MARIADBD-SAFE(1) MariaDB Database System MARIADBD-SAFE(1)
NAME
mariadbd-safe - MariaDB server startup script (mariadbd-safe is now a
symlink to mariadbd-safe)
SYNOPSIS
mariadbd-safe options
DESCRIPTION
mariadbd-safe is the recommended way to start a mariadbd server on Unix.
mariadbd-safe adds some safety features such as restarting the server
when an error occurs and logging runtime information to an error log
file. Descriptions of error logging is given later in this section.
mariadbd-safe tries to start an executable named mariadbd. To override
the default behavior and specify explicitly the name of the server you
want to run, specify a --mariadbd or --mariadbd-version option to
mariadbd-safe. You can also use --ledir to indicate the directory where
mariadbd-safe should look for the server.
Many of the options to mariadbd-safe are the same as the options to
mariadbd.
Options unknown to mariadbd-safe are passed to mariadbd if they are
specified on the command line, but ignored if they are specified in the
[mariadbd-safe] or [mariadbd_safe] groups of an option file.
mariadbd-safe reads all options from the [mariadbd], [server],
[mariadbd-safe] and [mariadbd_safe] sections in option files. For
example, if you specify a [mariadbd] section like this, mariadbd-safe
will find and use the --log-error option:
[mariadbd]
log-error=error.log
For backward compatibility, mariadbd-safe also reads [safe_mariadbd]
sections, although you should rename such sections to [mariadbd-safe] in
current installations.
mariadbd-safe supports the options in the following list. It also reads
option files and supports the options for processing them.
• --help
Display a help message and exit.
• --basedir=path
The path to the MariaDB installation directory.
• --core-file-size=size
The size of the core file that mariadbd should be able to create.
The option value is passed to ulimit -c.
• --crash-script=file
Script to call in the event of mariadbd crashing.
• --datadir=path
The path to the data directory.
• --defaults-extra-file=path
The name of an option file to be read in addition to the usual
option files. This must be the first option on the command line if
it is used. If the file does not exist or is otherwise inaccessible,
the server will exit with an error.
• --defaults-file=file_name
The name of an option file to be read instead of the usual option
files. This must be the first option on the command line if it is
used.
• --flush-caches
Flush and purge buffers/caches before starting the server.
• --ledir=path
If mariadbd-safe cannot find the server, use this option to indicate
the path name to the directory where the server is located.
• --log-error=file_name
Write the error log to the given file.
• --malloc-lib=lib
Preload shared library lib if available.
• --mariadbd=prog_name
The name of the server program (in the ledir directory) that you
want to start. This option is needed if you use the MariaDB binary
distribution but have the data directory outside of the binary
distribution. If mariadbd-safe cannot find the server, use the
--ledir option to indicate the path name to the directory where the
server is located.
• --mariadbd-version=suffix
This option is similar to the --mariadbd option, but you specify
only the suffix for the server program name. The basename is assumed
to be mariadbd. For example, if you use --mariadbd-version=debug,
mariadbd-safe starts the mariadbd-debug program in the ledir
directory. If the argument to --mariadbd-version is empty, mariadbd-
safe uses mariadbd in the ledir directory.
• --nice=priority
Use the nice program to set the server's scheduling priority to the
given value.
• --no-auto-restart, --nowatch, --no-watch
Exit after starting mariadbd.
• --no-defaults
Do not read any option files. This must be the first option on the
command line if it is used.
• --numa-interleave
Run mariadbd with its memory interleaved on all NUMA nodes.
• --open-files-limit=count
The number of files that mariadbd should be able to open. The option
value is passed to ulimit -n. Note that you need to start mariadbd-
safe as root for this to work properly!
• --pid-file=file_name
The path name of the process ID file.
• --plugin-dir=dir_name
Directory for client-side plugins.
• --port=port_num
The port number that the server should use when listening for TCP/IP
connections. The port number must be 1024 or higher unless the
server is started by the root system user.
• --skip-kill-mariadbd
Do not try to kill stray mariadbd processes at startup. This option
works only on Linux.
• --socket=path
The Unix socket file that the server should use when listening for
local connections.
• --syslog, --skip-syslog
--syslog causes error messages to be sent to syslog on systems that
support the logger program. --skip-syslog suppresses the use of
syslog; messages are written to an error log file.
• --syslog-tag=tag
For logging to syslog, messages from mariadbd-safe and mariadbd are
written with a tag of mariadbd-safe and mariadbd, respectively. To
specify a suffix for the tag, use --syslog-tag=tag, which modifies
the tags to be mariadbd-safe-tag and mariadbd-tag.
• --timezone=timezone
Set the TZ time zone environment variable to the given option value.
Consult your operating system documentation for legal time zone
specification formats.
• --user={user_name|user_id}
Run the mariadbd server as the user having the name user_name or the
numeric user ID user_id. (“User” in this context refers to a system
login account, not a MariaDB user listed in the grant tables.)
If you execute mariadbd-safe with the --defaults-file or
--defaults-extra-file option to name an option file, the option must be
the first one given on the command line or the option file will not be
used. For example, this command will not use the named option file:
mariadb> mariadbd-safe --port=port_num --defaults-file=file_name
Instead, use the following command:
mariadb> mariadbd-safe --defaults-file=file_name --port=port_num
The mariadbd-safe script is written so that it normally can start a
server that was installed from either a source or a binary distribution
of MariaDB, even though these types of distributions typically install
the server in slightly different locations. mariadbd-safe expects one
of the following conditions to be true:
• The server and databases can be found relative to the working
directory (the directory from which mariadbd-safe is invoked). For
binary distributions, mariadbd-safe looks under its working
directory for bin and data directories. For source distributions, it
looks for libexec and var directories. This condition should be met
if you execute mariadbd-safe from your MariaDB installation
directory (for example, /usr/local/mysql for a binary distribution).
• If the server and databases cannot be found relative to the working
directory, mariadbd-safe attempts to locate them by absolute path
names. Typical locations are /usr/local/libexec and /usr/local/var.
The actual locations are determined from the values configured into
the distribution at the time it was built. They should be correct if
MariaDB is installed in the location specified at configuration
time.
Because mariadbd-safe tries to find the server and databases relative to
its own working directory, you can install a binary distribution of
MariaDB anywhere, as long as you run mariadbd-safe from the MariaDB
installation directory:
shell> cd mysql_installation_directory
shell> bin/mariadbd-safe &
If mariadbd-safe fails, even when invoked from the MariaDB installation
directory, you can specify the --ledir and --datadir options to indicate
the directories in which the server and databases are located on your
system.
When you use mariadbd-safe to start mariadbd, mariadbd-safe arranges for
error (and notice) messages from itself and from mariadbd to go to the
same destination.
There are several mariadbd-safe options for controlling the destination
of these messages:
• --syslog: Write error messages to syslog on systems that support the
logger program.
• --skip-syslog: Do not write error messages to syslog. Messages are
written to the default error log file (host_name.err in the data
directory), or to a named file if the --log-error option is given.
• --log-error=file_name: Write error messages to the named error file.
If none of these options is given, the default is --skip-syslog.
Note
If --syslog and --log-error are both given, a warning is issued and
--log-error takes precedence.
When mariadbd-safe writes a message, notices go to the logging
destination (syslog or the error log file) and stdout. Errors go to the
logging destination and stderr.
Normally, you should not edit the mariadbd-safe script. Instead,
configure mariadbd-safe by using command-line options or options in the
[mariadbd-safe] section of a my.cnf option file. In rare cases, it might
be necessary to edit mariadbd-safe to get it to start the server
properly. However, if you do this, your modified version of mariadbd-
safe might be overwritten if you upgrade MariaDB in the future, so you
should make a copy of your edited version that you can reinstall.
On NetWare, mariadbd-safe is a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) that is
ported from the original Unix shell script. It starts the server as
follows:
1. Runs a number of system and option checks.
2. Runs a check on MyISAM tables.
3. Provides a screen presence for the MariaDB server.
4. Starts mariadbd, monitors it, and restarts it if it terminates in
error.
5. Sends error messages from mariadbd to the host_name.err file in the
data directory.
6. Sends mariadbd-safe screen output to the host_name.safe file in the
data directory.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2007-2008 MySQL AB, 2008-2010 Sun Microsystems, Inc.,
2010-2025 MariaDB Foundation
This documentation is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it only under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.
This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with the program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1335 USA or see
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
SEE ALSO
For more information, please refer to the MariaDB Knowledge Base,
available online at https://mariadb.com/kb/
AUTHOR
MariaDB Foundation (http://www.mariadb.org/).
MariaDB 11.8 5 March 2025 MARIADBD-SAFE(1)
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