•The default plist definition is written with less sophisticated use cases in mind. For more complicated setups, you may want to remove some of the arguments and instead rely on a MySQL configuration file, such as my.cnf . 

•If you edit the plist file, then uncheck the installer option when reinstalling or upgrading MySQL. Otherwise, your edited plist file is overwritten, and all edits are lost. 

Because the default plist definition defines several ProgramArguments , you might remove most of these arguments and instead rely upon your my.cnf  MySQL configuration file to define them. For example: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>Label</key> <string>com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld</string> <key>ProcessType</key> <string>Interactive</string> <key>Disabled</key> <false/> <key>RunAtLoad</key> <true/> <key>KeepAlive</key> <true/> <key>SessionCreate</key> <true/> <key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key> <false/> <key>UserName</key> <string>_mysql</string> <key>GroupName</key> <string>_mysql</string> <key>ExitTimeOut</key> <integer>600</integer> <key>Program</key> <string>/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld</string> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld</string> <string>--user=_mysql</string> <string>--basedir=/usr/local/mysql</string> <string>--datadir=/usr/local/mysql/data</string> <string>--plugin-dir=/usr/local/mysql/lib/plugin</string> <string>--log-error=/usr/local/mysql/data/mysqld.local.err</string> <string>--pid-file=/usr/local/mysql/data/mysqld.local.pid</string> <string>--keyring-file-data=/usr/local/mysql/keyring/keyring</string> <string>--early-plugin-load=keyring_file=keyring_file.so</string> </array> <key>WorkingDirectory</key> <string>/usr/local/mysql</string> </dict> </plist> 

In this case, the basedir , datadir , plugin_dir , log_error , pid_file , keyring_file_data , and --early-plugin-load  options were removed from the default plist ProgramArguments  definition, which you might have defined in my.cnf  instead. 

## 2.4.4 Installing and Using the MySQL Preference Pane 

The MySQL Installation Package includes a MySQL preference pane that enables you to start, stop, and control automated startup during boot of your MySQL installation. 

This preference pane is installed by default, and is listed under your system’s System Preferences  window. 

