mysql data directory location

As suggested, I edited this message to place a proper answer.

---

The 'physical' location of the MySQL database is under /usr/local/mysql

The mysql is a symlink to the current active MySQL installation, in my case the exact folder is mysql-5.6.10-osx10.7-x86_64.

Inside that folder you'll see another data folder, inside it are RESTRICTED folders with your databases.

You can't actually see the size of your databases (that was my issue) from the Finder because the folder are protected, you can though see from the terminal with sudo du -sh /usr/local/mysql/data/{your-database-name} and like this you'll get a nice formatted output with the size.

In those folder you have different files with all the folders present in your database, so it's safer to check the db's folder to get a size.

That's it. Enjoy!

Well, if yo don't know where is my.cnf (such Mac OS X installed with homebrew), or You are looking found others choices:

ps aux|grep mysql
abkrim            1160   0.0  0.2  2913068  26224   ??  R    Tue04PM   0:14.63 /usr/local/opt/mariadb/bin/mysqld --basedir=/usr/local/opt/mariadb --datadir=/usr/local/var/mysql --plugin-dir=/usr/local/opt/mariadb/lib/plugin --bind-address=127.0.0.1 --log-error=/usr/local/var/mysql/iMac-2.local.err --pid-file=iMac-2.local.pid

You get datadir=/usr/local/var/mysql

See if you have a file located under /etc/my.cnf. If so, it should tell you where the data directory is.

For example:

[mysqld]
set-variable=local-infile=0
datadir=/var/lib/mysql
socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
user=mysql
...

My guess is that your mysql might be installed to /usr/local/mysql-XXX.

You may find these MySQL reference manual links useful:

• Installing MySQL 8.0 on MacOS
• Installing MySQL 5.7 on MacOS
• Installing MySQL 5.6 on MacOS
• Installing MySQL 5.5 on MacOS

If the software is Sequel pro the default install mysql on Mac OSX has data located here:

/usr/local/var/mysql