Bjorn, I am afraid I really do not clearly understand what is really going on with your issue. I cannot reproduce it and reading your reports more carefully I see that you do not get it on all machines. So I wonder if the root cause may have been some admin action as root on the affected bug - or perhaps an old bug in mysql-5.1. The behaviour of flush logs changed in 5.5.7 which could be relevant. Does correcting the ownership of the files fix the issue? Does the issue recur after fixing it. Can you look at the output of 'show variables' and compare between servers with the issue and without? Can you give me a recipe starting with a fresh install and sequence of config changes and actions that leads to the issue.
I feel very uncomfortable with your proposed change of how mysqld is started given the above. I feel a lot less bemused by your proposed logrotate change although I do think all the logging options need a review. I am sure anyone reading through the bug related bug reports would come to a similar view. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org