MySQL General Log

• Enable via configuration file
• Enable via a global query
• General query log location

The general log records every query that the MySQL database processes, with the parameters visible. This means you are able to see the values used in a bound query.

There are two ways to enable the MySQL general log:

1. Enable it in the configuration file. This will enable the general log when MySQL starts.
2. You can run a global query to enable the general log while the MySQL server is running.

#Enable via configuration file

To enable the general log via the configuration file, add the following to your configuration file (example path is /etc/my.cnf):

1// my.cnf
2[mysqld]
3general_log = 1
4log_output = 'table'

You must restart the MySQL server after editing the configuration file.

#Enable via a global query

To enable the general log via a global query, you can run this query:

1SET global general_log = 1;

#General query log location

Now that the general log is enabled, you have a couple options on where the log is written to. By default, it’s written to a log file located at: /var/log/mysql/mysql.log

However, when I enable the general log for debugging, I often have the output written to a table, so I can query it easily. To write the output to a table, you can run this global query:

1SET global log_output = 'table';

You can query the general log table via:

1SELECT * FROM mysql.general_log;

The results returned can be filtered, sorted, etc:

1SELECT * FROM mysql.general_log ORDER BY event_time DESC LIMIT 100;

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