path of temporary file

Question

When I alter or repair a myisam table, it creates a temporary file in the same directory as of data directory. How do I make it use /tmp directory?

I do not have enough space on the partition where the data directory is located.

Update:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/temporary-files.html

The last line of this page reads: ALTER TABLE creates a temporary table in the same directory as the original table.

Repair table has an option but it does not work.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/myisamchk-repair-options.html#option_myisamchk_tmpdir

This seems to be a bug.

Answer 1

Usually mysql uses the TMPDIR environment variable or a system default.

See also the documentaion on temporary-files