Answer - You can get the default buffer sizes used by the mysqld server with this command: shell> mysqld --help This command produces a list of all mysqld options and configurable variables. The output includes the default values and looks something like this: Possible variables for option --set-variable (-O) are: back_log current value: 5 bdb_cache_size current value: 1048540 binlog_cache_size current_value: 32768 connect_timeout current value: 5 delayed_insert_timeout current value: 300 delayed_insert_limit current value: 100 delayed_queue_size current value: 1000 flush_time current value: 0 interactive_timeout current value: 28800 join_buffer_size current value: 131072 key_buffer_size current value: 1048540 lower_case_table_names current value: 0 long_query_time current value: 10 max_allowed_packet current value: 1048576 max_binlog_cache_size current_value: 4294967295 max_connections current value: 100 max_connect_errors current value: 10 max_delayed_threads current value: 20 max_heap_table_size current value: 16777216 max_join_size current value: 4294967295 max_sort_length current value: 1024 max_tmp_tables current value: 32 max_write_lock_count current value: 4294967295 myisam_sort_buffer_size current value: 8388608 net_buffer_length current value: 16384 net_retry_count current value: 10 net_read_timeout current value: 30 net_write_timeout current value: 60 query_buffer_size current value: 0 record_buffer current value: 131072 slow_launch_time current value: 2 sort_buffer current value: 2097116 table_cache current value: 64 thread_concurrency current value: 10 tmp_table_size current value: 1048576 thread_stack current value: 131072 wait_timeout current value: 28800 If there is a mysqld server currently running, you can see what values it actually is using for the variables by executing this command: shell> mysqladmin variables You can find a full description for all variables in the SHOW VARIABLES section in this manual. You can also see some s