I need to start up mysqld with command line options as from here: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/server-options.html#option_mysqld_skip-grant-tables I normally do sudo service mysqld start, but passing the option as sudo service mysqld start --skip-grant-tables does not seem to work. Alternatively I have tried starting as a daemon, sudo mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables & But it seems to terminate too soon: 131101 04:59:57 mysqld_safe Logging to '/var/lib/mysql/vagrant.example.com.err'. 131101 04:59:57 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql 131101 05:00:03 mysqld_safe mysqld from pid file /var/lib/mysql/vagrant.example.com.pid ended My last option seems to specify the option in /etc/my.cnf instead, but is there any way to do it via the command line?