Hello,
Is this client running the server itself and planning to use it for replication? If not, I do not suggest enabling this option for any shared account, since the main point of bin logging is for replication purposes. It is not generalized logging for troubleshooting purposes.
Next, here's a good discussion on it on the MySQL 5.1 documentation area:
MySQL :: MySQL 5.1 Reference Manual :: 5.2.4 The Binary Log
Take note of this part:
Running a server with binary logging enabled makes performance slightly slower. However, the benefits of the binary log in enabling you to set up replication and for restore operations generally outweigh this minor performance decrement.
Given that caveat, you can enable it this way in /etc/my.cnf (not via command line):
For example, I added that to my machine using this:
Code:
log-bin=/var/lib/mysql/binlog
Then I restarted MySQL and it created these files in /var/lib/mysql:
Code:
binlog.000001
binlog.index
Each time the machine restarts, flushes the logs or reaches the max_binlog_size, it will increment a new binlog number (000001, 000002, etc.). If you want to have the log increment, simply set the max_binlog_size also in /etc/my.cnf file. I would suggest moving them by size rather than date stamp as you are suggesting, since size is a more meaningful value here.
Finally, since you haven't provided the MySQL version, so this is for MySQL 5.1. The 5.0 documentation and 4.1 documention pages can be reached by changing the number on the previously provided link to get details for those versions.