Files in mysql data folder

Question

I have a lot of files in mysql data/ folder

files are named

• off.000001
• off.000002
• etc.

What are those? Each takes 1.1 GB of space.

Answer 1

Those are binary logs not transaction logs.

Binary logs record completed SQL transactions.

Transaction logs (specifically ib_logfile0 and ib_logfile1) record SQL statements that are bulk committed upon transaction completion.

sql_log_off disables the general log, not the binary logs.

Binary logs are disabled by doing two things:

STEP 01) Comment out any line in my.cnf that has log_bin or log-bin

[mysqld]
#log-bin=off

It is easier just to delete log_bin or log-bin from my.cnf

STEP 02) You can either restart mysql or run this at the mysql command line

mysql> SET sql_log_bin = 0;

That's it !!!

From the name of the binary logs you probably have this:

[mysqld]
log-bin=off

That simply told mysqld to make binary logs named off

Answer 2

They are the MySQL (transaction) logs. This page contains all the details on them and information on how to clean them up. You can also disable these logs, if you want, by setting the sql_log_off variable.

I stand corrected. I didn't research enough the answer I provided. Sorry for that. @RolandoMySQLDBA provides a good explanation for this question.