What file and directory permissions are required for MySQL LOAD DATA INFILE?

Question

I have a script that is trying to load some data into MySQL with LOAD DATA INFILE. For some reason, it works if the file is in the /tmp directory, but not if the file is in another directory with identical permissions. I can't find any way to get MySQL to import data from outside the /tmp directory, or the database directory, but I can't find anything in the manual that explains why this would be the case.

The situation:

$ ls -l /
...
drwxrwxrwt  21 root root  4096 2010-10-19 20:02 tmp
drwxrwxrwt   2 root root  4096 2010-10-19 20:14 tmp2

$ ls -l /tmp/data.csv 
-rwxr-xr-x 1 timm timm 415431 2010-10-19 20:02 /tmp/data.csv

$ ls -l /tmp2/data.csv 
-rwxr-xr-x 1 timm timm 415431 2010-10-19 20:14 /tmp2/data.csv

AFAICT these are identical in the important respects. However, if at the MySQL command line I do:

> LOAD DATA INFILE '/tmp2/data.csv' IGNORE INTO TABLE ports
      FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '"' LINES TERMINATED BY ' ';
ERROR 29 (HY000): File '/tmp2/data.csv' not found (Errcode: 13)

> LOAD DATA INFILE '/tmp/data.csv' IGNORE INTO TABLE ports 
      FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '"' LINES TERMINATED BY ' ';
Query OK, 1 row affected, 1 warning (0.04 sec)
Records: 1  Deleted: 0  Skipped: 0  Warnings: 0

I gather from forum postings that errno 13 indicates a permission problem. It seems that /tmp is treated specially by MySQL, but why? The closest I can come is a line in the manual saying:

For security reasons, when reading text files located on the server, the files must either reside in the database directory or be readable by all.

/tmp isn't in the database directory, but maybe it gets treated as if it is. So how should I set things up in order for it to read files outside of /tmp?

Answer 1

Errno 13 might be due to SELinux in case you are using a Linux server distro (for example, RedHat Enterprise Linux or CentOS). Check 'audit.log' to see if SELinux is complaining about your /tmp2 path. You can then add your path via semanage fcontext -a -t mysqld_db_t "/tmp2(/.*)?" and run restorecon -R /tmp2.

However, the solution might be much simpler and I would have replied directly under your question (instead of providing an answer), if I only knew how..