Using MySQL in an OpenBSD Environment

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If you are installing MySQL for the first time, you have to create
a default database first. In order to create the database, please run
/usr/local/bin/mysql_install_db

The default limit in the GENERIC kernel for number of open
files is not large enough for a database with more than a handful
of tables, or a large number of connections. A server running
such a database should have at least the following in
/etc/sysctl.conf:

kern.maxfiles=4096

This number should be tuned depending on system use. You will also
need to tune the values in the my.cnf file (examples available in
/usr/local/share/mysql).

By default, the _mysql user, and so the mysqld processes run in
the login(1) class of "daemon". On a busy server, it may be advisable
to put the _mysql user and processes in their own login(1) class
with tuned resources, such as more open file descriptors etc.

For example, add this to the login.conf(5) file:

mysql:/
:openfiles-cur=1024:/
:openfiles-max=2048:/
:tc=daemon:

Rebuild the login.conf.db file if necessary:

# cap_mkdb /etc/login.conf

And start the server like this:

if [ -x /usr/local/bin/mysqld_safe ] ; then
su -c mysql root -c '/usr/local/bin/mysqld_safe >/dev/null 2>&1 &'
echo -n ' mysql'
fi

mysqld_safe(1) is the recommended way to start a mysqld server,
it creates the directory for the socket and adds some safety
features such as restarting the server when an error occurs
and logging runtime information to an error log file. Options
may be passed in the [mysqld_safe] section of my.cnf.

Note that the classes in login.conf(5) are used by login(1);
they do not apply to normal process startup, hence the use of su(1).

For larger servers and dedicated database servers, these numbers
and memory limits (e.g. datasize and stacksize) may also need to be
increased. Please report any changes and experiences to the package
maintainers so that we can update this file for future versions.