Change MySQL default character set to UTF-8 in my.cnf?

Currently we are using the following commands in PHP to set the character set to UTF-8 in our application.

Since this is a bit of overhead, we'd like to set this as the default setting in MySQL. Can we do this in /etc/my.cnf or in another location?

SET NAMES 'utf8'
SET CHARACTER SET utf8

I've looked for a default charset in /etc/my.cnf, but there's nothing there about charsets.

At this point, I did the following to set the MySQL charset and collation variables to UTF-8:

skip-character-set-client-handshake
character_set_client=utf8
character_set_server=utf8

Is that a correct way to handle this?

 Answers

To set the default to UTF-8, you want to add the following to my.cnf

[client]
default-character-set=utf8

[mysql]
default-character-set=utf8


[mysqld]
collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci
init-connect='SET NAMES utf8'
character-set-server = utf8

If you want to change the character set for an existing DB, let me know... your question didn't specify it directly so I am not sure if that's what you want to do.

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On MySQL 5.5 I have in my.cnf

[mysqld] 
init_connect='SET collation_connection = utf8_unicode_ci' 
init_connect='SET NAMES utf8' 
character-set-server=utf8 
collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci 
skip-character-set-client-handshake

Result is

mysql> show variables like "%character%";show variables like "%collation%";

+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| Variable_name            | Value                      |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| character_set_client     | utf8                       |
| character_set_connection | utf8                       |
| character_set_database   | utf8                       |
| character_set_filesystem | binary                     |
| character_set_results    | utf8                       |
| character_set_server     | utf8                       |
| character_set_system     | utf8                       |
| character_sets_dir       | /usr/share/mysql/charsets/ |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
8 rows in set (0.00 sec)

+----------------------+-----------------+
| Variable_name        | Value           |
+----------------------+-----------------+
| collation_connection | utf8_unicode_ci |
| collation_database   | utf8_unicode_ci |
| collation_server     | utf8_unicode_ci |
+----------------------+-----------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

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I also have found out that after setting default-character-set = utf8 under [mysqld] title, MySQL 5.5.x would not start under Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin).

---

MySQL v5.5.3 and greater:

Just add three lines only in the [mysqld] section:

[mysqld]
character-set-server = utf8
collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci
skip-character-set-client-handshake

Note: Including skip-character-set-client-handshake here obviates the need to include both init-connect in [mysqld] and default-character-set in the [client] and [mysql] sections.

---

Under Xubuntu 12.04 I simply added

[mysqld]
character_set_server = utf8

to /etc/mysql/my.cnf

And the result is

mysql> show variables like "%character%";show variables like "%collation%";
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| Variable_name            | Value                      |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| character_set_client     | utf8                       |
| character_set_connection | utf8                       |
| character_set_database   | utf8                       |
| character_set_filesystem | binary                     |
| character_set_results    | utf8                       |
| character_set_server     | utf8                       |
| character_set_system     | utf8                       |
| character_sets_dir       | /usr/share/mysql/charsets/ |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
8 rows in set (0.00 sec)

+----------------------+-----------------+
| Variable_name        | Value           |
+----------------------+-----------------+
| collation_connection | utf8_general_ci |
| collation_database   | utf8_general_ci |
| collation_server     | utf8_general_ci |
+----------------------+-----------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Also take a look at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/charset-server.html

---

The directive has changed to character-set-system=utf8

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/charset-configuration.html

---

On Fedora 21

$ vi /etc/my.cnf

Add follow:

[client]
default-character-set=utf8

[mysql]
default-character-set=utf8

[mysqld]
init_connect='SET collation_connection = utf8_unicode_ci'
init_connect='SET NAMES utf8'
character-set-server=utf8
collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci 
skip-character-set-client-handshake

Save and exit.

Final remember restart service mysqld with service mysqld restart.

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If you're having trouble confirming the client's character-set support using MySQL Workbench, then keep the following note in mind:

Important All connections opened by MySQL Workbench automatically set the client character set to utf8. Manually changing the client character set, such as using SET NAMES ..., may cause MySQL Workbench to not correctly display the characters. For additional information about client character sets, see Connection Character Sets and Collations.

Thus I was unable to override MySQL Workbench's character sets with my.cnf changes. e.g. 'set names utf8mb4'

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You can do it the way it does, and if it doesn't work, you need to restart mysql.