We saw in the last section how you can specify options for the MySQL monitor. An options file can have a section for each program that uses it. For example, you can have a [mysql] section for the mysql program and a [mysqldump] section for the mysqldump program. Similarly, you can have a [mysqld] section for the MySQL server daemons mysqld, mysqld_safe, and mysqld-nt.

Where options are common to all client programs, they can be consolidated under a [client] section. Similarly, options common to all server programs can be listed under a [server] section.

Be careful not to make program options too generic. For example, the mysql program is a client and takes a database option. However, mysqladmin and mysqlshow are examples of client programs that don’t understand this option. If you include the database option in the [client] section, like this: