The mysql.server script can be used to start or stop the server,
by invoking it with start or stop arguments:
shell> mysql.server start
shell> mysql.server stop
mysql.server can be found in the `share/mysql' directory
under the MySQL installation directory, or in the `support-files'
directory of the MySQL source tree.
Before mysql.server starts the server, it changes directory to
the MySQL installation directory, then invokes
safe_mysqld.  You might need to edit mysql.server if you
have a binary distribution that you've installed in a non-standard
location.  Modify it to cd into the proper directory before it
runs safe_mysqld. If you want the server to run as some specific
user, you can change the mysql_daemon_user=root line to use
another user.  You can also modify mysql.server to pass other
options to safe_mysqld.
mysql.server stop brings down server by sending a signal to it.
You can take down the server manually by executing mysqladmin shutdown.
You might want to add these start and stop commands to the appropriate places
in your `/etc/rc*' files when you start using MySQL for
production applications.  Note that if you modify mysql.server, then
if you upgrade MySQL sometime, your modified version will be
overwritten, so you should make a copy of your edited version that you can
reinstall.
If your system uses `/etc/rc.local' to start external scripts, you
should append the following to it:
/bin/sh -c 'cd /usr/local/mysql ; ./bin/safe_mysqld &'
You can also add options or mysql.server in a global
`/etc/my.cnf' file.  A typical `/etc/my.cnf' file might look like
this:
[mysqld]
datadir=/usr/local/mysql/var
socket=/tmp/mysqld.sock
port=3306
[mysql.server]
user=mysql
basedir=/usr/local/mysql
The mysql.server script uses the following variables:
user, datadir, basedir, bindir and pid-file.
  4.15.4  Fichier d'options.