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I want to start mysql with the command argument "--log=log_file_name"

What is the proper way to do that when starting it with /etc/init.d?

Would it be like this? /etc/init.d/mysql start --log=log_file_name

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No, but that should be configured in your my.cnf, not on startup. –  EEAA Jan 1 '13 at 5:49
Well that was.. mildly helpful. So if that's not the correct way to start it then what is? I do NOT want it to be configured in .cnf because I don't want it to start that way everytime. –  Jim Jan 1 '13 at 5:54
What distro is this? –  EEAA Jan 1 '13 at 5:56
it is debian 6. –  Jim Jan 1 '13 at 5:58
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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

To make it simple you can create another entry in init.d to start the mysql with that logdir path option. Make a script like /etc/init.d/mysql-log and put following entries in it:

 #!/bin/sh -e
 set -e
 case $COMMAND in
      /etc/init.d/mysql $COMMAND $LOG
      /etc/init.d/mysql $COMMAND
      /etc/init.d/mysql stop
      /etc/init.d/mysql start $LOG
      exit 1

Set the log file location in the above script as per your needs and start the mysql with the following command:

/etc/init.d/mysql-log start 

This way you can use different scripts for different occasions.

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Awesome! Thanks. :) –  Jim Jan 1 '13 at 7:43
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You cannot pass arguments to services with startup scripting. Reason: there should be ONLY ONE argument being passed.

This argument consists of minimally only TWO choices:

 start     -- tells the scripting that it is being started from system startup.
 stop      -- tells the scripting that it is being STOPPED due to shutdown request

Trying to configure a system to pass arguments at boot time will make your system non-standard and the cause of later configuration errors.

Usually this type of adjustment is handled in the init.d scripting by setting up variables using the /etc/sysconfig/servicename scripting and using the '.' command to basically include them in their operation.

In otherwords, the most common process is to basically configuration files that are read-in or used by the underlying application in an init.d startup scripting. Definitely this is NOT done via adding more arguments to this type of scripting.

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Thank you, mdpc. –  Jim Jan 1 '13 at 7:42
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