Moving MySQL's Data Directory on a New Install on Linux

It seems pretty simple on a new install. You can copy the files from /var/lib/mysql to the new location. If you want to initialize it from scratch:

1. set up the datadir variable in /etc/my.cnf under [mysqld] like so:

[mysqld]
datadir           = /my/path/to/data/directory



2. You'll need to run the mysql_install_db perl script as the mysql user like so:

su - mysql -c "mysql_install_db --datadir=/my/path/to/data/directory"

or, if you have sudo configured:

sudo -u mysql mysql_install_db --datadir=/my/path/to/data/directory


2b. If you're using selinux, copy the security contexts from /var/lib/mysql recursively like so:

chcon -R --reference=/var/lib/mysql /my/path/to/data/directory



3. Now, you should be able to start MySQL from init or using the service command (on Redhat based distributions)

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start

or 

sudo /sbin/service mysql start