MySQL is configured through the my.cnf configuration file, which typically resides in /etc. There are dozens of configuration settings that can be added to this file, and you can view the full list by running mysqld with the “–help” and “–verbose” options:
$ /usr/libexec/mysqld --help --verbose | grep -i ^relay
relay-log slave-relay-bin.index
relay-log-index slave-relay-bin
relay-log-info-file relay-log.info
relay_log_purge TRUE
relay_log_space_limit 0
The configuration directive will be printed on the left, and the current value of the directive will be displayed on the right. When I get a “how do I do X” thought I typically will cross reference directives with the official documentation to see how to configure the server to do what I need it to. It’s also just plain useful to know what you can do with the server.