MySQL Bugs: #4993: option '--sysconfdir=/etc/mysql' doesn't work

Bug #4993	option '--sysconfdir=/etc/mysql' doesn't work
Submitted:	11 Aug 2004 15:18	Modified:	16 Aug 2004 21:07
Reporter:	ARICA Alexandre	Email Updates:
Status:	Closed	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server: Compiling	Severity:	S3 (Non-critical)
Version:	4.0.20	OS:	Linux (Redhat 7.2 (k 2.4.26))
Assigned to:	Joerg Bruehe	CPU Architecture:	Any

Description:
The configuration option '--sysconfdir=/etc/mysql' doesn't work.
Mysql continues to seek the file ' my.cnf' in the repertory '/etc'

Or the file '/etc/mysqlmy.cnf' exist.

How to repeat:
The configuration option '--sysconfdir=/etc/mysql' doesn't work.
Mysql continues to seek the file ' my.cnf' in the repertory '/etc'

Or the file '/etc/mysqlmy.cnf' exist.

looks like the --sysconfdir option was added to configure 
but never used by the build system

the attached patch should fix this ...

patch against 4.0 bitkeeper that finishes implementation of --sysconfdir

Attachment: sysconfdir.patch (application/octet-stream, text), 1.42 KiB.

Please ignore my patch, it incompatibly changes the default datadir path :(

The actual problem is that --sysconfdir is an autoconf default
option and that the installation layout it referes to does not
really match ours.

Autoconf sets the default for --sysconfdir to PREFIX/etc,
we should either set it to /etc or add PREFIX/etc to the
search path, probably between /etc and DATADIR.

Thank you for your bug report. This issue has been addressed in the
documentation. The updated documentation will appear on our website
shortly, and will be included in the next release of the relevant
product(s).

Additional info:

Option '--sysconfdir=...' has no effect, this is in accordance with the manual (section 4.3.2).
The example for AIX in section 2.6.5.3 is in error, the line must be deleted.

Thank you for your reactivity !

If this bug is accurate, then please fix configure so the --sysconfdir option is no longer presented to users.  It's tremendously frustrating to have to dig through the 1500+ page manual to figure out how to handle these things.

BTW - I've talked with other users on irc.cerf.net#mysql that agree with this position - they want to be able to change /etc/my.cnf to something else.

Someone (in Bug #8649) made a comment about not being able to make enable --sysconfigdir for backward compatibility reasons.  From my view, it seems that users specifying --sysconfdir expect to override the default.  The documentation says that the option is currently ignored.  I just don't see any potential negatives to getting --sysconfdir to work.