Calling for all mysql_install_db feature requests

Hi Morgan,

Thanks for the feedback request.

I have a few wishes for mysql_install_db:

* The ability of disabling (or modifying the path) for $BASEDIR/my.cnf;

* The ability of setting a path where .mysql_secret is created;

* Compatibility between MySQL 5.6 and 5.7 about –random-passwords. MySQL 5.7 should support the option as a non-op, rather than suppressing it (what happened to the deprecation-and-removal-in-the-next-version routine?) so that DBAs can run “mysql_install_db –random-passwords” for both versions and get the same result.

* The ability of deferring the configuration for InnoDB after the installation. Up to MySQL 5.5, mysql_install_db did not create innodb files, and thus it was safe to use innodb parameters at server start. Now we can’t do that, because the defaults may be different from the intended setup. This means that DBAs need to know at bootstrap time what setup they require, or else they have to perform extra operations before deploying the server (such as deleting innodb log files with “wrong” size.)

In short, I would like mysql_install_db to be more mindful of deployments that require multiple instances, and avoid creating files in places that can’t be changed at run-time (such as $HOME/.mysql_secret, $BASEDIR/my.cnf).

A last wish is about testing. This script, as far as I can see, is not used in the test suite. It shouldn’t be a big deal adding a test that runs the installer and checks the result. You could use MySQL::Sandbox for that purpose. It includes a test called ‘smoke test’, which I created when I was working in the MySQL team to make sure that mysql_install_db was safe to ship.

Anyway, if mysql_install_db was tested to make sure that it works according to the installation procedure described in the official manual, we would have less usability issues.

Cheers

Giuseppe

Include it in another binary (mysqld or mysql_upgrade for example)