Question

How do I enable the MySQL function that logs each SQL query statement received from clients and the time that query statement has submitted?
Can I do that in phpmyadmin or NaviCat?
How do I analyse the log?

Answer 1

First, Remember that this logfile can grow very large on a busy server.

For mysql < 5.1.29:

To enable the query log, put this in /etc/my.cnf in the [mysqld] section

log   = /path/to/query.log  #works for mysql < 5.1.29

Also, to enable it from MySQL console

SET general_log = 1;

See http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/query-log.html

For mysql 5.1.29+

With mysql 5.1.29+ , the log option is deprecated. To specify the logfile and enable logging, use this in my.cnf in the [mysqld] section:

general_log_file = /path/to/query.log
general_log      = 1

Alternately, to turn on logging from MySQL console (must also specify log file location somehow, or find the default location):

SET global general_log = 1;

Also note that there are additional options to log only slow queries, or those which do not use indexes.