PHP & MySQL® Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies®

3.4. Configuring MySQL

MySQL reads a configuration file when it starts up. If you use the defaults or an installer, you probably don't need to add anything to the configuration file. However, if you install MySQL in a nonstandard location or want the databases to be stored somewhere other than the default, you might need to edit the configuration file. The configuration file is named my.ini or my.cnf. It's located in your system directory (such as Windows or Winnt) if you're using Windows and in /etc on Linux, Unix, and Mac. The file contains several sections and commands. The following commands in the mysqld section sometimes need to be changed:

[mysqld]

# The TCP/IP Port the MySQL Server will listen on
port=3306

#Path to installation directory. All paths are
#     usually resolved relative to this.

basedir="C:/Program Files/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.0/"

#Path to the database root
datadir="C:/Program Files/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.0/Data/"

The # at the beginning of the line makes the line into a comment. The basedir line tells the MySQL server where MySQL is installed. The datadir line tells the server where the databases are located. You can change the port number to tell the server to listen for database queries on a different port.