So the solution is: Don't start mysql on the command line as system user "root" or let mysql keep it's history whereever it wants (no "MYSQL_HISTFILE=/dev/null" in .profile).
Just a little addition to that: I'll try my luck with a 2 MB RAM disk instead of /dev/null just for the mysql history file now: $ grep mfs /etc/fstab swap /mfs mfs rw,nodev,nosuid,-s=4386 0 0 $ df -h /mfs Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on mfs:22758 2.0M 1.0K 1.9M 0% /mfs and $ grep MYSQL .profile MYSQL_HISTFILE=/mfs/.mysql_history export MYSQL_HISTFILE I had the RAM disk created already anyway. Tas.
