How do I disable MySQL on Linux from starting on boot or statup?

Question

After adding MySQL to Ubuntu, it automatically starts up on server boot. I would like it to not start up with the system.

How can I disable it and manually start it?

Answer 1

MariaDB use systemd as does MySQL. To disable MySQL or MariaDB, from starting on bootup, run

systemctl list-unit-files '*mariadb*' '*mysql*'

If you see mysql.service, try disabling that one first.

sudo systemctl disable mysql

Now you can start and stop MySQL with

sudo systemctl stop mysql.service
sudo systemctl start mysql.service

Answer 2

In Ubuntu 18.04, sudo systemctl disable mysql will prevent mysql-server from autostarting on boot.

For linux, there are 3 main init systems: Systemd, Upstart and SysV. Although nearly all Linux systems run on Systemd. The other two init systems might also co-exist in your system.

For Systemd, use command sudo systemctl disable mysql;
For Upstart, use echo manual >> /etc/init/mysql.override;
For SysV, run the following command sudo update-rc.d mysql disable

If you'd like to find which init system is running on your server, please read this answer.