5.1.7 Server System Variables

To see the values that a server will use 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 will use based only on 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 21.3.3.9.2, “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 will happen 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 and will be removed in a future MySQL release.

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 will not be able to 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 and will 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. The session variables will become read only in a future version of MySQL and assignments will produce an error. It will remain 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 and will 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. The session variables will become read only in a future version of MySQL and assignments will produce an error. It will remain 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 crashes. 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 the server will be started automatically (that is, in contexts for which you cannot assume what the current directory will be), 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 28.5.3, “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 -DENABLE_DEBUG_SYNC=1 CMake option (see Section 2.9.7, “MySQL Source-Configuration Options”). If Debug Sync is not compiled in, 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 will have 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 Internals: Test Synchronization .

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 will not 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 will not start.

default_week_format

The default mode value to use for the WEEK() function. See Section 12.6, “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), and will be removed in a future release.

delayed_insert_timeout