So far, the MySQL Server RPM packages as provided by MySQL AB used to automatically start the mysqld process after the package has been installed. It has been like that since the very beginning and we think of it as a convenience for our users when they want to get up and running quickly.
However, Kristian raised an interesting point in BUG#27072 where he points out that automatically starting mysqld during the RPM installation might not always be the desired behaviour, especially in automatic installation environments or during a fresh installation (where the system might not be fully configured yet). Therefore he proposes to change this behaviour to not start mysqld as part of the installation.
While I personally agree with his proposal, this is of course a tricky decision: our users are familiar with this behaviour and it's never a good idea to cause surprises. Therefore this change could only be done in future versions of MySQL, where they can be properly announced and documented and don't cause too much confusion.
Then again, there are several options here. Should we just disable it for the Enterprise Linux RPMs (RHEL/SLES) and keep it enabled in the "generic" RPMs? This would be inconsistent and harder to document/explain. Should the server never be started at all, or should we keep the behaviour for updates at least (when the server was already running before the package update)?
We would like to get your take on this. Please post your comments and suggestions to the bug report (preferred) or leave a comment on my blog, so we can get an impression on what you would expect to be the correct behaviour here. Thanks!
