[mysql] Where does mysql store data?

Where does mysql store data? I found out (by using mysql>SELECT @@datadir ) that it's in var/lib/mysql - but that can't be it. I have a quite big database (4 GB) called 'bot', but all the files in the 'bot' subdirectory (var/lib/mysql/bot) have only 280KB. Where is the rest?

One more thing - 99% of the database's size is a text column in one of the tables - I know that mysql stores it in separate files, but does it create one file per record?

I found a big file in the var/lib/mysql directory named ibdata1 - its size is over 8GB - what is it? (btw, there are other databases as well in the var/lib/mysql directory).

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The answer is


From here:

Windows

  1. Locate the my.ini, which store in the MySQL installation folder.

For Example, C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\my.ini

  1. Open the “my.ini” with our favor text editor.
#Path to installation directory. All paths are usually resolved relative to this.
basedir="C:/Program Files/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.1/"
 
#Path to the database root
datadir="C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Application Data/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.1/Data/"

Find the “datadir”, this is the where does MySQL stored the data in Windows.


Linux

  1. Locate the my.cnf with the find / -name my.cnf command.
yongmo@myserver:~$ find / -name my.cnf
find: /home/lost+found: Permission denied
find: /lost+found: Permission denied
/etc/mysql/my.cnf
  1. View the my.cnf file like this: cat /etc/mysql/my.cnf
yongmo@myserver:~$ cat /etc/mysql/my.cnf
#
# The MySQL database server configuration file.
#
# You can copy this to one of:
# - "/etc/mysql/my.cnf" to set global options,
# - "~/.my.cnf" to set user-specific options.
# 
[mysqld]
#
# * Basic Settings
#
user   = mysql
pid-file = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
socket  = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
port   = 3306
basedir  = /usr
datadir  = /var/lib/mysql
tmpdir  = /tmp
language = /usr/share/mysql/english
skip-external-locking
  1. Find the “datadir”, this is where does MySQL stored the data in Linux system.

as @PhilHarvey said, you can use mysqld --verbose --help | grep datadir


In version 5.6 at least, the Management tab in MySQL Workbench shows that it's in a hidden folder called ProgramData in the C:\ drive. My default data directory is

C:\ProgramData\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.6\data

. Each database has a folder and each table has a file here.


I just installed MySQL Server 5.7 on Windows 10 and my.ini file is located here c:\ProgramData\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.7\my.ini.

The Data folder (where your dbs are created) is here C:/ProgramData/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.7\Data.


In mysql server 8.0, on Windows, the location is C:\ProgramData\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\Data