On RHEL5, I have a small MySQL database that has to write temp files. To speed up this process, I would like to move the temporary directory to /dev/shm by putting the following line into my.cnf: tmpdir=/dev/shm/mysqltmp I can create /dev/shm/mysqltmp just fine and do chown mysql:mysql /dev/shm/mysqltmp chcon --reference /tmp/ /dev/shm/mysqltmp I've tried to make SELinux happy by applying the same settings that are in effect for /tmp/ (and /var/tmp/), which is presumably where MySQL is writing its tmp files if tmpdir is undefined. The problem is that SELinux complains about MySQL having access to that directory. I get the following in /var/log/messages: SELinux is preventing mysqld (mysqld_t) "getattr" to /dev/shm (tmpfs_t). SELinux is a hard mistress. Details: Source Context root:system_r:mysqld_t Target Context system_u:object_r:tmpfs_t Target Objects /dev/shm [ dir ] Source mysqld Source Path /usr/libexec/mysqld Port <Unknown> Host db.example.com Source RPM Packages mysql-server-5.0.77-3.el5 Target RPM Packages Policy RPM selinux-policy-2.4.6-255.el5_4.1 Selinux Enabled True Policy Type targeted MLS Enabled True Enforcing Mode Enforcing Plugin Name catchall_file Host Name db.example.com Platform Linux db.example.com 2.6.18-164.2.1.el5 #1 SMP Mon Sep 21 04:37:42 EDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 Alert Count 46 First Seen Wed Nov 4 14:23:48 2009 Last Seen Thu Nov 5 09:46:00 2009 Local ID e746d880-18f6-43c1-b522-a8c0508a1775 ls -lZ /dev/shm shows drwxrwxr-x mysql mysql system_u:object_r:tmp_t mysqltmp and permissions for /dev/shm itself are drwxrwxrwt root root system_u:object_r:tmpfs_t shm I've also tried chcon -R -t mysqld_t /dev/shm/mysqltmp and setting the group on /dev/shm to mysql with no better results. Shouldn't it be enough to tell SELinux, hey, this is a temp directory just like MySQL was using before? Short of turning off SELinux, how do I make this work? Do I need to edit SELinux policy files?