A.3.3 Problems with File Permissions

If you have problems with file permissions, for example, if mysql issues the following error message when you create a table:

ERROR: Can't find file: 'path/with/filename.frm' (Errcode: 13)

then the environment variable UMASK might be set incorrectly when mysqld starts up. The default umask value is 0660. You can change this behaviour by starting mysqld_safe as follows:

shell> UMASK=384  # = 600 in octal
shell> export UMASK
shell> /path/to/mysqld_safe &

By default MySQL will create database and RAID directories with permission type 0700. You can modify this behaviour by setting the UMASK_DIR variable. If you set this, new directories are created with the combined UMASK and UMASK_DIR. For example, if you want to give group access to all new directories, you can do:

shell> UMASK_DIR=504  # = 770 in octal
shell> export UMASK_DIR
shell> /path/to/mysqld_safe &

In MySQL Version 3.23.25 and above, MySQL assumes that the value for UMASK and UMASK_DIR is in octal if it starts with a zero.

See section F Environment Variables.

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