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

If you're on a Mac with Homebrew, use

brew info mysql

You'll see something like

$ brew info mysql
mysql: stable 5.6.13 (bottled)
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/
Conflicts with: mariadb, mysql-cluster, percona-server
/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.6.13 (9381 files, 354M) *

That last line is the INSTALLERDIR per the MySQL docs

Answer 2

You will have to look through the various locations depending on your version of MySQL.

mysqld --help -verbose | grep my.cnf

For Homebrew:
/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/8.0.11/bin/mysqld (mysqld 8.0.11)

Default possible locations:
/etc/my.cnf
/etc/mysql/my.cnf
~/.my.cnf

Found mine here: 
/usr/local/etc/my.cnf

Answer 3

You could always run find in a terminal.

find / -name my.cnf

Answer 4

By default, mysql search my.cnf first at /etc folder. If there is no /etc/my.cnf file inside this folder, I advise you to create new one in this folder as indicated by the documentation (https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/option-files.html).

You can also search for existing my.cnf furnished by your mysql installation. You can launch the following command

sudo find / -name "*.cnf"

You can use the following configuration file with myisam table and without innodb mysql support (from port installation of mysql on mac os x maverick). Please verify each command in this configuration file.

# Example MySQL config file for large systems.
#
# This is for a large system with memory = 512M where the system runs mainly
# MySQL.
#
# MySQL programs look for option files in a set of
# locations which depend on the deployment platform.
# You can copy this option file to one of those
# locations. For information about these locations, see:
# http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/option-files.html
#
# In this file, you can use all long options that a program supports.
# If you want to know which options a program supports, run the program
# with the "--help" option.

# The following options will be passed to all MySQL clients
[client]
#password   = your_password
port        = 3306
socket      = /opt/local/var/run/mysql5/mysqld.sock

# Here follows entries for some specific programs

# The MySQL server
[mysqld]
port        = 3306
socket      = /opt/local/var/run/mysql5/mysqld.sock
skip-locking
key_buffer_size = 256M
max_allowed_packet = 1M
table_open_cache = 256
sort_buffer_size = 1M
read_buffer_size = 1M
read_rnd_buffer_size = 4M
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 64M
thread_cache_size = 8
query_cache_size= 16M
# Try number of CPU's*2 for thread_concurrency
thread_concurrency = 8

# Don't listen on a TCP/IP port at all. This can be a security enhancement,
# if all processes that need to connect to mysqld run on the same host.
# All interaction with mysqld must be made via Unix sockets or named pipes.
# Note that using this option without enabling named pipes on Windows
# (via the "enable-named-pipe" option) will render mysqld useless!
# 
#skip-networking

# Replication Master Server (default)
# binary logging is required for replication
log-bin=mysql-bin

# binary logging format - mixed recommended
binlog_format=mixed

# required unique id between 1 and 2^32 - 1
# defaults to 1 if master-host is not set
# but will not function as a master if omitted
server-id   = 1

# Replication Slave (comment out master section to use this)
#
# To configure this host as a replication slave, you can choose between
# two methods :
#
# 1) Use the CHANGE MASTER TO command (fully described in our manual) -
#    the syntax is:
#
#    CHANGE MASTER TO MASTER_HOST=<host>, MASTER_PORT=<port>,
#    MASTER_USER=<user>, MASTER_PASSWORD=<password> ;
#
#    where you replace <host>, <user>, <password> by quoted strings and
#    <port> by the master's port number (3306 by default).
#
#    Example:
#
#    CHANGE MASTER TO MASTER_HOST='125.564.12.1', MASTER_PORT=3306,
#    MASTER_USER='joe', MASTER_PASSWORD='secret';
#
# OR
#
# 2) Set the variables below. However, in case you choose this method, then
#    start replication for the first time (even unsuccessfully, for example
#    if you mistyped the password in master-password and the slave fails to
#    connect), the slave will create a master.info file, and any later
#    change in this file to the variables' values below will be ignored and
#    overridden by the content of the master.info file, unless you shutdown
#    the slave server, delete master.info and restart the slaver server.
#    For that reason, you may want to leave the lines below untouched
#    (commented) and instead use CHANGE MASTER TO (see above)
#
# required unique id between 2 and 2^32 - 1
# (and different from the master)
# defaults to 2 if master-host is set
# but will not function as a slave if omitted
#server-id       = 2
#
# The replication master for this slave - required
#master-host     =   <hostname>
#
# The username the slave will use for authentication when connecting
# to the master - required
#master-user     =   <username>
#
# The password the slave will authenticate with when connecting to
# the master - required
#master-password =   <password>
#
# The port the master is listening on.
# optional - defaults to 3306
#master-port     =  <port>
#
# binary logging - not required for slaves, but recommended
#log-bin=mysql-bin

# Uncomment the following if you are using InnoDB tables
#innodb_data_home_dir = /opt/local/var/db/mysql5
#innodb_data_file_path = ibdata1:10M:autoextend
#innodb_log_group_home_dir = /opt/local/var/db/mysql5
# You can set .._buffer_pool_size up to 50 - 80 %
# of RAM but beware of setting memory usage too high
#innodb_buffer_pool_size = 256M
#innodb_additional_mem_pool_size = 20M
# Set .._log_file_size to 25 % of buffer pool size
#innodb_log_file_size = 64M
#innodb_log_buffer_size = 8M
#innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 1
#innodb_lock_wait_timeout = 50

[mysqldump]
quick
max_allowed_packet = 16M

[mysql]
no-auto-rehash
# Remove the next comment character if you are not familiar with SQL
#safe-updates

[myisamchk]
key_buffer_size = 128M
sort_buffer_size = 128M
read_buffer = 2M
write_buffer = 2M

[mysqlhotcopy]
interactive-timeout

Answer 5

Try running mysqld --help --verbose | grep my.cnf | tr " " "\n"

Output will be something like

/etc/my.cnf
/etc/mysql/my.cnf
/usr/local/etc/my.cnf
~/.my.cnf

Answer 6

If you are using MAMP, access Templates > MySQL (my.cnf) > [version]

If you are running MAMP windowless you may need to customize the toolbar using the Customize button.