MySQL Manual
4 Database Administration
4.9.2 The General Query Log
If you want to know what happens within mysqld, you should start
it with --log[=file]. This will log all connections and queries
to the log file (by default named `'hostname'.log'). This log can
be very useful when you suspect an error in a client and want to know
exactly what mysqld thought the client sent to it.
Older versions of the mysql.server script (from MySQL 3.23.4 to 3.23.8)
pass safe_mysqld a --log option (enable general query log).
If you need better performance when you start using MySQL in a production
environment, you can remove the --log option from mysql.server
or change it to --log-bin. See section 4.9.4 The Binary Log.
The entries in this log are written as mysqld receives the questions.
This may be different from the order in which the statements are executed.
This is in contrast to the update log and the binary log which are written
after the query is executed, but before any locks are released.
