Trouble starting MySQL

[Andy Firman]

On Wed, Jan 12, 2005 at 09:35:21AM -0000, Walker, Michael wrote:
> 
> Greetings all,
> I installed MySQL from ports (mysql-4.1.7)
> then tried to start it. Nothing doing - wo way.
> 
> Starting it from /usr/loca/etc/rc.d/mysql-server.sh nothing happens. No 
> error message is emitted, but no running instance of mysql either.
> 
> <snip>
> 
> Read /usr/loca/etc/rc.d/mysql-server.sh you now have to start mysqld from
> your rc.conf file.

I am confused.  I run FreeBSD 4.10 stable with mysql-server-4.0.21
installed from the ports.

I have nothing in my rc.conf file for mysql, but I do have a
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql-server.sh file.

When I rebooted the machine last month, mysql started without
anything in the rc.conf file.  

Why?