5.2.5 The Slow Query Log

The slow query log consists of SQL statements that took more than long_query_time seconds to execute and (as of MySQL 5.1.21) required at least min_examined_row_limit rows to be examined. The default value of long_query_time is 10. Beginning with MySQL 5.1.21, the minimum is 0, and the value can be specified to a resolution of microseconds. For logging to a file, times are written including the microseconds part. For logging to tables, only integer times are written; the microseconds part is ignored. Prior to MySQL 5.1.21, the minimum value is 1, and the value for this variable must be an integer.

By default, administrative statements are not logged, nor are queries that do not use indexes for lookups. This behavior can be changed using --log-slow-admin-statements and --log-queries-not-using-indexes, as described later.

The time to acquire the initial locks is not counted as execution time. mysqld writes a statement to the slow query log after it has been executed and after all locks have been released, so log order might differ from execution order.

Control the slow query log at server startup as follows:

• Before 5.1.6, the slow query log destination is always a file. To enable the log, start mysqld with the --log-slow-queries[=file_name] option.

• As of MySQL 5.1.6, the destination can be a file or a table, or both. Start mysqld with the --log-slow-queries[=file_name] option to enable the slow query log, and optionally use --log-output to specify the log destination (as described in Section 5.2.1, “Selecting General Query and Slow Query Log Output Destinations”).

• As of MySQL 5.1.12, as an alternative to --log-slow-queries, use --slow_query_log[={0|1}] to specify the initial slow query log state. In this case, the default slow query log file name is used. With no argument or an argument of 1, --slow_query_log enables the log. With an argument of 0, this option disables the log.

• As of MySQL 5.1.29, use --slow_query_log[={0|1}] to enable or disable the slow query log, and optionally --slow_query_log_file=file_name to specify a log file name. The --log-slow-queries option is deprecated.

If the slow query log file is enabled but no name is specified, the default name is host_name-slow.log and the server creates the file in the same directory where it creates the PID file. If a name is given, the server creates the file in the data directory unless an absolute path name is given to specify a different directory.

To disable or enable the slow query log or change the log file name at runtime, use the global slow_query_log and slow_query_log_file system variables. Set slow_query_log to 0 (or OFF) to disable the log or to 1 (or ON) to enable it. Set slow_query_log_file to specify the name of the log file. If a log file already is open, it is closed and the new file is opened.

When the slow query log is enabled, the server writes output to any destinations specified by the --log-output option or log_output system variable. If you enable the log, the server opens the log file and writes startup messages to it. However, further logging of queries to the file does not occur unless the FILE log destination is selected. If the destination is NONE, the server writes no queries even if the slow query log is enabled. Setting the log file name has no effect on logging if the log destination value does not contain FILE.

The server writes less information to the slow query log if you use the --log-short-format option.

To include slow administrative statements in the statements written to the slow query log, use the --log-slow-admin-statements server option. Administrative statements include ALTER TABLE, ANALYZE TABLE, CHECK TABLE, CREATE INDEX, DROP INDEX, OPTIMIZE TABLE, and REPAIR TABLE.

To include queries that do not use indexes for row lookups in the statements written to the slow query log, use the --log-queries-not-using-indexes server option. See Section 5.1.3, “Server Command Options”. When such queries are logged, the slow query log may grow quickly.

The server uses the controlling parameters in the following order to determine whether to write a query to the slow query log:

1. The query must either not be an administrative statement, or --log-slow-admin-statements must have been specified.

2. The query must have taken at least long_query_time seconds, or --log-queries-not-using-indexes must have been specified and the query used no indexes for row lookups.

3. The query must have examined at least min_examined_row_limit rows.

The server does not write queries handled by the query cache to the slow query log, nor queries that would not benefit from the presence of an index because the table has zero rows or one row.

Prior to MySQL 5.1.45, replication slaves did not write replicated queries to the slow query log, even if the same queries were written to the slow query log on the master. (Bug #23300) In MySQL 5.1.45 and later, this behavior can be overridden using the --log-slow-slave-statements option.

The slow query log should be protected because logged statements might contain passwords. See Section 6.1.2.3, “Passwords and Logging”.

The slow query log can be used to find queries that take a long time to execute and are therefore candidates for optimization. However, examining a long slow query log can become a difficult task. To make this easier, you can process a slow query log file using the mysqldumpslow command to summarize the queries that appear in the log. See Section 4.6.8, “mysqldumpslow — Summarize Slow Query Log Files”.