--help

Display a help message and exit.

--autoclose

(NetWare only) On NetWare, mysqld_safe provides a screen presence. When you unload (shut down) the mysqld_safe NLM, the screen does not by default go away. Instead, it prompts for user input:

*<NLM has terminated; Press any key to close the screen>*

If you want NetWare to close the screen automatically instead, use the --autoclose option to mysqld_safe.

--basedir=path

The path to the MySQL installation directory.

--core-file-size=size

The size of the core file that mysqld should be able to create. The option value is passed to ulimit -c.

--datadir=path

The path to the data directory.

--defaults-extra-file=path

The name of an option file to be read in addition to the usual option files. This must be the first option on the command line if it is used. If the file does not exist or is otherwise inaccessible, the server will exit with an error.

--defaults-file=file_name

The name of an option file to be read instead of the usual option files. This must be the first option on the command line if it is used.

--ledir=path

If mysqld_safe cannot find the server, use this option to indicate the path name to the directory where the server is located.

--log-error=file_name

Write the error log to the given file. See The Error Log.

--malloc-lib=[lib_name]

The name of the library to use for memory allocation instead of the system malloc() library. Any library can be used by specifying its path name, but there is a shortcut form to enable use of the tcmalloc library that is shipped with binary MySQL distributions for Linux beginning with MySQL 5.4.3.

The --malloc-lib option works by modifying the LD_PRELOAD environment value to affect dynamic linking to enable the loader to find the memory-allocation library when mysqld runs:

Linux users can use the libtcmalloc_minimal.so included in binary packages by adding these lines to the my.cnf file:

[mysqld_safe]
malloc-lib=tcmalloc

Those lines also suffice for users on any platform who have installed a tcmalloc package in /usr/lib. To use a specific tcmalloc library, specify its full path name. Example:

[mysqld_safe]
malloc-lib=/opt/lib/libtcmalloc_minimal.so

This option was added in MySQL 5.4.3.

--mysqld=prog_name

The name of the server program (in the ledir directory) that you want to start. This option is needed if you use the MySQL binary distribution but have the data directory outside of the binary distribution. If mysqld_safe cannot find the server, use the --ledir option to indicate the path name to the directory where the server is located.

--mysqld-version=suffix

This option is similar to the --mysqld option, but you specify only the suffix for the server program name. The basename is assumed to be mysqld. For example, if you use --mysqld-version=debug, mysqld_safe starts the mysqld-debug program in the ledir directory. If the argument to --mysqld-version is empty, mysqld_safe uses mysqld in the ledir directory.

--nice=priority

Use the nice program to set the server's scheduling priority to the given value.

--no-defaults

Do not read any option files. This must be the first option on the command line if it is used.

--open-files-limit=count

The number of files that mysqld should be able to open. The option value is passed to ulimit -n. Note that you need to start mysqld_safe as root for this to work properly!

--pid-file=file_name

The path name of the process ID file.

--port=port_num

The port number that the server should use when listening for TCP/IP connections. The port number must be 1024 or higher unless the server is started by the root system user.

--skip-kill-mysqld

Do not try to kill stray mysqld processes at startup. This option works only on Linux.

--socket=path

The Unix socket file that the server should use when listening for local connections.

--syslog, --skip-syslog

--syslog causes error messages to be sent to syslog on systems that support the logger program. --skip-syslog suppresses the use of syslog; messages are written to an error log file.

--syslog-tag=tag

For logging to syslog, messages from mysqld_safe and mysqld are written with a tag of mysqld_safe and mysqld, respectively. To specify a suffix for the tag, use --syslog-tag=tag, which modifies the tags to be mysqld_safe-tag and mysqld-tag.

--timezone=timezone

Set the TZ time zone environment variable to the given option value. Consult your operating system documentation for legal time zone specification formats.

--user={user_name|user_id}

Run the mysqld server as the user having the name user_name or the numeric user ID user_id. (“User” in this context refers to a system login account, not a MySQL user listed in the grant tables.)

The server and databases can be found relative to the working directory (the directory from which mysqld_safe is invoked). For binary distributions, mysqld_safe looks under its working directory for bin and data directories. For source distributions, it looks for libexec and var directories. This condition should be met if you execute mysqld_safe from your MySQL installation directory (for example, /usr/local/mysql for a binary distribution).

If the server and databases cannot be found relative to the working directory, mysqld_safe attempts to locate them by absolute path names. Typical locations are /usr/local/libexec and /usr/local/var. The actual locations are determined from the values configured into the distribution at the time it was built. They should be correct if MySQL is installed in the location specified at configuration time.

--syslog: Write error messages to syslog on systems that support the logger program.

--skip-syslog: Do not write error messages to syslog. Messages are written to the default error log file (host_name.err in the data directory), or to a named file if the --log-error option is given.

--log-error=file_name: Write error messages to the named error file.