On analysing this further I discovered that simply duplicating /etc/init.d/mysql and changing the value of the CONF variable would never be enough to properly support multiple instances of mysql even if references to the configuration file were passed on to the mysql scripts/binaries using the --defaults-file option.
The main issue is that the debian maintainer scripts are not designed to iterate through multiple instances when the package is updated. For instance this means the other instances would not have table upgrades applied. The proper way to do multi-instances is with the upstream script mysqld_multi but apparently work still needs to be done to support this properly in Debian/Ubuntu. After discussing on #ubuntu-server with mathiaz, infinity and others it was agreed that this bug should not be fixed but instead we should mark clearly in the init script that multiple instances are not supported in this way. The attached debdiff adds this warning comment to /etc/init.d/mysql and includes the minor tidy up mods from the previous patch. I look forward to any feedback. ** Attachment added: "mysql-dfsg-5.0_5.0.45-1ubuntu1.debdiff" http://launchpadlibrarian.net/8588396/mysql-dfsg-5.0_5.0.45-1ubuntu1.debdiff ** Changed in: mysql-dfsg-5.0 (Ubuntu) Status: Triaged => In Progress -- CONF Variable in /etc/init.d/mysql unused https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/106244 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is the bug contact for Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs