MYSQL.SERVER(1)

💖 MYSQL.SERVER(1) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the MariaDB Database System manual page for MYSQL.SERVER(1) — yes it's a manual page, yes it's from the MariaDB Database System, and yes we're gonna make it cute. sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's talk about the little script that starts and stops your whole server. no big deal. only everything. 👑

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✨ NAME ✨

mysql.server — the MariaDB server startup script. she's little, she's mighty, she's the one who turns the lights on. 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

mysql {start|stop}

like… you literally just tell her start or stop. that's it. that's the whole vibe check. 💅

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so MariaDB distributions on Unix ship with a script named mysql.server. it's for systems like Linux and Solaris that use System V-style run directories to start and stop system services. it's also what the Mac OS X Startup Item for MariaDB uses. iconic behavior honestly. 🌈

you can find mysql.server in the support-files directory under your MariaDB installation directory, or inside a MariaDB source distribution. she lives there. that's her home. 🎀

now, if you're using the Linux server RPM package — that's MySQL-server-VERSION.rpm — the mysql.server script gets installed into the /etc/init.d directory with the name mysql. you do not need to install it manually, bestie, it's already handled. slay. ✨

some vendors be providing RPM packages that install a startup script under a different name, such as mariadbd. so don't be confused if you go looking for her and she's wearing a different name tag. 😭

and if you install MariaDB from a source distribution, or from a binary distribution format that doesn't install mysql.server automatically — then yeah, you can install it manually. you got this. 💪

here's a thing you should know: mysql.server reads options from the [mysql.server] and [mariadbd] sections of option files. and for backward compatibility, she also reads [mysql_server] sections — although like, you should rename such sections to [mysql.server]&. it's giving "old name, new name, please update." 🙈

mysql.server supports the following options. 🦋

• --basedir=path — the path to the MariaDB installation directory.
• --datadir=path — the path to the MariaDB data directory.
• --pid-file=file_name — the path name of the file in which the server should write its process ID. if you don't provide one, the default host_name.pid is used.
• --service-startup-timeout=file_name — how long, in seconds, to wait for confirmation of server startup. if the server doesn't start within this time, mysql.server exits with an error. the default value is 900. a value of 0 means not to wait at all for startup. negative values mean to wait forever — no timeout, she's committed, she's in it for the long haul. 💜
• --use-mariadbd_safe — use mariadbd_safe to start the server. this is the default. main character energy. 👑
• --use-manager — use Instance Manager to start the server.
• --user=user_name — the login user name to use for running mariadbd.

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✨ COPYRIGHT ✨

Copyright 2007-2008 MySQL AB, 2008-2010 Sun Microsystems, Inc., 2010-2025 MariaDB Foundation

This documentation is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it only under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.

This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with the program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1335 USA or see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

fr fr, read the license, it's important, that's not a vibe thing that's a legal thing 💀

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

For more information, please refer to the MariaDB Documentation, available online at https://mariadb.com/docs/

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✨ AUTHOR ✨

MariaDB Foundation (http://www.mariadb.org/).

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🌸 this was MariaDB 11.8, dated 5 March 2025, and you read the entire MYSQL.SERVER(1) manual page like a champ. go start your server. or stop it. either way you ate. 🎀✨💅