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What ownership should the MySQL directory and its files have?

Jason Brown
  • Updated

Question

I changed the permissions or ownership of /var/lib/mysql - what should they be?

 

Answer

The MySQL data-directory ownership should not be changed, but if MySQL is not starting on your server, the correct ownership of the directory is mysql:mysql, and the permissions of the directory should be 0751.

 

To set these, run the following commands as root via SSH or WHM terminal:

 

chmod -v 0751 /var/lib/mysql
chown -v mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql

 

Note that the files in the /var/lib/mysql directory and its subdirectories should all also be owned by the mysql user and group.

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