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I changed the value of mysql's general_log_file variable to something else, and now I'm trying to change it back to what it was originally, /var/lib/mysql/ubuntu.log. But when I do:

SET GLOBAL general_log_file = '/var/lib/msyql/ubuntu.log';

I get this error:

ERROR 1231 (42000): Variable 'general_log_file' can't be set to the value of '/var/lib/msyql/ubuntu.log'

What's going on?

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4 Answers 4

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ERROR 1231 (42000): Variable 'general_log_file' can't be set to the value of '/var/lib/msyql/ubuntu.log'

What's going on?

The simple answer is this file doesn't exist.

You type too fast. There is a typo in the file name, it should be /var/lib/mysql/ubuntu.log.

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    If the folder exists, it might need appropriate permissions for the mysql user (or whoever owns the mysqld process) to write to it.
    – mwfearnley
    Apr 18, 2019 at 12:03
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I know this is a very old answer, but just in case someone else will be looking for an answer here.

In my case - the problem was in permissions that wasn't correct on the destination folder.

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    I'd upvote your answer if you could be more precise about what permissions you had, and what you found you needed (and that wasn't 777).
    – MadHatter
    Jul 6, 2015 at 10:20
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    I had permission for root only to write into that directory. meaning mysql user had no permission to write to it. From here - you have several options to fix this. add 777 permissions (as i did) or create a directory for the mysql user to write to it.
    – Tata
    Jul 6, 2015 at 12:09
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    777 permissions is a very poor idea indeed.
    – MadHatter
    Jul 6, 2015 at 12:12
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    in my case - it was not bad idea at all, as this is a "junk" folder that i want to write to it from anywhere. I wasn't setting the file to be written to /var/lib/mysql/ubuntu.log as in the question, that is why i didn't added the idea of 777 at the first place. just noting that even if the folder exists - it worth checking that it has correct permissions.
    – Tata
    Jul 6, 2015 at 12:13
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This is what helped me in a similar situation:

  1. Create a new folder somewhere on your machine, like so (of course, you can name the folder anything you want):

$ mkdir ~/log_files

  1. Change ownership of this folder to mysql:

$ chown mysql: ~/log_files

  1. Set the the variable general_log_file to the folder you just created in your mysql console, like so:

mysql> SET GLOBAL general_log_file = '~/log_files/mysql_log.log';

  1. Restart mysql (terminal command can be googled for your specific setup, e.g. by searching for "bitnami mysql restart")

  2. Check, if the log file exists in the folder you created in step 1

I hope it helps!

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  • Just want you to know that your answer is the only thing that worked for me. changing ownership to mysql was what was missing for me. Thanks!
    – jlaverde
    Jan 19 at 14:36
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My issue was I was trying to create a log file on my local machine when I was running mysql in a Docker container. I was able to launch the CLI for docker and get into container and tail the log file there.

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