2.4.3 Installing a MySQL Launch Daemon
macOS uses launch daemons to automatically start, stop, and manage processes and applications such as MySQL.
By default, the installation package (DMG) on macOS installs a launchd file named /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist
that contains a plist definition similar to:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key> <string>com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld</string>
<key>ProcessType</key> <string>Interactive</string>
<key>Disabled</key> <false/>
<key>RunAtLoad</key> <true/>
<key>KeepAlive</key> <true/>
<key>SessionCreate</key> <true/>
<key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key> <false/>
<key>UserName</key> <string>_mysql</string>
<key>GroupName</key> <string>_mysql</string>
<key>ExitTimeOut</key> <integer>600</integer>
<key>Program</key> <string>/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld</string>
<string>--user=_mysql</string>
<string>--basedir=/usr/local/mysql</string>
<string>--datadir=/usr/local/mysql/data</string>
<string>--plugin-dir=/usr/local/mysql/lib/plugin</string>
<string>--log-error=/usr/local/mysql/data/mysqld.local.err</string>
<string>--pid-file=/usr/local/mysql/data/mysqld.local.pid</string>
</array>
<key>WorkingDirectory</key> <string>/usr/local/mysql</string>
</dict>
</plist>
Some users report that adding a plist DOCTYPE declaration causes the launchd operation to fail, despite it passing the lint check. We suspect it's a copy-n-paste error. The md5 checksum of a file containing the above snippet is 24710a27dc7a28fb7ee6d825129cd3cf.
To enable the launchd service, you can either:
Click
from the MySQL preference pane.
Or, manually load the launchd file.
shell> cd /Library/LaunchDaemons shell> sudo launchctl load -F com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist
To configure MySQL to automatically start at bootup, you can:
shell> sudo launchctl load -w com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist
When upgrading MySQL server, the launchd installation process will remove the old startup items that were installed with MySQL server 5.7.7 and below.
Also, upgrading will replace your existing launchd file of the same name.
Additional launchd related information:
The plist entries override
my.cnf
entries, because they are passed in as command line arguments. For additional information about passing in program options, see Section 4.2.2, “Specifying Program Options”.The ProgramArguments section defines the command line options that are passed into the program, which is the
mysqld
binary in this case.The default plist definition is written with less sophisticated use cases in mind. For more complicated setups, you may want to remove some of the arguments and instead rely on a MySQL configuration file, such as
my.cnf
.If you edit the plist file, then uncheck the installer option when reinstalling or upgrading MySQL. Otherwise, your edited plist file will be overwritten, and all edits will be lost.
Because the default plist definition defines several ProgramArguments, you might remove most of these arguments and instead rely upon your my.cnf
MySQL configuration file to define them. For example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key> <string>com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld</string>
<key>ProcessType</key> <string>Interactive</string>
<key>Disabled</key> <false/>
<key>RunAtLoad</key> <true/>
<key>KeepAlive</key> <true/>
<key>SessionCreate</key> <true/>
<key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key> <false/>
<key>UserName</key> <string>_mysql</string>
<key>GroupName</key> <string>_mysql</string>
<key>ExitTimeOut</key> <integer>600</integer>
<key>Program</key> <string>/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld</string>
<key>WorkingDirectory</key> <string>/usr/local/mysql</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld</string>
<string>--user=_mysql</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>
In this case, the basedir
, datadir
, plugin_dir
, log_error
, and pid_file
options were removed from the plist definition, and then you you might define them in my.cnf
.