Structure of the Data Directory

The MySQL data directory contains all of the databases and tables managed by the server. These are organized into a tree structure that is implemented in straightforward fashion by taking advantage of the hierarchical structure of the UNIX or Windows file systems:

  • Each database corresponds to a directory under the data directory.

  • Tables within a database correspond to files in the database

The data directory also contains several status files that are generated by the server, such as the log files. These files provide important information about the server's operation and are valuable for administrators, especially when something goes wrong and you're trying to determine the cause of the problem. If some particular ...

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