Bug #50601 Workbench won't connect without my.cnf in /etc
Submitted: 25 Jan 2010 19:19 Modified: 26 Feb 2010 18:16
Reporter: Heather Collins Email Updates:
Status: No Feedback Impact on me:
None 
Category:MySQL Workbench: Administration Severity:S1 (Critical)
Version:5.4 OS:MacOS
Assigned to: CPU Architecture:Any
Tags: install, my.cnf, workbench

[25 Jan 2010 19:19] Heather Collins
Description:
Workbench Administrator won't connect to mysql server. 

It is looking for file /etc/my.cnf, but default installation of mysql on Mac is in /usr/local and so there's nothing sql-related in /etc.     

This a show-stopper.   Or am I missing something. 

How to repeat:
Install using OSX pkg.  Now try to run workbench and connect to the server. 

Suggested fix:
Um ... fix workbench to look for configuration info in the right place?
[26 Jan 2010 11:14] Johannes Taxacher
Hi Heather,

does Admin completely refuse to start? i can start it here, using a local server profile, without even having a local db installed. it just informs me of not being able to connect and it wont give me much data or an edit-enabled config-grid. but its starting just fine.
[26 Jan 2010 15:26] Heather Collins
Hi Johannes,

Yes it starts.   The bug is that it won't connect to the server. 
Thanks!
[26 Jan 2010 18:16] Valeriy Kravchuk
I do NOT think this is a bug at all. It is common practice in UNIX (and Mac OS X is a kind of UNIX internally after all) to use /etc/my.cnf and other files in /etc for storing information (in plain text files) about configuration of different programs and services. See http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/option-files.html.

Also when you create new server instance, at a later stage, there is a separate dialog box where you can provide path to server's configuration file. 

So, I see no big problem with using /etc/my.cnf by default. There is no /usr/local/mysql/my.cnf installed from .dmg anyway...
[27 Feb 2010 0:00] Bugs System
No feedback was provided for this bug for over a month, so it is
being suspended automatically. If you are able to provide the
information that was originally requested, please do so and change
the status of the bug back to "Open".
[30 Apr 2010 15:29] Larry Cynkin
The problem is that a fresh install of MySQL 5.1 on a Mac does not include any my.cnf file, in /etc or elsewhere.  An optimal solution would be for Workbench to create that file if none is found.