FreeBSD
You want to change the location of the mysql databases which is by default /var/db/mysql.
safe_mysqld
If you start the mysql deamon with '/usr/local/bin/safe_mysqld' than you can just edit
this script and change the variable (it's in the begining of the script) 'DATADIR'.
mysqld
If you start the mysql deamon with 'mysqld':
Make a 'my.cnf' file, put it in /usr/local/etc and make sure it looks like this:
[client]
port = 3306
socket = /tmp/mysql.sock
# The MySQL server
[mysqld]
port = 3306
socket = /tmp/mysql.sock
skip-locking
set-variable = key_buffer=16M
set-variable = max_allowed_packet=1M
set-variable = thread_stack=128K
datadir = [datadir]
# Start logging
log
[mysqldump]
quick
set-variable = max_allowed_packet=16M
[mysql]
no-auto-rehash
[isamchk]
set-variable = key_buffer=16M
MySQL reads default options from the following files on Unix:
Filename Purpose
--------------------------------------------
/etc/my.cnf Global options
DATADIR/my.cnf Server-specific options
~/.my.cnf User-specific options
The following programs support option files:
mysql,
mysqladmin,
mysqld,
mysqldump,
mysqlimport,
mysql.server,
myisamchk,
myisampack.
You can use option files to specify any long option that a program supports! Run the
program with --help to get a list of available options.
An option file can contain lines of the following forms:
#comment
Comment lines start with `#' or `;'. Empty lines are ignored.
[group]
group is the name of the program or group for which you want to set options. After a
group line, any option or set-variable lines apply to the named group until the end
of the option file or another group line is given.
option=value
This is equivalent to --option=value on the command line.
set-variable = variable=value
This is equivalent to --set-variable variable=value on the command line. This syntax
must be used to set a mysqld variable.
The client group allows you to specify options that apply to all MySQL clients (not
mysqld). This is the perfect group to use to specify the password you use to connect to
the server. (But make sure the option file is readable and writable only to yourself.)
Note that for options and values, all leading and trailing blanks are automatically deleted.
You may use the escape sequences `\b', `\t', `\n', `\r', `\\' and `\s' in your value
string (`\s' == blank).
If you have a source distribution, you will find sample configuration files named
`my-xxxx.cnf' in the `support-files' directory. If you have a binary distribution, look in
the `DIR/share/mysql' directory, where DIR is the pathname to the MySQL installation
directory (typically `/usr/local').
See mysqld --help for more options