How do I find the MySQL my.cnf location

Question

Is there a MySQL command to locate the my.cnf configuration file, similar to how PHP's phpinfo() locates its php.ini?

Answer 1

Answered for only MySQL Workbench users,

Answer 2

I don't know how you've setup MySQL on your Linux environment but have you checked?

• /etc/my.cnf

Answer 3

Found mine using

mysqld --help --verbose | grep my.cnf

Answer 4

Another option is to use the whereis command.

E.g. whereis my.cnf

Answer 5

I installed xampp bundle with apache, php and mysql in ubuntu. There my.cnf file is located in /opt/lampp/etc/ folder. Hope it'll help somebody.

Answer 6

You can actually "request" MySQL for a list of all locations where it searches for my.cnf (or my.ini on Windows). It is not an SQL query though. Rather, execute:

$ mysqladmin --help

or, prior 5.7:

$ mysqld --help --verbose

In the very first lines you will find a message with a list of all my.cnf locations it looks for. On my machine it is:

Default options are read from the following files in the given order:
/etc/my.cnf
/etc/mysql/my.cnf
/usr/etc/my.cnf
~/.my.cnf

Or, on Windows:

Default options are read from the following files in the given order:
C:\Windows\my.ini
C:\Windows\my.cnf
C:\my.ini
C:\my.cnf
C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.5\my.ini
C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.5\my.cnf

Note however, that it might be the case that there is no my.cnf file at any of these locations. So, you can create the file on your own - use one of the sample config files provided with MySQL distribution (on Linux - see /usr/share/mysql/*.cnf files and use whichever is appropriate for you - copy it to /etc/my.cnf and then modify as needed).

Also, note that there is also a command line option --defaults-file which may define custom path to my.cnf or my.ini file. For example, this is the case for MySQL 5.5 on Windows - it points to a my.ini file in the data directory, which is not normally listed with mysqld --help --verbose. On Windows - see service properties to find out if this is the case for you.

Finally, check the https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/option-files.html - it is described there in more details.