME

mysql.server - MySQL server startup script

SYNOPSIS

mysql {start|stop}

DESCRIPTION

MySQL distributions on Unix and Unix-like system include a script named mysql.server, which starts the MySQL server using mysqld_safe. It can be used on systems such as Linux and Solaris that use System V-style run directories to start and stop system services. It is also used by the macOS Startup Item for MySQL.

mysql.server is the script name as used within the MySQL source tree. The installed name might be different (for example, mysqld or mysql). In the following discussion, adjust the name mysql.server as appropriate for your system.

To start or stop the server manually using the mysql.server script, invoke it from the command line with start or stop arguments:

mysql.server start
mysql.server stop

mysql.server changes location to the MySQL installation directory, then invokes mysqld_safe. To run the server as some specific user, add an appropriate user option to the [mysqld] group of the global /etc/my.cnf option file, as shown later in this section. (It is possible that you must edit mysql.server if you've installed a binary distribution of MySQL in a nonstandard location. Modify it to change location into the proper directory before it runs mysqld_safe. If you do this, your modified version of mysql.server may be overwritten if you upgrade MySQL in the future; make a copy of your edited version that you can reinstall.)

mysql.server stop stops the server by sending a signal to it. You can also stop the server manually by executing mysqladmin shutdown.

To start and stop MySQL automatically on your server, you must add start and stop commands to the appropriate places in your /etc/rc* files:

cp mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql
chmod +x /etc/init.d/mysql

chkconfig --add mysql

chkconfig --level 345 mysql on

/bin/sh -c 'cd /usr/local/mysql; ./bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &'

mysql.server reads options from the [mysql.server] and [mysqld] sections of option files. For backward compatibility, it also reads [mysql_server] sections, but to be current you should rename such sections to [mysql.server].

You can add options for mysql.server in a global /etc/my.cnf file. A typical my.cnf file might look like this:

[mysqld]
datadir=/usr/local/mysql/var
socket=/var/tmp/mysql.sock
port=3306
user=mysql
[mysql.server]
basedir=/usr/local/mysql

The mysql.server script supports the options shown in the following table. If specified, they must be placed in an option file, not on the command line. mysql.server supports only start and stop as command-line arguments.

Table 6.3. mysql.server Option-File Options

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 1997, 2026, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

This documentation is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it only under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.

This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with the program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA or see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

SEE ALSO

For more information, please refer to the MySQL Reference Manual, which may already be installed locally and which is also available online at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.

AUTHOR

Oracle Corporation (http://dev.mysql.com/).