Starting MySQL with different database directory

[Roger Olofsson]

Hello Dr. Nussbaum,

I do this quite alot but I prefer to do it like this:

1. stop mysqld.
2. copy the /var/db/mysql to <where I want it to be>
3. rename /var/db/mysql to keep the original (just in case)
4. create a symlink in /var/db that points to <where I want it to be>

You create a symlink by issuing the following command (in /var/db)

ln -s <where I want it to be> mysql

replace <where I want it to be> with the correct path to where you want 
your database files.

Good luck!



Dr. Jennifer Nussbaum skrev:
> I hope this is the right place--i looked over the MySQL docs but they talk about a different startup practice than what FreeBSD uses.
> 
> I have a new install of MySQL 5.1 on a FreeBSD 6.2 system. I want to have my
> MySQL data directory in a place other than /var/db/mysql. I thought i do this by
> copying the appropriate my.cnf into /etc/my.conf and adding a line like "datadir =
> /usr/local/mysql/var/" and making it readable to mysql user. But this doesnt work;
>  when i restart MySQL its still using /var/db/mysql.
> 
> So i looked at the mysql-server startup script in /usr/local/etc/rc.d and added to
> rc.conf "mysql_dbdir="/usr/local/mysql/var"". (I DON'T want to do it this way,
> because i really want my MySQL related configuration things in my MySQL
> configuration file, not split between there and my FreeBSD startup file. What if
> i need to start mysql in some other way? But for now im just trying to see what
> i can get to work.) This seemed to change something--mysqld had been running
> when i made this change and when I ran "mysql-server stop" it couldnt stop, 
> because it was looking in /usr/local/mysql/var/foo.pid--i think this means it did
> register the change to the new directory. But i couldnt then start it, because when
> I run "mysql-server start" i get a "Can't connect to local MySQL server through 
> socket '/tmp/mysql.sock'" error.
> 
> What's the right way to do this? Again id really prefer to do this all through the
> my.cnf file, but this seems not to be getting read, at least for this reason.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Jen
> 
>  
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