To see the values that a server uses based on its compiled-in defaults and any option files that it reads, use this command:

mysqld --verbose --help

To see the values that a server uses based on only its compiled-in defaults, ignoring the settings in any option files, use this command:

mysqld --no-defaults --verbose --help

To see the current values used by a running server, use the SHOW VARIABLES statement or the Performance Schema system variable tables. See Section 25.12.13, “Performance Schema System Variable Tables”.

Section 5.1.8, “Using System Variables”, discusses the syntax for setting and displaying system variable values.

Section 5.1.8.2, “Dynamic System Variables”, lists the variables that can be set at runtime.

Information on tuning system variables can be found in Section 5.1.1, “Configuring the Server”.

Section 14.15, “InnoDB Startup Options and System Variables”, lists InnoDB system variables.

Section 21.4.3.9.2, “NDB Cluster System Variables”, lists system variables which are specific to NDB Cluster.

For information on server system variables specific to replication, see Section 16.1.6, “Replication and Binary Logging Options and Variables”.

authentication_windows_log_level

This variable is available only if the authentication_windows Windows authentication plugin is enabled and debugging code is enabled. See Section 6.4.1.8, “Windows Pluggable Authentication”.

This variable sets the logging level for the Windows authentication plugin. The following table shows the permitted values.

authentication_windows_use_principal_name

This variable is available only if the authentication_windows Windows authentication plugin is enabled. See Section 6.4.1.8, “Windows Pluggable Authentication”.

A client that authenticates using the InitSecurityContext() function should provide a string identifying the service to which it connects (targetName). MySQL uses the principal name (UPN) of the account under which the server is running. The UPN has the form user_id@computer_name and need not be registered anywhere to be used. This UPN is sent by the server at the beginning of authentication handshake.

This variable controls whether the server sends the UPN in the initial challenge. By default, the variable is enabled. For security reasons, it can be disabled to avoid sending the server's account name to a client as cleartext. If the variable is disabled, the server always sends a 0x00 byte in the first challenge, the client does not specify targetName, and as a result, NTLM authentication is used.

If the server fails to obtain its UPN (which happens primarily in environments that do not support Kerberos authentication), the UPN is not sent by the server and NTLM authentication is used.

autocommit

The autocommit mode. If set to 1, all changes to a table take effect immediately. If set to 0, you must use COMMIT to accept a transaction or ROLLBACK to cancel it. If autocommit is 0 and you change it to 1, MySQL performs an automatic COMMIT of any open transaction. Another way to begin a transaction is to use a START TRANSACTION or BEGIN statement. See Section 13.3.1, “START TRANSACTION, COMMIT, and ROLLBACK Statements”.

By default, client connections begin with autocommit set to 1. To cause clients to begin with a default of 0, set the global autocommit value by starting the server with the --autocommit=0 option. To set the variable using an option file, include these lines:

[mysqld]
autocommit=0

automatic_sp_privileges

When this variable has a value of 1 (the default), the server automatically grants the EXECUTE and ALTER ROUTINE privileges to the creator of a stored routine, if the user cannot already execute and alter or drop the routine. (The ALTER ROUTINE privilege is required to drop the routine.) The server also automatically drops those privileges from the creator when the routine is dropped. If automatic_sp_privileges is 0, the server does not automatically add or drop these privileges.

The creator of a routine is the account used to execute the CREATE statement for it. This might not be the same as the account named as the DEFINER in the routine definition.

If you start mysqld with --skip-new, automatic_sp_privileges is set to OFF.

See also Section 23.2.2, “Stored Routines and MySQL Privileges”.

auto_generate_certs

This variable is available if the server was compiled using OpenSSL (see Section 6.3.4, “SSL Library-Dependent Capabilities”). It controls whether the server autogenerates SSL key and certificate files in the data directory, if they do not already exist.

At startup, the server automatically generates server-side and client-side SSL certificate and key files in the data directory if the auto_generate_certs system variable is enabled, no SSL options other than --ssl are specified, and the server-side SSL files are missing from the data directory. These files enable secure client connections using SSL; see Section 6.3.1, “Configuring MySQL to Use Encrypted Connections”.

For more information about SSL file autogeneration, including file names and characteristics, see Section 6.3.3.1, “Creating SSL and RSA Certificates and Keys using MySQL”

The sha256_password_auto_generate_rsa_keys system variable is related but controls autogeneration of RSA key-pair files needed for secure password exchange using RSA over unencypted connections.

avoid_temporal_upgrade

This variable controls whether ALTER TABLE implicitly upgrades temporal columns found to be in pre-5.6.4 format (TIME, DATETIME, and TIMESTAMP columns without support for fractional seconds precision). Upgrading such columns requires a table rebuild, which prevents any use of fast alterations that might otherwise apply to the operation to be performed.

This variable is disabled by default. Enabling it causes ALTER TABLE not to rebuild temporal columns and thereby be able to take advantage of possible fast alterations.

This variable is deprecated; expect it to be removed in a future release of MySQL.

back_log

The number of outstanding connection requests MySQL can have. This comes into play when the main MySQL thread gets very many connection requests in a very short time. It then takes some time (although very little) for the main thread to check the connection and start a new thread. The back_log value indicates how many requests can be stacked during this short time before MySQL momentarily stops answering new requests. You need to increase this only if you expect a large number of connections in a short period of time.

In other words, this value is the size of the listen queue for incoming TCP/IP connections. Your operating system has its own limit on the size of this queue. The manual page for the Unix listen() system call should have more details. Check your OS documentation for the maximum value for this variable. back_log cannot be set higher than your operating system limit.

The default value is based on the following formula, capped to a limit of 900:

50 + (max_connections / 5)

basedir

The path to the MySQL installation base directory.

big_tables

If enabled, the server stores all temporary tables on disk rather than in memory. This prevents most The table tbl_name is full errors for SELECT operations that require a large temporary table, but also slows down queries for which in-memory tables would suffice.

The default value for new connections is OFF (use in-memory temporary tables). Normally, it should never be necessary to enable this variable because the server is able to handle large result sets automatically by using memory for small temporary tables and switching to disk-based tables as required.

bind_address

The MySQL server listens on a single network socket for TCP/IP connections. This socket is bound to a single address, but it is possible for an address to map onto multiple network interfaces. To specify an address, set bind_address=addr at server startup, where addr is an IPv4 or IPv6 address or a host name. If addr is a host name, the server resolves the name to an IP address and binds to that address. If a host name resolves to multiple IP addresses, the server uses the first IPv4 address if there are any, or the first IPv6 address otherwise.

The server treats different types of addresses as follows:

If binding to the address fails, the server produces an error and does not start.

If you intend to bind the server to a specific address, be sure that the mysql.user system table contains an account with administrative privileges that you can use to connect to that address. Otherwise, you cannot shut down the server. For example, if you bind the server to *, you can connect to it using all existing accounts. But if you bind the server to ::1, it accepts connections only on that address. In that case, first make sure that the 'root'@'::1' account is present in the mysql.user table so you can still connect to the server to shut it down.

This variable has no effect for the embedded server (libmysqld) and is not visible within the embedded server.

block_encryption_mode

This variable controls the block encryption mode for block-based algorithms such as AES. It affects encryption for AES_ENCRYPT() and AES_DECRYPT().

block_encryption_mode takes a value in aes-keylen-mode format, where keylen is the key length in bits and mode is the encryption mode. The value is not case-sensitive. Permitted keylen values are 128, 192, and 256. Permitted encryption modes depend on whether MySQL was compiled using OpenSSL or yaSSL:

For example, this statement causes the AES encryption functions to use a key length of 256 bits and the CBC mode:

SET block_encryption_mode = 'aes-256-cbc';

An error occurs for attempts to set block_encryption_mode to a value containing an unsupported key length or a mode that the SSL library does not support.

bulk_insert_buffer_size

MyISAM uses a special tree-like cache to make bulk inserts faster for INSERT ... SELECT, INSERT ... VALUES (...), (...), ..., and LOAD DATA when adding data to nonempty tables. This variable limits the size of the cache tree in bytes per thread. Setting it to 0 disables this optimization. The default value is 8MB.

character_set_client

The character set for statements that arrive from the client. The session value of this variable is set using the character set requested by the client when the client connects to the server. (Many clients support a --default-character-set option to enable this character set to be specified explicitly. See also Section 10.4, “Connection Character Sets and Collations”.) The global value of the variable is used to set the session value in cases when the client-requested value is unknown or not available, or the server is configured to ignore client requests:

Some character sets cannot be used as the client character set. Attempting to use them as the character_set_client value produces an error. See Impermissible Client Character Sets.

character_set_connection

The character set used for literals specified without a character set introducer and for number-to-string conversion. For information about introducers, see Section 10.3.8, “Character Set Introducers”.

character_set_database

The character set used by the default database. The server sets this variable whenever the default database changes. If there is no default database, the variable has the same value as character_set_server.

The global character_set_database and collation_database system variables are deprecated in MySQL 5.7; expect them to be removed in a future version of MySQL.

Assigning a value to the session character_set_database and collation_database system variables is deprecated in MySQL 5.7 and assignments produce a warning. You should expect the session variables to become read only in a future version of MySQL and assignments to produce an error, while remaining possible to access the session variables to determine the database character set and collation for the default database.

character_set_filesystem

The file system character set. This variable is used to interpret string literals that refer to file names, such as in the LOAD DATA and SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE statements and the LOAD_FILE() function. Such file names are converted from character_set_client to character_set_filesystem before the file opening attempt occurs. The default value is binary, which means that no conversion occurs. For systems on which multibyte file names are permitted, a different value may be more appropriate. For example, if the system represents file names using UTF-8, set character_set_filesystem to 'utf8mb4'.

character_set_results

The character set used for returning query results to the client. This includes result data such as column values, result metadata such as column names, and error messages.

character_set_server

The servers default character set. See Section 10.15, “Character Set Configuration”. If you set this variable, you should also set collation_server to specify the collation for the character set.

character_set_system

The character set used by the server for storing identifiers. The value is always utf8.

character_sets_dir

The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 10.15, “Character Set Configuration”.

check_proxy_users

Some authentication plugins implement proxy user mapping for themselves (for example, the PAM and Windows authentication plugins). Other authentication plugins do not support proxy users by default. Of these, some can request that the MySQL server itself map proxy users according to granted proxy privileges: mysql_native_password, sha256_password.

If the check_proxy_users system variable is enabled, the server performs proxy user mapping for any authentication plugins that make such a request. However, it may also be necessary to enable plugin-specific system variables to take advantage of server proxy user mapping support:

For information about user proxying, see Section 6.2.14, “Proxy Users”.

collation_connection

The collation of the connection character set. collation_connection is important for comparisons of literal strings. For comparisons of strings with column values, collation_connection does not matter because columns have their own collation, which has a higher collation precedence (see Section 10.8.4, “Collation Coercibility in Expressions”).

collation_database

The collation used by the default database. The server sets this variable whenever the default database changes. If there is no default database, the variable has the same value as collation_server.

The global character_set_database and collation_database system variables are deprecated in MySQL 5.7; expect them to be removed in a future version of MySQL.

Assigning a value to the session character_set_database and collation_database system variables is deprecated in MySQL 5.7 and assignments produce a warning. Expect the session variables to become read only in a future version of MySQL and assignments to produce an error, while remaining possible to access the session variables to determine the database character set and collation for the default database.

collation_server

The server's default collation. See Section 10.15, “Character Set Configuration”.

completion_type

The transaction completion type. This variable can take the values shown in the following table. The variable can be assigned using either the name values or corresponding integer values.

completion_type affects transactions that begin with START TRANSACTION or BEGIN and end with COMMIT or ROLLBACK. It does not apply to implicit commits resulting from execution of the statements listed in Section 13.3.3, “Statements That Cause an Implicit Commit”. It also does not apply for XA COMMIT, XA ROLLBACK, or when autocommit=1.

concurrent_insert

If AUTO (the default), MySQL permits INSERT and SELECT statements to run concurrently for MyISAM tables that have no free blocks in the middle of the data file.

This variable can take the values shown in the following table. The variable can be assigned using either the name values or corresponding integer values.

If you start mysqld with --skip-new, concurrent_insert is set to NEVER.

See also Section 8.11.3, “Concurrent Inserts”.

connect_timeout

The number of seconds that the mysqld server waits for a connect packet before responding with Bad handshake. The default value is 10 seconds.

Increasing the connect_timeout value might help if clients frequently encounter errors of the form Lost connection to MySQL server at 'XXX', system error: errno.

core_file

Whether to write a core file if the server unexpectedly exits. This variable is set by the --core-file option.

datadir

The path to the MySQL server data directory. Relative paths are resolved with respect to the current directory. If you expect the server to be started automatically (that is, in contexts for which you cannot assume what the current directory is), it is best to specify the datadir value as an absolute path.

date_format

This variable is unused. It is deprecated and is removed in MySQL 8.0.

datetime_format

This variable is unused. It is deprecated and is removed in MySQL 8.0.

debug

This variable indicates the current debugging settings. It is available only for servers built with debugging support. The initial value comes from the value of instances of the --debug option given at server startup. The global and session values may be set at runtime.

Setting the session value of this system variable is a restricted operation. The session user must have privileges sufficient to set restricted session variables. See Section 5.1.8.1, “System Variable Privileges”.

Assigning a value that begins with + or - cause the value to added to or subtracted from the current value:

mysql> SET debug = 'T';
mysql> SELECT @@debug;
+---------+
| @@debug |
+---------+
| T       |
+---------+

mysql> SET debug = '+P';
mysql> SELECT @@debug;
+---------+
| @@debug |
+---------+
| P:T     |
+---------+

mysql> SET debug = '-P';
mysql> SELECT @@debug;
+---------+
| @@debug |
+---------+
| T       |
+---------+

For more information, see Section 5.8.3, “The DBUG Package”.

debug_sync

This variable is the user interface to the Debug Sync facility. Use of Debug Sync requires that MySQL be configured with the -DWITH_DEBUG=ON CMake option (see Section 2.8.7, “MySQL Source-Configuration Options”); otherwise, this system variable is not available.

The global variable value is read only and indicates whether the facility is enabled. By default, Debug Sync is disabled and the value of debug_sync is OFF. If the server is started with --debug-sync-timeout=N, where N is a timeout value greater than 0, Debug Sync is enabled and the value of debug_sync is ON - current signal followed by the signal name. Also, N becomes the default timeout for individual synchronization points.

The session value can be read by any user and has the same value as the global variable. The session value can be set to control synchronization points.

Setting the session value of this system variable is a restricted operation. The session user must have privileges sufficient to set restricted session variables. See Section 5.1.8.1, “System Variable Privileges”.

For a description of the Debug Sync facility and how to use synchronization points, see MySQL Server Doxygen Documentation.

default_authentication_plugin

The default authentication plugin. These values are permitted:

The default_authentication_plugin value affects these aspects of server operation:

default_password_lifetime

This variable defines the global automatic password expiration policy. The default default_password_lifetime value is 0, which disables automatic password expiration. If the value of default_password_lifetime is a positive integer N, it indicates the permitted password lifetime; passwords must be changed every N days.

The global password expiration policy can be overridden as desired for individual accounts using the password expiration options of the ALTER USER statement. See Section 6.2.11, “Password Management”.

ALTER USER 'script'@'localhost' PASSWORD EXPIRE NEVER;

default_storage_engine

The default storage engine for tables. See Chapter 15, Alternative Storage Engines. This variable sets the storage engine for permanent tables only. To set the storage engine for TEMPORARY tables, set the default_tmp_storage_engine system variable.

To see which storage engines are available and enabled, use the SHOW ENGINES statement or query the INFORMATION_SCHEMA ENGINES table.

If you disable the default storage engine at server startup, you must set the default engine for both permanent and TEMPORARY tables to a different engine or the server cannot start.

default_tmp_storage_engine

The default storage engine for TEMPORARY tables (created with CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE). To set the storage engine for permanent tables, set the default_storage_engine system variable. Also see the discussion of that variable regarding possible values.

If you disable the default storage engine at server startup, you must set the default engine for both permanent and TEMPORARY tables to a different engine or the server cannot start.

default_week_format

The default mode value to use for the WEEK() function. See Section 12.7, “Date and Time Functions”.

delay_key_write

This variable specifies how to use delayed key writes. It applies only to MyISAM tables. Delayed key writing causes key buffers not to be flushed between writes. See also Section 15.2.1, “MyISAM Startup Options”.

This variable can have one of the following values to affect handling of the DELAY_KEY_WRITE table option that can be used in CREATE TABLE statements.

If DELAY_KEY_WRITE is enabled for a table, the key buffer is not flushed for the table on every index update, but only when the table is closed. This speeds up writes on keys a lot, but if you use this feature, you should add automatic checking of all MyISAM tables by starting the server with the myisam_recover_options system variable set (for example, myisam_recover_options='BACKUP,FORCE'). See Section 5.1.7, “Server System Variables”, and Section 15.2.1, “MyISAM Startup Options”.

If you start mysqld with --skip-new, delay_key_write is set to OFF.

delayed_insert_limit

This system variable is deprecated (because DELAYED inserts are not supported); expect it to be removed in a future release.

delayed_insert_timeout

This system variable is deprecated (because DELAYED inserts are not supported); expect it to be removed in a future release.

delayed_queue_size

This system variable is deprecated (because DELAYED inserts are not supported); expect it to be removed in a future release.

disabled_storage_engines

This variable indicates which storage engines cannot be used to create tables or tablespaces. For example, to prevent new MyISAM or FEDERATED tables from being created, start the server with these lines in the server option file:

[mysqld]
disabled_storage_engines="MyISAM,FEDERATED"

By default, disabled_storage_engines is empty (no engines disabled), but it can be set to a comma-separated list of one or more engines (not case-sensitive). Any engine named in the value cannot be used to create tables or tablespaces with CREATE TABLE or CREATE TABLESPACE, and cannot be used with ALTER TABLE ... ENGINE or ALTER TABLESPACE ... ENGINE to change the storage engine of existing tables or tablespaces. Attempts to do so result in an ER_DISABLED_STORAGE_ENGINE error.

disabled_storage_engines does not restrict other DDL statements for existing tables, such as CREATE INDEX, TRUNCATE TABLE, ANALYZE TABLE, DROP TABLE, or DROP TABLESPACE. This permits a smooth transition so that existing tables or tablespaces that use a disabled engine can be migrated to a permitted engine by means such as ALTER TABLE ... ENGINE permitted_engine.

It is permitted to set the default_storage_engine or default_tmp_storage_engine system variable to a storage engine that is disabled. This could cause applications to behave erratically or fail, although that might be a useful technique in a development environment for identifying applications that use disabled engines, so that they can be modified.

disabled_storage_engines is disabled and has no effect if the server is started with any of these options: --bootstrap, --initialize, --initialize-insecure, --skip-grant-tables.

disconnect_on_expired_password

This variable controls how the server handles clients with expired passwords:

For more information about the interaction of client and server settings relating to expired-password handling, see Section 6.2.12, “Server Handling of Expired Passwords”.

div_precision_increment

This variable indicates the number of digits by which to increase the scale of the result of division operations performed with the / operator. The default value is 4. The minimum and maximum values are 0 and 30, respectively. The following example illustrates the effect of increasing the default value.

mysql> SELECT 1/7;
+--------+
| 1/7    |
+--------+
| 0.1429 |
+--------+
mysql> SET div_precision_increment = 12;
mysql> SELECT 1/7;
+----------------+
| 1/7            |
+----------------+
| 0.142857142857 |
+----------------+

end_markers_in_json

Whether optimizer JSON output should add end markers. See Section 8.15.9, “The end_markers_in_json System Variable”.

eq_range_index_dive_limit

This variable indicates the number of equality ranges in an equality comparison condition when the optimizer should switch from using index dives to index statistics in estimating the number of qualifying rows. It applies to evaluation of expressions that have either of these equivalent forms, where the optimizer uses a nonunique index to look up col_name values:

col_name IN(val1, ..., valN)
col_name = val1 OR ... OR col_name = valN

In both cases, the expression contains N equality ranges. The optimizer can make row estimates using index dives or index statistics. If eq_range_index_dive_limit is greater than 0, the optimizer uses existing index statistics instead of index dives if there are eq_range_index_dive_limit or more equality ranges. Thus, to permit use of index dives for up to N equality ranges, set eq_range_index_dive_limit to N + 1. To disable use of index statistics and always use index dives regardless of N, set eq_range_index_dive_limit to 0.

For more information, see Equality Range Optimization of Many-Valued Comparisons.

To update table index statistics for best estimates, use ANALYZE TABLE.

error_count

The number of errors that resulted from the last statement that generated messages. This variable is read only. See Section 13.7.5.17, “SHOW ERRORS Statement”.

event_scheduler

This variable enables or disables, and starts or stops, the Event Scheduler. The possible status values are ON, OFF, and DISABLED. Turning the Event Scheduler OFF is not the same as disabling the Event Scheduler, which requires setting the status to DISABLED. This variable and its effects on the Event Scheduler's operation are discussed in greater detail in Section 23.4.2, “Event Scheduler Configuration”

explicit_defaults_for_timestamp

This system variable determines whether the server enables certain nonstandard behaviors for default values and NULL-value handling in TIMESTAMP columns. By default, explicit_defaults_for_timestamp is disabled, which enables the nonstandard behaviors.

If explicit_defaults_for_timestamp is disabled, the server enables the nonstandard behaviors and handles TIMESTAMP columns as follows:

The nonstandard behaviors just described are deprecated; expect them to be removed in a future release of MySQL.

If explicit_defaults_for_timestamp is enabled, the server disables the nonstandard behaviors and handles TIMESTAMP columns as follows:

If explicit_defaults_for_timestamp is disabled at server startup, this warning appears in the error log:

[Warning] TIMESTAMP with implicit DEFAULT value is deprecated.
Please use --explicit_defaults_for_timestamp server option (see
documentation for more details).

As indicated by the warning, to disable the deprecated nonstandard behaviors, enable the explicit_defaults_for_timestamp system variable at server startup.

For additional information, see Section 11.2.6, “Automatic Initialization and Updating for TIMESTAMP and DATETIME”.

external_user

The external user name used during the authentication process, as set by the plugin used to authenticate the client. With native (built-in) MySQL authentication, or if the plugin does not set the value, this variable is NULL. See Section 6.2.14, “Proxy Users”.

flush

If ON, the server flushes (synchronizes) all changes to disk after each SQL statement. Normally, MySQL does a write of all changes to disk only after each SQL statement and lets the operating system handle the synchronizing to disk. See Section B.3.3.3, “What to Do If MySQL Keeps Crashing”. This variable is set to ON if you start mysqld with the --flush option.

flush_time

If this is set to a nonzero value, all tables are closed every flush_time seconds to free up resources and synchronize unflushed data to disk. This option is best used only on systems with minimal resources.

foreign_key_checks

If set to 1 (the default), foreign key constraints are checked. If set to 0, foreign key constraints are ignored, with a couple of exceptions. When re-creating a table that was dropped, an error is returned if the table definition does not conform to the foreign key constraints referencing the table. Likewise, an ALTER TABLE operation returns an error if a foreign key definition is incorrectly formed. For more information, see Section 13.1.18.5, “FOREIGN KEY Constraints”.

Setting this variable has the same effect on NDB tables as it does for InnoDB tables. Typically you leave this setting enabled during normal operation, to enforce referential integrity. Disabling foreign key checking can be useful for reloading InnoDB tables in an order different from that required by their parent/child relationships. See Section 13.1.18.5, “FOREIGN KEY Constraints”.

Setting foreign_key_checks to 0 also affects data definition statements: DROP SCHEMA drops a schema even if it contains tables that have foreign keys that are referred to by tables outside the schema, and DROP TABLE drops tables that have foreign keys that are referred to by other tables.

ft_boolean_syntax

The list of operators supported by boolean full-text searches performed using IN BOOLEAN MODE. See Section 12.9.2, “Boolean Full-Text Searches”.

The default variable value is '+ -><()~*:""&|'. The rules for changing the value are as follows:

ft_max_word_len

The maximum length of the word to be included in a MyISAM FULLTEXT index.

ft_min_word_len

The minimum length of the word to be included in a MyISAM FULLTEXT index.

ft_query_expansion_limit

The number of top matches to use for full-text searches performed using WITH QUERY EXPANSION.

ft_stopword_file

The file from which to read the list of stopwords for full-text searches on MyISAM tables. The server looks for the file in the data directory unless an absolute path name is given to specify a different directory. All the words from the file are used; comments are not honored. By default, a built-in list of stopwords is used (as defined in the storage/myisam/ft_static.c file). Setting this variable to the empty string ('') disables stopword filtering. See also Section 12.9.4, “Full-Text Stopwords”.

general_log

Whether the general query log is enabled. The value can be 0 (or OFF) to disable the log or 1 (or ON) to enable the log. The destination for log output is controlled by the log_output system variable; if that value is NONE, no log entries are written even if the log is enabled.

general_log_file

The name of the general query log file. The default value is host_name.log, but the initial value can be changed with the --general_log_file option.

group_concat_max_len

The maximum permitted result length in bytes for the GROUP_CONCAT() function. The default is 1024.

have_compress

YES if the zlib compression library is available to the server, NO if not. If not, the COMPRESS() and UNCOMPRESS() functions cannot be used.

have_crypt

YES if the crypt() system call is available to the server, NO if not. If not, the ENCRYPT() function cannot be used.

have_dynamic_loading

YES if mysqld supports dynamic loading of plugins, NO if not. If the value is NO, you cannot use options such as --plugin-load to load plugins at server startup, or the INSTALL PLUGIN statement to load plugins at runtime.

have_geometry

YES if the server supports spatial data types, NO if not.

have_openssl

This variable is a synonym for have_ssl.

have_profiling

YES if statement profiling capability is present, NO if not. If present, the profiling system variable controls whether this capability is enabled or disabled. See Section 13.7.5.31, “SHOW PROFILES Statement”.

This variable is deprecated; expect it to be removed in a future release of MySQL.

have_query_cache

YES if mysqld supports the query cache, NO if not.

have_rtree_keys

YES if RTREE indexes are available, NO if not. (These are used for spatial indexes in MyISAM tables.)

have_ssl

YES if mysqld supports SSL connections, DISABLED if the server was compiled with SSL support, but was not started with the appropriate connection-encryption options. For more information, see Section 2.8.6, “Configuring SSL Library Support”.

have_statement_timeout

Whether the statement execution timeout feature is available (see Statement Execution Time Optimizer Hints). The value can be NO if the background thread used by this feature could not be initialized.

have_symlink

YES if symbolic link support is enabled, NO if not. This is required on Unix for support of the DATA DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY table options. If the server is started with the --skip-symbolic-links option, the value is DISABLED.

This variable has no meaning on Windows.

host_cache_size

The MySQL server maintains an in-memory host cache that contains client host name and IP address information and is used to avoid Domain Name System (DNS) lookups; see Section 5.1.11.2, “DNS Lookups and the Host Cache”.

The host_cache_size variable controls the size of the host cache, as well as the size of the Performance Schema host_cache table that exposes the cache contents. Setting host_cache_size has these effects:

The default value is autosized to 128, plus 1 for a value of max_connections up to 500, plus 1 for every increment of 20 over 500 in the max_connections value, capped to a limit of 2000.

Using the --skip-host-cache option is similar to setting the host_cache_size system variable to 0, but host_cache_size is more flexible because it can also be used to resize, enable, and disable the host cache at runtime, not just at server startup.

Starting the server with --skip-host-cache does not prevent runtime changes to the value of host_cache_size, but such changes have no effect and the cache is not re-enabled even if host_cache_size is set larger than 0.

Setting the host_cache_size system variable rather than the --skip-host-cache option is preferred for the reasons given in the previous paragraph. In addition, the --skip-host-cache option is deprecated in MySQL 8.0, and its removal is expected in a future version of MySQL.

hostname

The server sets this variable to the server host name at startup.

identity

This variable is a synonym for the last_insert_id variable. It exists for compatibility with other database systems. You can read its value with SELECT @@identity, and set it using SET identity.

ignore_db_dirs

A comma-separated list of names that are not considered as database directories in the data directory. The value is set from any instances of --ignore-db-dir given at server startup.

As of MySQL 5.7.11, --ignore-db-dir can be used at data directory initialization time with mysqld --initialize to specify directories that the server should ignore for purposes of assessing whether an existing data directory is considered empty. See Section 2.9.1, “Initializing the Data Directory”.

This system variable is deprecated in MySQL 5.7. With the introduction of the data dictionary in MySQL 8.0, it became superfluous and was removed in that version.

init_connect

A string to be executed by the server for each client that connects. The string consists of one or more SQL statements, separated by semicolon characters.

For users that have the SUPER privilege, the content of init_connect is not executed. This is done so that an erroneous value for init_connect does not prevent all clients from connecting. For example, the value might contain a statement that has a syntax error, thus causing client connections to fail. Not executing init_connect for users that have the SUPER privilege enables them to open a connection and fix the init_connect value.

As of MySQL 5.7.22, init_connect execution is skipped for any client user with an expired password. This is done because such a user cannot execute arbitrary statements, and thus init_connect execution fails, leaving the client unable to connect. Skipping init_connect execution enables the user to connect and change password.

The server discards any result sets produced by statements in the value of init_connect.

init_file

If specified, this variable names a file containing SQL statements to be read and executed during the startup process. Each statement must be on a single line and should not include comments.

If the server is started with any of the --bootstrap, --initialize, or --initialize-insecure options, it operates in bootstap mode and some functionality is unavailable that limits the statements permitted in the file. These include statements that relate to account management (such as CREATE USER or GRANT), replication, and global transaction identifiers. See Section 16.1.3, “Replication with Global Transaction Identifiers”.

innodb_xxx

InnoDB system variables are listed in Section 14.15, “InnoDB Startup Options and System Variables”. These variables control many aspects of storage, memory use, and I/O patterns for InnoDB tables, and are especially important now that InnoDB is the default storage engine.

insert_id

The value to be used by the following INSERT or ALTER TABLE statement when inserting an AUTO_INCREMENT value. This is mainly used with the binary log.

interactive_timeout

The number of seconds the server waits for activity on an interactive connection before closing it. An interactive client is defined as a client that uses the CLIENT_INTERACTIVE option to mysql_real_connect(). See also wait_timeout.

internal_tmp_disk_storage_engine

The storage engine for on-disk internal temporary tables (see Section 8.4.4, “Internal Temporary Table Use in MySQL”). Permitted values are MYISAM and INNODB (the default).

The optimizer uses the storage engine defined by internal_tmp_disk_storage_engine for on-disk internal temporary tables.

When using internal_tmp_disk_storage_engine=INNODB (the default), queries that generate on-disk internal temporary tables that exceed InnoDB row or column limits return Row size too large or Too many columns errors. The workaround is to set internal_tmp_disk_storage_engine to MYISAM.

join_buffer_size

The minimum size of the buffer that is used for plain index scans, range index scans, and joins that do not use indexes and thus perform full table scans. Normally, the best way to get fast joins is to add indexes. Increase the value of join_buffer_size to get a faster full join when adding indexes is not possible. One join buffer is allocated for each full join between two tables. For a complex join between several tables for which indexes are not used, multiple join buffers might be necessary.

The default is 256KB. The maximum permissible setting for join_buffer_size is 4GB−1. Larger values are permitted for 64-bit platforms (except 64-bit Windows, for which large values are truncated to 4GB−1 with a warning). The block size is 128, and a value that is not an exact multiple of the block size is rounded down to the next lower multiple of the block size by MySQL Server before storing the value for the system variable. The parser allows values up to the maximum unsigned integer value for the platform (4294967295 or 2³²−1 for a 32-bit system, 18446744073709551615 or 2⁶⁴−1 for a 64-bit system) but the actual maximum is a block size lower.

Unless a Block Nested-Loop or Batched Key Access algorithm is used, there is no gain from setting the buffer larger than required to hold each matching row, and all joins allocate at least the minimum size, so use caution in setting this variable to a large value globally. It is better to keep the global setting small and change the session setting to a larger value only in sessions that are doing large joins. Memory allocation time can cause substantial performance drops if the global size is larger than needed by most queries that use it.

When Block Nested-Loop is used, a larger join buffer can be beneficial up to the point where all required columns from all rows in the first table are stored in the join buffer. This depends on the query; the optimal size may be smaller than holding all rows from the first tables.

When Batched Key Access is used, the value of join_buffer_size defines how large the batch of keys is in each request to the storage engine. The larger the buffer, the more sequential access is made to the right hand table of a join operation, which can significantly improve performance.

For additional information about join buffering, see Section 8.2.1.6, “Nested-Loop Join Algorithms”. For information about Batched Key Access, see Section 8.2.1.11, “Block Nested-Loop and Batched Key Access Joins”.

keep_files_on_create

If a MyISAM table is created with no DATA DIRECTORY option, the .MYD file is created in the database directory. By default, if MyISAM finds an existing .MYD file in this case, it overwrites it. The same applies to .MYI files for tables created with no INDEX DIRECTORY option. To suppress this behavior, set the keep_files_on_create variable to ON (1), in which case MyISAM does not overwrite existing files and returns an error instead. The default value is OFF (0).

If a MyISAM table is created with a DATA DIRECTORY or INDEX DIRECTORY option and an existing .MYD or .MYI file is found, MyISAM always returns an error. It does not overwrite a file in the specified directory.

key_buffer_size

Index blocks for MyISAM tables are buffered and are shared by all threads. key_buffer_size is the size of the buffer used for index blocks. The key buffer is also known as the key cache.

The minimum permissible setting is 0, but you cannot set key_buffer_size to 0 dynamically. A setting of 0 drops the key cache, which is not permitted at runtime. Setting key_buffer_size to 0 is permitted only at startup, in which case the key cache is not initialized. Changing the key_buffer_size setting at runtime from a value of 0 to a permitted non-zero value initializes the key cache.

key_buffer_size can be increased or decreased only in increments or multiples of 4096 bytes. Increasing or decreasing the setting by a nonconforming value produces a warning and truncates the setting to a conforming value.

The maximum permissible setting for key_buffer_size is 4GB−1 on 32-bit platforms. Larger values are permitted for 64-bit platforms. The effective maximum size might be less, depending on your available physical RAM and per-process RAM limits imposed by your operating system or hardware platform. The value of this variable indicates the amount of memory requested. Internally, the server allocates as much memory as possible up to this amount, but the actual allocation might be less.

You can increase the value to get better index handling for all reads and multiple writes; on a system whose primary function is to run MySQL using the MyISAM storage engine, 25% of the machine's total memory is an acceptable value for this variable. However, you should be aware that, if you make the value too large (for example, more than 50% of the machine's total memory), your system might start to page and become extremely slow. This is because MySQL relies on the operating system to perform file system caching for data reads, so you must leave some room for the file system cache. You should also consider the memory requirements of any other storage engines that you may be using in addition to MyISAM.

For even more speed when writing many rows at the same time, use LOCK TABLES. See Section 8.2.4.1, “Optimizing INSERT Statements”.

You can check the performance of the key buffer by issuing a SHOW STATUS statement and examining the Key_read_requests, Key_reads, Key_write_requests, and Key_writes status variables. (See Section 13.7.5, “SHOW Statements”.) The Key_reads/Key_read_requests ratio should normally be less than 0.01. The Key_writes/Key_write_requests ratio is usually near 1 if you are using mostly updates and deletes, but might be much smaller if you tend to do updates that affect many rows at the same time or if you are using the DELAY_KEY_WRITE table option.

The fraction of the key buffer in use can be determined using key_buffer_size in conjunction with the Key_blocks_unused status variable and the buffer block size, which is available from the key_cache_block_size system variable:

1 - ((Key_blocks_unused * key_cache_block_size) / key_buffer_size)

This value is an approximation because some space in the key buffer is allocated internally for administrative structures. Factors that influence the amount of overhead for these structures include block size and pointer size. As block size increases, the percentage of the key buffer lost to overhead tends to decrease. Larger blocks results in a smaller number of read operations (because more keys are obtained per read), but conversely an increase in reads of keys that are not examined (if not all keys in a block are relevant to a query).

It is possible to create multiple MyISAM key caches. The size limit of 4GB applies to each cache individually, not as a group. See Section 8.10.2, “The MyISAM Key Cache”.

key_cache_age_threshold

This value controls the demotion of buffers from the hot sublist of a key cache to the warm sublist. Lower values cause demotion to happen more quickly. The minimum value is 100. The default value is 300. See Section 8.10.2, “The MyISAM Key Cache”.

key_cache_block_size

The size in bytes of blocks in the key cache. The default value is 1024. See Section 8.10.2, “The MyISAM Key Cache”.

key_cache_division_limit

The division point between the hot and warm sublists of the key cache buffer list. The value is the percentage of the buffer list to use for the warm sublist. Permissible values range from 1 to 100. The default value is 100. See Section 8.10.2, “The MyISAM Key Cache”.

large_files_support

Whether mysqld was compiled with options for large file support.

large_pages

Whether large page support is enabled (via the --large-pages option). See Section 8.12.4.3, “Enabling Large Page Support”.

large_page_size

If large page support is enabled, this shows the size of memory pages. Large memory pages are supported only on Linux; on other platforms, the value of this variable is always 0. See Section 8.12.4.3, “Enabling Large Page Support”.

last_insert_id

The value to be returned from LAST_INSERT_ID(). This is stored in the binary log when you use LAST_INSERT_ID() in a statement that updates a table. Setting this variable does not update the value returned by the mysql_insert_id() C API function.

lc_messages

The locale to use for error messages. The default is en_US. The server converts the argument to a language name and combines it with the value of lc_messages_dir to produce the location for the error message file. See Section 10.12, “Setting the Error Message Language”.

lc_messages_dir

The directory where error messages are located. The server uses the value together with the value of lc_messages to produce the location for the error message file. See Section 10.12, “Setting the Error Message Language”.

lc_time_names

This variable specifies the locale that controls the language used to display day and month names and abbreviations. This variable affects the output from the DATE_FORMAT(), DAYNAME() and MONTHNAME() functions. Locale names are POSIX-style values such as 'ja_JP' or 'pt_BR'. The default value is 'en_US' regardless of your system's locale setting. For further information, see Section 10.16, “MySQL Server Locale Support”.

license

The type of license the server has.

local_infile

This variable controls server-side LOCAL capability for LOAD DATA statements. Depending on the local_infile setting, the server refuses or permits local data loading by clients that have LOCAL enabled on the client side.

To explicitly cause the server to refuse or permit LOAD DATA LOCAL statements (regardless of how client programs and libraries are configured at build time or runtime), start mysqld with local_infile disabled or enabled, respectively. local_infile can also be set at runtime. For more information, see Section 6.1.6, “Security Considerations for LOAD DATA LOCAL”.

lock_wait_timeout

This variable specifies the timeout in seconds for attempts to acquire metadata locks. The permissible values range from 1 to 31536000 (1 year). The default is 31536000.

This timeout applies to all statements that use metadata locks. These include DML and DDL operations on tables, views, stored procedures, and stored functions, as well as LOCK TABLES, FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK, and HANDLER statements.

This timeout does not apply to implicit accesses to system tables in the mysql database, such as grant tables modified by GRANT or REVOKE statements or table logging statements. The timeout does apply to system tables accessed directly, such as with SELECT or UPDATE.

The timeout value applies separately for each metadata lock attempt. A given statement can require more than one lock, so it is possible for the statement to block for longer than the lock_wait_timeout value before reporting a timeout error. When lock timeout occurs, ER_LOCK_WAIT_TIMEOUT is reported.

lock_wait_timeout does not apply to delayed inserts, which always execute with a timeout of 1 year. This is done to avoid unnecessary timeouts because a session that issues a delayed insert receives no notification of delayed insert timeouts.

locked_in_memory

Whether mysqld was locked in memory with --memlock.

log_error

The error log output destination. If the destination is the console, the value is stderr. Otherwise, the destination is a file and the log_error value is the file name. See Section 5.4.2, “The Error Log”.

log_error_verbosity

The verbosity of the server in writing error, warning, and note messages to the error log. The following table shows the permitted values. The default is 3.

log_error_verbosity was added in MySQL 5.7.2. It is preferred over, and should be used instead of, the older log_warnings system variable. See the description of log_warnings for information about how that variable relates to log_error_verbosity. In particular, assigning a value to log_warnings assigns a value to log_error_verbosity and vice versa.

log_output

The destination or destinations for general query log and slow query log output. The value is a list one or more comma-separated words chosen from TABLE, FILE, and NONE. TABLE selects logging to the general_log and slow_log tables in the mysql system database. FILE selects logging to log files. NONE disables logging. If NONE is present in the value, it takes precedence over any other words that are present. TABLE and FILE can both be given to select both log output destinations.

This variable selects log output destinations, but does not enable log output. To do that, enable the general_log and slow_query_log system variables. For FILE logging, the general_log_file and slow_query_log_file system variables determine the log file locations. For more information, see Section 5.4.1, “Selecting General Query Log and Slow Query Log Output Destinations”.

log_queries_not_using_indexes

If you enable this variable with the slow query log enabled, queries that are expected to retrieve all rows are logged. See Section 5.4.5, “The Slow Query Log”. This option does not necessarily mean that no index is used. For example, a query that uses a full index scan uses an index but would be logged because the index would not limit the number of rows.

log_slow_admin_statements

Include slow administrative statements in the statements written to the slow query log. Administrative statements include ALTER TABLE, ANALYZE TABLE, CHECK TABLE, CREATE INDEX, DROP INDEX, OPTIMIZE TABLE, and REPAIR TABLE.

log_syslog

Whether to write error log output to the system log. This is the Event Log on Windows, and syslog on Unix and Unix-like systems. The default value is platform specific:

Regardless of the default, log_syslog can be set explicitly to control output on any supported platform.

System log output control is distinct from sending error output to a file or the console. Error output can be directed to a file or the console in addition to or instead of the system log as desired. See Section 5.4.2, “The Error Log”.

log_syslog_facility

The facility for error log output written to syslog (what type of program is sending the message). This variable has no effect unless the log_syslog system variable is enabled. See Section 5.4.2.3, “Error Logging to the System Log”.

The permitted values can vary per operating system; consult your system syslog documentation.

This variable does not exist on Windows.

log_syslog_include_pid

Whether to include the server process ID in each line of error log output written to syslog. This variable has no effect unless the log_syslog system variable is enabled. See Section 5.4.2.3, “Error Logging to the System Log”.

This variable does not exist on Windows.

log_syslog_tag

The tag to be added to the server identifier in error log output written to syslog. This variable has no effect unless the log_syslog system variable is enabled. See Section 5.4.2.3, “Error Logging to the System Log”.

By default, the server identifier is mysqld with no tag. If a tag value of tag is specified, it is appended to the server identifier with a leading hyphen, resulting in an identifier of mysqld-tag.

On Windows, to use a tag that does not already exist, the server must be run from an account with Administrator privileges, to permit creation of a registry entry for the tag. Elevated privileges are not required if the tag already exists.

log_timestamps

This variable controls the time zone of timestamps in messages written to the error log, and in general query log and slow query log messages written to files. It does not affect the time zone of general query log and slow query log messages written to tables (mysql.general_log, mysql.slow_log). Rows retrieved from those tables can be converted from the local system time zone to any desired time zone with CONVERT_TZ() or by setting the session time_zone system variable.

Permitted log_timestamps values are UTC (the default) and SYSTEM (local system time zone).

Timestamps are written using ISO 8601 / RFC 3339 format: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.uuuuuu plus a tail value of Z signifying Zulu time (UTC) or ±hh:mm (an offset from UTC).

log_throttle_queries_not_using_indexes

If log_queries_not_using_indexes is enabled, the log_throttle_queries_not_using_indexes variable limits the number of such queries per minute that can be written to the slow query log. A value of 0 (the default) means “no limit”. For more information, see Section 5.4.5, “The Slow Query Log”.

log_warnings

Whether to produce additional warning messages to the error log. As of MySQL 5.7.2, information items previously governed by log_warnings are governed by log_error_verbosity, which is preferred over, and should be used instead of, the older log_warnings system variable. (The log_warnings system variable and --log-warnings command-line option are deprecated; expect them to be removed in a future release of MySQL.)

log_warnings is enabled by default (the default is 1 before MySQL 5.7.2, 2 as of 5.7.2). To disable it, set it to 0. If the value is greater than 0, the server logs messages about statements that are unsafe for statement-based logging. If the value is greater than 1, the server logs aborted connections and access-denied errors for new connection attempts. See Section B.3.2.9, “Communication Errors and Aborted Connections”.

If you use replication, enabling this variable by setting it greater than 0 is recommended, to get more information about what is happening, such as messages about network failures and reconnections.

If a replica server is started with log_warnings enabled, the replica prints messages to the error log to provide information about its status, such as the binary log and relay log coordinates where it starts its job, when it is switching to another relay log, when it reconnects after a disconnect, and so forth.

Assigning a value to log_warnings assigns a value to log_error_verbosity and vice versa. The variables are related as follows:

As of MySQL 5.7.2, the default log level is controlled by log_error_verbosity, which has a default of 3. In addition, the default for log_warnings changes from 1 to 2, which corresponds to log_error_verbosity=3. To achieve a logging level similar to the previous default, set log_error_verbosity=2.

In MySQL 5.7.2 and higher, use of log_warnings is still permitted but maps onto use of log_error_verbosity as follows:

long_query_time

If a query takes longer than this many seconds, the server increments the Slow_queries status variable. If the slow query log is enabled, the query is logged to the slow query log file. This value is measured in real time, not CPU time, so a query that is under the threshold on a lightly loaded system might be above the threshold on a heavily loaded one. The minimum and default values of long_query_time are 0 and 10, respectively. The maximum is 31536000, which is 365 days in seconds. The value can be specified to a resolution of microseconds. See Section 5.4.5, “The Slow Query Log”.

Smaller values of this variable result in more statements being considered long-running, with the result that more space is required for the slow query log. For very small values (less than one second), the log may grow quite large in a small time. Increasing the number of statements considered long-running may also result in false positives for the “excessive Number of Long Running Processes” alert in MySQL Enterprise Monitor, especially if Group Replication is enabled. For these reasons, very small values should be used in test environments only, or, in production environments, only for a short period.

low_priority_updates

If set to 1, all INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and LOCK TABLE WRITE statements wait until there is no pending SELECT or LOCK TABLE READ on the affected table. The same effect can be obtained using {INSERT | REPLACE | DELETE | UPDATE} LOW_PRIORITY ... to lower the priority of only one query. This variable affects only storage engines that use only table-level locking (such as MyISAM, MEMORY, and MERGE). See Section 8.11.2, “Table Locking Issues”.

lower_case_file_system

This variable describes the case sensitivity of file names on the file system where the data directory is located. OFF means file names are case-sensitive, ON means they are not case-sensitive. This variable is read only because it reflects a file system attribute and setting it would have no effect on the file system.

lower_case_table_names

If set to 0, table names are stored as specified and comparisons are case-sensitive. If set to 1, table names are stored in lowercase on disk and comparisons are not case-sensitive. If set to 2, table names are stored as given but compared in lowercase. This option also applies to database names and table aliases. For additional details, see Section 9.2.3, “Identifier Case Sensitivity”.

The default value of this variable is platform-dependent (see lower_case_file_system). On Linux and other Unix-like systems, the default is 0. On Windows the default value is 1. On macOS, the default value is 2. On Linux (and other Unix-like systems), setting the value to 2 is not supported; the server forces the value to 0 instead.

You should not set lower_case_table_names to 0 if you are running MySQL on a system where the data directory resides on a case-insensitive file system (such as on Windows or macOS). It is an unsupported combination that could result in a hang condition when running an INSERT INTO ... SELECT ... FROM tbl_name operation with the wrong tbl_name lettercase. With MyISAM, accessing table names using different lettercases could cause index corruption.

An error message is printed and the server exits if you attempt to start the server with --lower_case_table_names=0 on a case-insensitive file system.

The setting of this variable affects the behavior of replication filtering options with regard to case sensitivity. For more information, see Section 16.2.5, “How Servers Evaluate Replication Filtering Rules”.

max_allowed_packet

The maximum size of one packet or any generated/intermediate string, or any parameter sent by the mysql_stmt_send_long_data() C API function. The default is 4MB.

The packet message buffer is initialized to net_buffer_length bytes, but can grow up to max_allowed_packet bytes when needed. This value by default is small, to catch large (possibly incorrect) packets.

You must increase this value if you are using large BLOB columns or long strings. It should be as big as the largest BLOB you want to use. The protocol limit for max_allowed_packet is 1GB. The value should be a multiple of 1024; nonmultiples are rounded down to the nearest multiple.

When you change the message buffer size by changing the value of the max_allowed_packet variable, you should also change the buffer size on the client side if your client program permits it. The default max_allowed_packet value built in to the client library is 1GB, but individual client programs might override this. For example, mysql and mysqldump have defaults of 16MB and 24MB, respectively. They also enable you to change the client-side value by setting max_allowed_packet on the command line or in an option file.

The session value of this variable is read only. The client can receive up to as many bytes as the session value. However, the server cannot send to the client more bytes than the current global max_allowed_packet value. (The global value could be less than the session value if the global value is changed after the client connects.)

max_connect_errors

After max_connect_errors successive connection requests from a host are interrupted without a successful connection, the server blocks that host from further connections. If a connection from a host is established successfully within fewer than max_connect_errors attempts after a previous connection was interrupted, the error count for the host is cleared to zero. To unblock blocked hosts, flush the host cache; see Flushing the Host Cache.

max_connections

The maximum permitted number of simultaneous client connections. The maximum effective value is the lesser of the effective value of open_files_limit - 810, and the value actually set for max_connections.

For more information, see Section 5.1.11.1, “Connection Interfaces”.

max_delayed_threads

This system variable is deprecated (because DELAYED inserts are not supported); expect it to be removed in a future release.

max_digest_length

The maximum number of bytes of memory reserved per session for computation of normalized statement digests. Once that amount of space is used during digest computation, truncation occurs: no further tokens from a parsed statement are collected or figure into its digest value. Statements that differ only after that many bytes of parsed tokens produce the same normalized statement digest and are considered identical if compared or if aggregated for digest statistics.

The length used for calculating a normalized statement digest is the sum of the length of the normalized statement digest and the length of the statement digest. Since the length of the statement digest is always 64, when the value of max_digest_length is 1024 (the default), the maximum length for a normalized SQL statement before truncation occurs is 1024 - 64 = 960 bytes.

Decreasing the max_digest_length value reduces memory use but causes the digest value of more statements to become indistinguishable if they differ only at the end. Increasing the value permits longer statements to be distinguished but increases memory use, particularly for workloads that involve large numbers of simultaneous sessions (the server allocates max_digest_length bytes per session).

The parser uses this system variable as a limit on the maximum length of normalized statement digests that it computes. The Performance Schema, if it tracks statement digests, makes a copy of the digest value, using the performance_schema_max_digest_length. system variable as a limit on the maximum length of digests that it stores. Consequently, if performance_schema_max_digest_length is less than max_digest_length, digest values stored in the Performance Schema are truncated relative to the original digest values.

For more information about statement digesting, see Section 25.10, “Performance Schema Statement Digests”.

max_error_count

The maximum number of error, warning, and information messages to be stored for display by the SHOW ERRORS and SHOW WARNINGS statements. This is the same as the number of condition areas in the diagnostics area, and thus the number of conditions that can be inspected by GET DIAGNOSTICS.

max_execution_time

The execution timeout for SELECT statements, in milliseconds. If the value is 0, timeouts are not enabled.

max_execution_time applies as follows:

max_heap_table_size

This variable sets the maximum size to which user-created MEMORY tables are permitted to grow. The value of the variable is used to calculate MEMORY table MAX_ROWS values.

Setting this variable has no effect on any existing MEMORY table, unless the table is re-created with a statement such as CREATE TABLE or altered with ALTER TABLE or TRUNCATE TABLE. A server restart also sets the maximum size of existing MEMORY tables to the global max_heap_table_size value.

This variable is also used in conjunction with tmp_table_size to limit the size of internal in-memory tables. See Section 8.4.4, “Internal Temporary Table Use in MySQL”.

max_heap_table_size is not replicated. See Section 16.4.1.20, “Replication and MEMORY Tables”, and Section 16.4.1.37, “Replication and Variables”, for more information.

max_insert_delayed_threads

This variable is a synonym for max_delayed_threads.

This system variable is deprecated (because DELAYED inserts are not supported); expect it to be removed in a future release.

max_join_size

Do not permit statements that probably need to examine more than max_join_size rows (for single-table statements) or row combinations (for multiple-table statements) or that are likely to do more than max_join_size disk seeks. By setting this value, you can catch statements where keys are not used properly and that would probably take a long time. Set it if your users tend to perform joins that lack a WHERE clause, that take a long time, or that return millions of rows. For more information, see Using Safe-Updates Mode (--safe-updates).

Setting this variable to a value other than DEFAULT resets the value of sql_big_selects to 0. If you set the sql_big_selects value again, the max_join_size variable is ignored.

If a query result is in the query cache, no result size check is performed, because the result has previously been computed and it does not burden the server to send it to the client.

max_length_for_sort_data

The cutoff on the size of index values that determines which filesort algorithm to use. See Section 8.2.1.14, “ORDER BY Optimization”.

max_points_in_geometry

The maximum value of the points_per_circle argument to the ST_Buffer_Strategy() function.

max_prepared_stmt_count

This variable limits the total number of prepared statements in the server. It can be used in environments where there is the potential for denial-of-service attacks based on running the server out of memory by preparing huge numbers of statements. If the value is set lower than the current number of prepared statements, existing statements are not affected and can be used, but no new statements can be prepared until the current number drops below the limit. Setting the value to 0 disables prepared statements.

max_seeks_for_key

Limit the assumed maximum number of seeks when looking up rows based on a key. The MySQL optimizer assumes that no more than this number of key seeks are required when searching for matching rows in a table by scanning an index, regardless of the actual cardinality of the index (see Section 13.7.5.22, “SHOW INDEX Statement”). By setting this to a low value (say, 100), you can force MySQL to prefer indexes instead of table scans.

max_sort_length

The number of bytes to use when sorting data values. The server uses only the first max_sort_length bytes of each value and ignores the rest. Consequently, values that differ only after the first max_sort_length bytes compare as equal for GROUP BY, ORDER BY, and DISTINCT operations.

Increasing the value of max_sort_length may require increasing the value of sort_buffer_size as well. For details, see Section 8.2.1.14, “ORDER BY Optimization”

max_sp_recursion_depth

The number of times that any given stored procedure may be called recursively. The default value for this option is 0, which completely disables recursion in stored procedures. The maximum value is 255.

Stored procedure recursion increases the demand on thread stack space. If you increase the value of max_sp_recursion_depth, it may be necessary to increase thread stack size by increasing the value of thread_stack at server startup.

max_tmp_tables

This variable is unused. It is deprecated and is removed in MySQL 8.0.

max_user_connections

The maximum number of simultaneous connections permitted to any given MySQL user account. A value of 0 (the default) means “no limit.”

This variable has a global value that can be set at server startup or runtime. It also has a read-only session value that indicates the effective simultaneous-connection limit that applies to the account associated with the current session. The session value is initialized as follows:

Account resource limits are specified using the CREATE USER or ALTER USER statement. See Section 6.2.16, “Setting Account Resource Limits”.

max_write_lock_count

After this many write locks, permit some pending read lock requests to be processed in between. Write lock requests have higher priority than read lock requests. However, if max_write_lock_count is set to some low value (say, 10), read lock requests may be preferred over pending write lock requests if the read lock requests have already been passed over in favor of 10 write lock requests. Normally this behavior does not occur because max_write_lock_count by default has a very large value.

mecab_rc_file

The mecab_rc_file option is used when setting up the MeCab full-text parser.

The mecab_rc_file option defines the path to the mecabrc configuration file, which is the configuration file for MeCab. The option is read-only and can only be set at startup. The mecabrc configuration file is required to initialize MeCab.

For information about the MeCab full-text parser, see Section 12.9.9, “MeCab Full-Text Parser Plugin”.

For information about options that can be specified in the MeCab mecabrc configuration file, refer to the MeCab Documentation on the Google Developers site.

metadata_locks_cache_size

The size of the metadata locks cache. The server uses this cache to avoid creation and destruction of synchronization objects. This is particularly helpful on systems where such operations are expensive, such as Windows XP.

In MySQL 5.7.4, metadata locking implementation changes make this variable unnecessary, and so it is deprecated; expect it to be removed in a future release of MySQL.

metadata_locks_hash_instances

The set of metadata locks can be partitioned into separate hashes to permit connections accessing different objects to use different locking hashes and reduce contention. The metadata_locks_hash_instances system variable specifies the number of hashes (default 8).

In MySQL 5.7.4, metadata locking implementation changes make this variable unnecessary, and so it is deprecated; expect it to be removed in a future release of MySQL.

min_examined_row_limit

Queries that examine fewer than this number of rows are not logged to the slow query log.

multi_range_count

This variable has no effect. It is deprecated and is removed in MySQL 8.0.

myisam_data_pointer_size

The default pointer size in bytes, to be used by CREATE TABLE for MyISAM tables when no MAX_ROWS option is specified. This variable cannot be less than 2 or larger than 7. The default value is 6. See Section B.3.2.10, “The table is full”.

myisam_max_sort_file_size

The maximum size of the temporary file that MySQL is permitted to use while re-creating a MyISAM index (during REPAIR TABLE, ALTER TABLE, or LOAD DATA). If the file size would be larger than this value, the index is created using the key cache instead, which is slower. The value is given in bytes.

If MyISAM index files exceed this size and disk space is available, increasing the value may help performance. The space must be available in the file system containing the directory where the original index file is located.

myisam_mmap_size

The maximum amount of memory to use for memory mapping compressed MyISAM files. If many compressed MyISAM tables are used, the value can be decreased to reduce the likelihood of memory-swapping problems.

myisam_recover_options

Set the MyISAM storage engine recovery mode. The variable value is any combination of the values of OFF, DEFAULT, BACKUP, FORCE, or QUICK. If you specify multiple values, separate them by commas. Specifying the variable with no value at server startup is the same as specifying DEFAULT, and specifying with an explicit value of "" disables recovery (same as a value of OFF). If recovery is enabled, each time mysqld opens a MyISAM table, it checks whether the table is marked as crashed or was not closed properly. (The last option works only if you are running with external locking disabled.) If this is the case, mysqld runs a check on the table. If the table was corrupted, mysqld attempts to repair it.

The following options affect how the repair works.

Before the server automatically repairs a table, it writes a note about the repair to the error log. If you want to be able to recover from most problems without user intervention, you should use the options BACKUP,FORCE. This forces a repair of a table even if some rows would be deleted, but it keeps the old data file as a backup so that you can later examine what happened.

See Section 15.2.1, “MyISAM Startup Options”.

myisam_repair_threads

If this value is greater than 1, MyISAM table indexes are created in parallel (each index in its own thread) during the Repair by sorting process. The default value is 1.

myisam_sort_buffer_size

The size of the buffer that is allocated when sorting MyISAM indexes during a REPAIR TABLE or when creating indexes with CREATE INDEX or ALTER TABLE.

myisam_stats_method

How the server treats NULL values when collecting statistics about the distribution of index values for MyISAM tables. This variable has three possible values, nulls_equal, nulls_unequal, and nulls_ignored. For nulls_equal, all NULL index values are considered equal and form a single value group that has a size equal to the number of NULL values. For nulls_unequal, NULL values are considered unequal, and each NULL forms a distinct value group of size 1. For nulls_ignored, NULL values are ignored.

The method that is used for generating table statistics influences how the optimizer chooses indexes for query execution, as described in Section 8.3.7, “InnoDB and MyISAM Index Statistics Collection”.

myisam_use_mmap

Use memory mapping for reading and writing MyISAM tables.

mysql_native_password_proxy_users

This variable controls whether the mysql_native_password built-in authentication plugin supports proxy users. It has no effect unless the check_proxy_users system variable is enabled. For information about user proxying, see Section 6.2.14, “Proxy Users”.

named_pipe

(Windows only.) Indicates whether the server supports connections over named pipes.

named_pipe_full_access_group

(Windows only.) The access control granted to clients on the named pipe created by the MySQL server is set to the minimum necessary for successful communication when the named_pipe system variable is enabled to support named-pipe connections. Some MySQL client software can open named pipe connections without any additional configuration; however, other client software may still require full access to open a named pipe connection.

This variable sets the name of a Windows local group whose members are granted sufficient access by the MySQL server to use named-pipe clients. As of MySQL 5.7.34, the default value is set to an empty string, which means that no Windows user is granted full access to the named pipe.

A new Windows local group name (for example, mysql_access_client_users) can be created in Windows and then used to replace the default value when access is absolutely necessary. In this case, limit the membership of the group to as few users as possible, removing users from the group when their client software is upgraded. A non-member of the group who attempts to open a connection to MySQL with the affected named-pipe client is denied access until a Windows administrator adds the user to the group. Newly added users must log out and log in again to join the group (required by Windows).

Setting the value to '*everyone*' provides a language-independent way of referring to the Everyone group on Windows. The Everyone group is not secure by default.

net_buffer_length

Each client thread is associated with a connection buffer and result buffer. Both begin with a size given by net_buffer_length but are dynamically enlarged up to max_allowed_packet bytes as needed. The result buffer shrinks to net_buffer_length after each SQL statement.

This variable should not normally be changed, but if you have very little memory, you can set it to the expected length of statements sent by clients. If statements exceed this length, the connection buffer is automatically enlarged. The maximum value to which net_buffer_length can be set is 1MB.

The session value of this variable is read only.

net_read_timeout

The number of seconds to wait for more data from a connection before aborting the read. When the server is reading from the client, net_read_timeout is the timeout value controlling when to abort. When the server is writing to the client, net_write_timeout is the timeout value controlling when to abort. See also slave_net_timeout.

net_retry_count

If a read or write on a communication port is interrupted, retry this many times before giving up. This value should be set quite high on FreeBSD because internal interrupts are sent to all threads.

net_write_timeout