Enabling LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE in MySQL

Before we proceed further, below are the quick commands to find and enable local-infile.

In SQL CLI (command line interface), run the following

SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES LIKE 'local_infile';
SET GLOBAL local_infile = 'ON';
SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES LIKE 'local_infile';

It should print the results similar to the following

mysql> SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES LIKE 'local_infile';
 +---------------+-------+
 | Variable_name | Value |
 +---------------+-------+
 | local_infile  | OFF   |
 +---------------+-------+
 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
 mysql> SET GLOBAL local_infile = 'ON';
 Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.06 sec)
 mysql> SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES LIKE 'local_infile';
 +---------------+-------+
 | Variable_name | Value |
 +---------------+-------+
 | local_infile  | ON    |
 +---------------+-------+
 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
 mysql>

If it still says ‘OFF’, then look deep within the compiler settings to enable it.
If it sets to ‘ON’, you are OK.
Please note I did not say

SET GLOBAL local_infile = 1;

I said use

SET GLOBAL local_infile = 'ON';

If setting this in my.cnf

[mysqld]
 local_infile=ON

and restarting mysql does not work either, you will have to start up mysql with something like this:

echo "SET GLOBAL local_infile = 'ON';" > /var/lib/mysql/init_file.sql

chown mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql/init_file.sql

service mysql stop

service mysql start --init-file=/var/lib/mysql/init_file.sql

rm -f /var/lib/mysql/init_file.sql

or perhaps adding this to my.cnf

[mysqld]
 init-file=/var/lib/mysql/init_file.sql

then restart mysql
Cheers!!!