How to fix World-writable config file /etc/my.cnf is ignored?

You may get this error after trying to backup your mysql database using mysqldump command

warning: World-writable config file /etc/my.cnf is ignored

or sometime when yoy start  Xampp, you may see error like this:

Starting XAMPP for Linux …
XAMPP: Starting Apache with SSL (and PHP5)…
XAMPP: Starting MySQL…
XAMPP: Starting ProFTPD…
warning: World-writable config file /etc/my.cnf is ignored
warning: World-writable config file /etc/my.cnf is ignored
warning: World-writable config file /etc/my.cnf is ignored
XAMPP for Linux started.

This is  just a waring and can be ignored but here is the solution how to fix it

MySQL is deliberately ignoring your config file (my.cnf) as a safety precaution because the file can be over-written by a malicious user.

To see the file’s permissions, use the following command.To see the file’s permissions, use the following command.

ls -l /etc/my.cnf
in response, you will see:

-rw-r–r– 1 4998 Apr 2 2010 /etc/my.cnf

If the first part of the line looks like “-rw-rw-rw-” or “rwxrwxrwx”, the file’s permissions are “World-writable”.

To fix this problem, use the following command to change file’s permissions

chmod 644 /opt/lampp/etc/my.cnf

Note: if you looking for a way to backup your Mysql database via ssh and mysqldump, then please read my previous post about how to backup your online website and clone or sync it to local website