title: XAMPP MySQL - Setting ft_min_word_len
body: <p>I have XAMPP installed on my computer, and am using MySQL through it on localhost for a personal project.</p>
  
  <p>I am trying to set the ft_min_word_len variable for fulltext searches in boolean mode to 2 from the default of 4.</p>
  
  <p>I've tried (after stopping MySQL from the XAMPP control panel):</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>Opening Shell from the XAMPP control panel, and typing at the prompt:<br />
  <strong>mysqld ft_min_word_len=2</strong><br />
  This doesn't appear to have any effect on ft_min_word_len when I check its value afterwards with <strong>mysqld --help --verbose</strong> (I get an error when I try to use <strong>mysqladmin variables</strong> at the prompt).</p></li>
  <li><p>Creating a my.cnf file in XAMPP\mysql\bin with this text:<br />
  <strong># The MySQL server<br />
  [mysqld]<br />
  ft_min_word_len=2<br /></strong>
  This does appear to change the value of ft_min_word_len when I check its value with <strong>mysqld --help --verbose</strong>.<br />However, when I start MySQL again from XAMPP's control panel, and then check the value of ft_min_word_len through PHPMyAdmin with <strong>SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'ft_min_word_len'</strong>, it is still 4, both before and after I rebuild the fulltext indexes.</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I've tried each approach multiple times, in between stopping and starting MySQL.  <strong>SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'ft_min_word_len'</strong> did show a value of 2 once, but the next time I stopped and restarted MySQL, the value had returned to 4, and I have been unable to set it to 2 again.</p>
  
  <p>Any pointers in the right direction would be appreciated.</p>