Mysql log location

Question

i'm trying to troubleshoot a recent mysql issue. looking at Server Admin > MySQL > Logs ...
it's pulling the mysql service log file from "/var/mysql/old_dns.example.edu.err" and that dns points to different IP address than what this web server is using. the log looks incomplete.
i'm pretty certain that i installed the OS (10.5.8) on this box from scratch so i don't think that there are remnants of a previous dns. i ran "changeip --checkhostname" and it came back "names match".
running:
mac:~ admin$ /usr/libexec/mysqld --help --verbose | grep '^log'
log (No default value)
log-bin (No default value)
log-bin-index (No default value)
log-bin-trust-function-creators FALSE
log-bin-trust-routine-creators FALSE
log-error
log-isam myisam.log
log-queries-not-using-indexes FALSE
log-short-format FALSE
log-slave-updates FALSE
log-slow-admin-statements FALSE
log-slow-queries (No default value)
log-tc tc.log
log-tc-size 24576
log-update (No default value)
log-warnings 1
i don't understand why 'log' shows "no default value". does anyone have a clue?
thanks!

Answer 1

i don't understand why 'log' shows "no default value". does anyone have a clue?
That's easy - by default MySQL doesn't maintain binary logs. They're typically only needed if you're using replication, and if you're using replication then there's a slew of other things you need to change too, so enabling bin logs at that time isn't a big deal.
In any case, the command you use isn't going to show you the logging setup - that just finds references to 'log' in the help files and has little or no bearing on the current server configuration (any of those settings may have been overwritten in your MySQL configuration).
The command you want is more like:
mysqladmin variables | grep log