Disk full, how to move mysql database files?

Question

my database files located in /var/lib/mysql which located in partition /dev/sda5

this partition is full (refer here for details)

so I'm going to move the location of database files from /var/lib/mysql to /home/lib/mysql

What is the right way to move this database files?

Im going to do this steps:

1. Stop http server and PHP
2. Change datadir=/var/lib/mysql to become datadir=/home/lib/mysql in /etc/my.cnf
3. move all database files to the new location
4. run killall -9 mysql, then /etc/init.d/mysqld start
5. Start http server and PHP

Is this right? Correct me if I'm wrong

added:

currently, mysql won't stop. refer here: mysql wont stop, mysqld_safe appeared in top

Answer 1

1- You should stop the mysql server (step 4) before moving the files (step 3).

2- You should stop it gracefully not using kill -9 unless needed to.

3- I think you mean start in step 5. (I edit the question).

4- You need also to check the files permissions and ownership.

Answer 2

1. stop http server and PHP
2. login as root into mysql and "flush tables" (if flush fails you will have some tables to repair)
3. run killall -9 mysql
4. Change datadir=/var/lib/mysql to become datadir=/home/lib/mysql in /etc/my.cnf
5. move all database files to the new location
6. start mysql server
7. check tables status (from phpmyadmin or other gui)
8. start http server and PHP

Answer 3

Interesting, I already address the following question similar to this in ServerFault

MySQL stopped working - full disk