MySQL Bugs: #9059: New Windows installer changes meaning of "default" location for my.ini file

Bug #9059	New Windows installer changes meaning of "default" location for my.ini file
Submitted:	8 Mar 2005 22:28	Modified:	9 Mar 2005 21:03
Reporter:	Timothy Smith	Email Updates:
Status:	Closed	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server: Documentation	Severity:	S3 (Non-critical)
Version:	4.1	OS:	Windows (Windows)
Assigned to:		CPU Architecture:	Any

Description:
The docs repeatedly mention the fact that the default location for the config file is C:\WINDOWS\my.ini, or C:\my.cnf.  And this is indeed where the server looks by default, unless passed that --defaults-file argument on the command line.

The problem is that with the new installer, the user isn't aware that --defaults-file="<installation directory>/my.ini" is passed to the server.  So a user who wants to tweak the config file will be looking in C:\my.cnf or C:\WINDOWS\my.ini and not find it there.  Instead they must look in (for example) "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL 4.1\my.ini".

This is now the *default* behavior for most new Windows installations.

How to repeat:
Install MySQL from the MSI package, and follow the normal installation sequence.

Suggested fix:
Update the sections of the manual that talk about my.ini locations, so that users of the Windows installer will know to look in the installation directory instead of on C:\.

Added references to new location in sections of the refman that deal with the location of my.ini, also added xrefs to the section of the Windows install chapter that deal with the location of the my.ini file.