> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://mariadb.com/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/starting-and-stopping-mariadb-automatically.md).

# Starting and Stopping Overview

There are several different methods to start or stop the MariaDB Server process. There are two primary categories that most of these methods fall into: starting the process with the help of a service manager, and starting the process manually.

## Service Managers

[sysVinit](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/sysvinit.md) and [systemd](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/systemd.md) are the most common Linux service managers. [launchd](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/launchd.md) is used in MacOS X. [Upstart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstart_\(software\)) is a less common service manager.

### Systemd

RHEL/CentOS 7 and above, Debian 8 Jessie and above, and Ubuntu 15.04 and above use [systemd](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/systemd.md) by default.

For information on how to start and stop MariaDB with this service manager, see [systemd: Interacting with the MariaDB Server Process](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/systemd/starting.md#interacting-with-the-mariadb-server-process).

### SysVinit

RHEL/CentOS 6 and below, and Debian 7 Wheezy and below use [sysVinit](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/sysvinit.md) by default.

For information on how to start and stop MariaDB with this service manager, see [sysVinit: Interacting with the MariaDB Server Process](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/sysvinit.md#interacting-with-the-mariadb-server-process).

### launchd

[launchd](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/launchd.md) is used in MacOS X.

### Upstart

Ubuntu 14.10 and below use Upstart by default.

## Starting the Server Process Manually

### mariadbd

[mariadbd](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/mariadbd-options.md) is the actual MariaDB Server binary. It can be started manually on its own.

### mariadbd-safe

[mariadbd-safe](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/mariadbd-safe.md) is a wrapper that can be used to start the [mariadbd](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/mariadbd-options.md) server process. The script has some built-in safeguards, such as automatically restarting the server process if it dies. See [mariadbd-safe](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/mariadbd-safe.md) for more information.

### mariadbd-multi

[mariadbd-multi](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/mariadbd-multi.md) is a wrapper that can be used to start the [mariadbd](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/mariadbd-options.md) server process if you plan to run multiple server processes on the same host. See [mariadbd-multi](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/mariadbd-multi.md) for more information.

### mysql.server

[mysql.server](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/mysql-server.md) is a wrapper that works as a standard [sysVinit](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/sysvinit.md) script. However, it can be used independently of [sysVinit](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/sysvinit.md) as a regular `sh` script. The script starts the [mariadbd](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/mariadbd-options.md) server process by first changing its current working directory to the MariaDB install directory and then starting [mariadbd-safe](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/mariadbd-safe.md). The script requires the standard [sysVinit](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/sysvinit.md) arguments, such as `start`, `stop`, and `status`. See [mysql.server](/docs/server/server-management/starting-and-stopping-mariadb/mysql-server.md) for more information.

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