How to see log files in MySQL?

The MySQL logs are determined by the global variables such as:

log_error for the error message log;
general_log_file for the general query log file (if enabled by general_log);
slow_query_log_file for the slow query log file (if enabled by slow_query_log);

To see the settings and their location, run this shell command:

mysql -se "SHOW VARIABLES" | grep -e log_error -e general_log -e slow_query_log

To print the value of error log, run this command in the terminal:

mysql -e "SELECT @@GLOBAL.log_error"

To read content of the error log file in real time, run:

sudo tail -f $(mysql -Nse "SELECT @@GLOBAL.log_error")

^{Note: Hit Control-C when finish}

When general log is enabled, try:

sudo tail -f $(mysql -Nse "SELECT CONCAT(@@datadir, @@general_log_file)")

To use mysql with the password access, add -p or -pMYPASS parameter. To to keep it remembered, you can configure it in your ~/.my.cnf, e.g.

[client]
user=root
password=root

So it'll be remembered for the next time.

Here is a simple way to enable them. In mysql we need to see often 3 logs which are mostly needed during any project development.

The Error Log. It contains information about errors that occur while the server is running (also server start and stop)
The General Query Log. This is a general record of what mysqld is doing (connect, disconnect, queries)
The Slow Query Log. Ιt consists of "slow" SQL statements (as indicated by its name).

By default no log files are enabled in MYSQL. All errors will be shown in the syslog (/var/log/syslog).

To Enable them just follow below steps:

step1: Go to this file (/etc/mysql/conf.d/mysqld_safe_syslog.cnf) and remove or comment those line.

step2: Go to mysql conf file (/etc/mysql/my.cnf) and add following lines

To enable error log add following

[mysqld_safe]
log_error=/var/log/mysql/mysql_error.log

[mysqld]
log_error=/var/log/mysql/mysql_error.log

To enable general query log add following

general_log_file        = /var/log/mysql/mysql.log
general_log             = 1

To enable Slow Query Log add following

log_slow_queries       = /var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log
long_query_time = 2
log-queries-not-using-indexes

step3: save the file and restart mysql using following commands

service mysql restart

To enable logs at runtime, login to mysql client (mysql -u root -p) and give:

SET GLOBAL general_log = 'ON';
SET GLOBAL slow_query_log = 'ON';

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You have to activate the query logging in mysql.

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