Using config file

The default config file is /etc/my.cnf (on Red Hat and CentOS systems) and /etc/mysql/my.cnf (Debian systems). Open the file in your favorite editor and modify the parameters as needed. The main parameters are discussed in this chapter.

How to do it...

The config file has sections specified by section_name. All the parameters related to a section can be put under them, for example:

[mysqld] <---section name
<parameter_name> = <value> <---parameter values
[client]
<parameter_name> = <value>
[mysqldump]
<parameter_name> = <value>
[mysqld_safe]
<parameter_name> = <value>
[server]
<parameter_name> = <value>

• [mysql]: Section is read by the mysql command-line client
• [client]: Section is read by all connecting clients (including mysql cli)
• [mysqld]: Section is read by the mysql server
• [mysqldump]: The section is read by the backup utility called mysqldump
• [mysqld_safe]: Read by the mysqld_safe process (MySQL Server Startup...