--binlog-row-event-max-size=N

Specify the maximum size of a row-based binary log event, in bytes. Rows are grouped into events smaller than this size if possible. The value should be a multiple of 256. The default is 1024. See Section 16.1.2, “Replication Formats”.

--log-bin[=base_name]

Enable binary logging. The server logs all statements that change data to the binary log, which is used for backup and replication. See Section 5.2.4, “The Binary Log”.

The option value, if given, is the basename for the log sequence. The server creates binary log files in sequence by adding a numeric suffix to the basename. It is recommended that you specify a basename (see Additional Known Issues, for the reason). Otherwise, MySQL uses host_name-bin as the basename.

--log-bin-index[=file_name]

The index file for binary log file names. See Section 5.2.4, “The Binary Log”. If you omit the file name, and if you did not specify one with --log-bin, MySQL uses host_name-bin.index as the file name.

--log-bin-trust-function-creators[={0|1}]

This option sets the corresponding log_bin_trust_function_creators system variable. If no argument is given, the option sets the variable to 1. log_bin_trust_function_creators affects how MySQL enforces restrictions on stored function and trigger creation. See Section 18.6, “Binary Logging of Stored Programs”.

--binlog-direct-non-transactional-updates[={0|1}]

Due to concurrency issues, a slave can become inconsistent when a transaction contains updates to both transactional and non-transactional tables. MySQL tries to preserve causality among these statements by writing non-transactional statements to the transaction cache, which is flushed upon commit. However, problems arise when modifications done to non-transactional tables on behalf of a transaction become immediately visible to other connections because these changes may not be written immediately into the binary log.

Beginning with MySQL 5.5.2, --binlog-direct-non-transactional-updates offers one possible workaround to this issue. When this option is used, it causes updates to non-transactional tables using the statement-based logging format to be written directly to the binary log, rather than to the transaction cache. This does not affect updates made using the row-based logging mode.

--binlog-do-db=db_name

This option affects binary logging in a manner similar to the way that --replicate-do-db affects replication.

The effects of this option depend on whether the statement-based or row-based logging format is in use, in the same way that the effects of --replicate-do-db depend on whether statement-based or row-based replication is in use.

Statement-based logging.  Only those statements are written to the binary log where the default database (that is, the one selected by USE) is db_name. To specify more than one database, use this option multiple times, once for each database; however, doing so does not cause cross-database statements such as UPDATE some_db.some_table SET foo='bar' to be logged while a different database (or no database) is selected.

An example of what does not work as you might expect when using statement-based logging: If the server is started with --binlog-do-db=sales and you issue the following statements, the UPDATE statement is not logged:

USE prices;
UPDATE sales.january SET amount=amount+1000;

The main reason for this “just check the default database” behavior is that it is difficult from the statement alone to know whether it should be replicated (for example, if you are using multiple-table DELETE statements or multiple-table UPDATE statements that act across multiple databases). It is also faster to check only the default database rather than all databases if there is no need.

Row-based logging.  Logging is restricted to database db_name. Only changes to tables belonging to db_name are logged; the default database has no effect on this. Suppose that the server is started with --binlog-do-db=sales and row-based logging is in effect, and then the following statements are executed:

USE prices;
UPDATE sales.february SET amount=amount+100;

The changes to the february table in the sales database are logged in accordance with the UPDATE statement; this occurs whether or not the USE statement was issued. However, when using the row-based logging format and --binlog-do-db=sales, changes made by the following UPDATE are not logged:

USE prices;
UPDATE prices.march SET amount=amount-25;

Even if the USE prices statement were changed to USE sales, the UPDATE statement's effects would still not be written to the binary log.

Another important difference in --binlog-do-db handling for statement-based logging as opposed to the row-based logging occurs with regard to statements that refer to multiple databases. Suppose the server is started with --binlog-do-db=db1, and the following statements are executed:

USE db1;
UPDATE db1.table1 SET col1 = 10, db2.table2 SET col2 = 20;

If you are using statement-based logging, the updates to both tables are written to the binary log. However, when using the row-based format, only the changes to table1 are logged; table2 is in a different database, so it is not changed by the UPDATE. Now suppose that, instead of the USE db1 statement, a USE db4 statement had been used:

USE db4;
UPDATE db1.table1 SET col1 = 10, db2.table2 SET col2 = 20;

In this case, the UPDATE statement is not written to the binary log when using statement-based logging. However, when using row-based logging, the change to table1 is logged, but not that to table2 — in other words, only changes to tables in the database named by --binlog-do-db are logged, and the choice of default database has no effect on this behavior.

--binlog-ignore-db=db_name

This option affects binary logging in a manner similar to the way that --replicate-ignore-db affects replication.

The effects of this option depend on whether the statement-based or row-based logging format is in use, in the same way that the effects of --replicate-ignore-db depend on whether statement-based or row-based replication is in use.

Statement-based logging.  Tells the server to not log any statement where the default database (that is, the one selected by USE) is db_name.

Row-based format.  Tells the server not to log updates to any tables in the database db_name. The current database has no effect.

When using statement-based logging, the following example does not work as you might expect. Suppose that the server is started with --binlog-ignore-db=sales and you issue the following statements:

USE prices;
UPDATE sales.january SET amount=amount+1000;

The UPDATE statement is logged in such a case because --binlog-ignore-db applies only to the default database (determined by the USE statement). Because the sales database was specified explicitly in the statement, the statement has not been filtered. However, when using row-based logging, the UPDATE statement's effects are not written to the binary log, which means that no changes to the sales.january table are logged; in this instance, --binlog-ignore-db=sales causes all changes made to tables in the master's copy of the sales database to be ignored for purposes of binary logging.

To specify more than one database to ignore, use this option multiple times, once for each database. Because database names can contain commas, the list will be treated as the name of a single database if you supply a comma-separated list.

You should not use this option if you are using cross-database updates and you do not want these updates to be logged.

--max-binlog-dump-events=N

This option is used internally by the MySQL test suite for replication testing and debugging.

--sporadic-binlog-dump-fail

This option is used internally by the MySQL test suite for replication testing and debugging.

binlog_cache_size

The size of the cache to hold the SQL statements for the binary log during a transaction. A binary log cache is allocated for each client if the server supports any transactional storage engines and if the server has the binary log enabled (--log-bin option). If you often use large, multiple-statement transactions, you can increase this cache size to get more performance. The Binlog_cache_use and Binlog_cache_disk_use status variables can be useful for tuning the size of this variable. See Section 5.2.4, “The Binary Log”.

MySQL Enterprise.  For recommendations on the optimum setting for binlog_cache_size, subscribe to the MySQL Enterprise Monitor. For more information, see http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html.

binlog_format

This variable sets the binary logging format, and can be any one of STATEMENT, ROW, or MIXED. See Section 16.1.2, “Replication Formats”. binlog_format is set by the --binlog-format option at startup, or by the binlog_format variable at runtime.

In MySQL 5.5, the default format is STATEMENT.

You must have the SUPER privilege to set either the global or session binlog_format value.

The rules governing when changes to this variable take effect and how long the effect lasts are the same as for other MySQL server system variables. See Section 12.4.4, “SET Syntax”, for more information.

When MIXED is specified, statement-based replication is used, except for cases where only row-based replication is guaranteed to lead to proper results. For example, this happens when statements contain user-defined functions (UDF) or the UUID() function. An exception to this rule is that MIXED always uses statement-based replication for stored functions and triggers.

There are exceptions when you cannot switch the replication format at runtime:

Trying to switch the format in those cases results in an error.

The binary log format affects the behavior of the following server options:

These effects are discussed in detail in the descriptions of the individual options.

max_binlog_cache_size

If a multiple-statement transaction requires more than this many bytes of memory, the server generates a Multi-statement transaction required more than 'max_binlog_cache_size' bytes of storage error. The minimum value is 4096; the maximum and default values are 4GB on 32-bit platforms and 16 PB (petabytes) on 64-bit platforms. As of MySQL 5.4.2, the maximum value is 4GB on all platforms.

max_binlog_size

If a write to the binary log causes the current log file size to exceed the value of this variable, the server rotates the binary logs (closes the current file and opens the next one). The minimum value is 4096 bytes. The maximum and default value is 1GB.

A transaction is written in one chunk to the binary log, so it is never split between several binary logs. Therefore, if you have big transactions, you might see binary log files larger than max_binlog_size.

If max_relay_log_size is 0, the value of max_binlog_size applies to relay logs as well.

sync_binlog

If the value of this variable is greater than 0, the MySQL server synchronizes its binary log to disk (using fdatasync()) after every sync_binlog writes to the binary log. There is one write to the binary log per statement if autocommit is enabled, and one write per transaction otherwise. The default value of sync_binlog is 0, which does no synchronizing to disk — in this case, the server relies on the operating system to flush the binary log's contents from to time as for any other file. A value of 1 is the safest choice because in the event of a crash you lose at most one statement or transaction from the binary log. However, it is also the slowest choice (unless the disk has a battery-backed cache, which makes synchronization very fast).