mysql.server can be found in the support-files directory under your MySQL installation directory or in a MySQL source distribution.

If you use the Linux server RPM package (MySQL-server-VERSION.rpm), the mysql.server script will be installed in the /etc/init.d directory with the name mysql. You need not install it manually. See Section 2.5.1, "Installing MySQL on Linux Using RPM Packages", for more information on the Linux RPM packages.

Some vendors provide RPM packages that install a startup script under a different name such as mysqld.

If you install MySQL from a source distribution or using a binary distribution format that does not install mysql.server automatically, you can install it manually. Instructions are provided in Section 2.10.1.2, "Starting and Stopping MySQL Automatically".

mysql.server reads options from the [mysql.server] and [mysqld] sections of option files. For backward compatibility, it also reads [mysql_server] sections, although you should rename such sections to [mysql.server] when using MySQL 5.5.

mysql.server supports the following options.

• --basedir=path

The path to the MySQL installation directory.

• --datadir=path

The path to the MySQL data directory.

• --pid-file=file_name

The path name of the file in which the server should write its process ID.

• --service-startup-timeout=file_name

How long in seconds to wait for confirmation of server startup. If the server does not 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).

• --use-mysqld_safe

Use mysqld_safe to start the server. This is the default.

• --user=user_name

The login user name to use for running mysqld.