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.

    Note

    For some Linux platforms, MySQL installation from RPM or Debian packages includes systemd support for managing MySQL server startup and shutdown. On these platforms, mysql.server and mysqld_safe are not installed because they are unnecessary. For more information, see Section 2.5.9, “Managing MySQL Server with systemd”.

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:

    • If you use the Linux server RPM package (MySQL-server-VERSION.rpm), or a native Linux package installation, the mysql.server script may be installed in the /etc/init.d directory with the name mysqld or mysql. See Section 2.5.4, “Installing MySQL on Linux Using RPM Packages from Oracle”, for more information on the Linux RPM packages.

    • If you install MySQL from a source distribution or using a binary distribution format that does not install mysql.server automatically, you can install the script manually. It can be found in the support-files directory under the MySQL installation directory or in a MySQL source tree. Copy the script to the /etc/init.d directory with the name mysql and make it executable:

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

    After installing the script, the commands needed to activate it to run at system startup depend on your operating system. On Linux, you can use chkconfig:

        chkconfig --add mysql

    On some Linux systems, the following command also seems to be necessary to fully enable the mysql script:

        chkconfig --level 345 mysql on

    • On FreeBSD, startup scripts generally should go in /usr/local/etc/rc.d/. Install the mysql.server script as /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql.server.sh to enable automatic startup. The rc(8) manual page states that scripts in this directory are executed only if their base name matches the *.sh shell file name pattern. Any other files or directories present within the directory are silently ignored.

    • As an alternative to the preceding setup, some operating systems also use /etc/rc.local or /etc/init.d/boot.local to start additional services on startup. To start up MySQL using this method, append a command like the one following to the appropriate startup file:

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

    • For other systems, consult your operating system documentation to see how to install startup scripts.

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
Option Name | Description | Type
basedir | Path to MySQL installation directory | Directory name
datadir | Path to MySQL data directory | Directory name
pid-file | File in which server should write its process ID | File name
service-startup-timeout | How long to wait for server startup | Integer

    • basedir=dir_name The path to the MySQL installation directory.

    • datadir=dir_name The path to the MySQL data directory.

    • pid-file=file_name The path name of the file in which the server should write its process ID. The server creates the file in the data directory unless an absolute path name is given to specify a different directory.

    If this option is not given, mysql.server uses a default value of host_name.pid. The PID file value passed to mysqld_safe overrides any value specified in the [mysqld_safe] option file group. Because mysql.server reads the [mysqld] option file group but not the [mysqld_safe] group, you can ensure that mysqld_safe gets the same value when invoked from mysql.server as when invoked manually by putting the same pid-file setting in both the [mysqld_safe] and [mysqld] groups.

    • service-startup-timeout=seconds How long in seconds to wait for confirmation of server startup. If the server does not start within this time, mysql.server exits with an error. The default value is 900. A value of 0 means not to wait at all for startup. Negative values mean to wait forever (no timeout).

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 1997, 2025, 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/).