How to enable MySQL Query Log?

Better Stack Team
Updated on November 23, 2022

MySQL query log stores the history of executed queries. This history is stored in a log file. On busy servers, this file ca grow very large.

To enable the query log, put the following line into /etc/my.cnf file in the [mysqld] section:

 
general_log_file = /path/to/query.log
general_log      = 1

Alternatively, you can do this at runtime by running the following MySQL commands:

 
SET GLOBAL log_output = "FILE";
SET GLOBAL general_log_file = "/path/to/your/logfile.log";
SET GLOBAL general_log = 'ON';

Don’t forget to replace the "/path/to/your/logfile.log" with the path to the actual log file you wish to store the logs.

Then you can see the logs in the /path/to/your/logfile.log file.

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