MySQL Bugs: #6623: Configuration Wizard doesn't notify user of config file location

Bug #6623	Configuration Wizard doesn't notify user of config file location
Submitted:	15 Nov 2004 6:54	Modified:	16 Nov 2004 15:14
Reporter:	Tom Metro	Email Updates:
Status:	Not a Bug	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server: Installing	Severity:	S3 (Non-critical)
Version:	4.1.7	OS:	Windows (Windows NT)
Assigned to:		CPU Architecture:	Any

Description:
After using the MySQL Server Instance Configuration Wizard on Windows, I was surprised to see that my C:\WINNT\my.ini file had not been altered. (See related bug #2941.)

How to repeat:
Run Server Instance Configuration Wizard.
Observe there is no notification of where the generated my.ini was placed.

Suggested fix:
Eventually I discovered that the Wizard places the configuration file in the server's installation directory, and explicitly references it when installing the service.

This should be explained to the Wizard user via a dialog and/or documentation. Aside from it being good practice for the administrator to know where this critical file resides, the current Wizard does not accomplish a turn-key installation, if communication only via named pipes is chosen. (As covered in bug #6355, bug #6621, and bug #2941.)

I'd also like to emphasize that it is important to inform the user that the server service has been configured to use the my.ini file in its atypical location, given that this capability was fairly recently introduced.

This would also be a good place to remind the user to update their %WINDIR%\my.ini or c:\my.cnf file to reflect any changes that clients might need, until/unless bug #2941 gets fixed.

Correction:
I re-ran the Wizard, and I see the location of the my.ini file is displayed on its status screen as it perform the configuration, but this is not adequately visible. Under normal circumstances this screen is quickly dismissed, and only later, when the user discovers that the server configuration isn't quite right or that the clients didn't get configured, do they need to know where the Wizard put the configuration file.

As you said above path to the file is displayed in the MySQL Server Instance Configuration Wizard window after option file creation.
It's also documented at:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/mysql-config-wizard-file-location.html

Victoria Reznichenko writes:
> It's also documented at:
> http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/mysql-config-wizard-file-location.html

Thank you for the pointer, though that section was not included in the manual.txt file bundled with 4.1.7. (I assume this has already been reported and/or fixed.) Regardless, this is a step in the right direction.

> As you said above path to the file is displayed in the 
> MySQL Server Instance Configuration Wizard window...

And also as I said above, I think the existing approach provides inadequate visibility of that information. (Nor does it address my suggestion that the user be reminded to update their %WINDIR%\my.ini so that clients work.)

But I've decided that this is really part of a larger problem - having the Wizard provide assistance to a user when troubleshooting a failed installation. And part of that information it provides should be the location of the configuration file. I've documented my suggestion in bug #6672.

Thanks for your consideration.

 -Tom