unable to start mysql server. Error preceding group in config

Question

so i've been trying for a good 2-3 hours now to fix several issues when it came to installing mysql. Now, i'm currently stuck on this one:

when typing: mysql.server restart

this prints out in the terminal:

my_print_defaults: [ERROR] Found option without preceding group in config file /etc/my.cnf at line 1!
my_print_defaults: [ERROR] Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted!
my_print_defaults: [ERROR] Found option without preceding group in config file /etc/my.cnf at line 1!
my_print_defaults: [ERROR] Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted!
 ERROR! MySQL server PID file could not be found!
my_print_defaults: [ERROR] Found option without preceding group in config file /etc/my.cnf at line 1!
my_print_defaults: [ERROR] Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted!
Starting MySQL
. ERROR! The server quit without updating PID file (/usr/local/var/mysql/MacBook.local.pid).

my my.cnf file contains the following: (and is located in ~/etc)

[mysqld_safe]
 [mysqld]
 [client]
port        = 3306
skip-external-locking
bind-address        = 127.0.0.1
key_buffer          = 16M
max_allowed_packet  = 16M
thread_stack        = 192K
thread_cache_size   = 8
myisam-recover         = BACKUP
query_cache_limit   = 1M
query_cache_size    = 16M
log_error                = /var/log/mysql/error.log
expire_logs_days    = 10
max_binlog_size     = 100M
query-cache-type = 1
default-storage-engine=innodb 
[mysqldump]
quick
quote-names
max_allowed_packet  = 16M
 
[mysql]
[isamchk]
key_buffer      = 16M

any help is much appreciated.

Related http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8020297/mysql-my-cnf-file-found-option-without-preceding-group — Barmar, Nov 18 '15 at 16:36
Google for the error message, you'll find a number of threads in many different forums. Probably your problem is the same as one of them. — Barmar, Nov 18 '15 at 16:37
The error message says the location of the file is `/etc`, not `~/etc`. Are you sure you're looking at the correct file? — Barmar, Nov 18 '15 at 16:42

Joel · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-14T15:20:25.647

0

Pasting the code that was in my.cfn and using sublime text 2 to save it did the trick...

edited Nov 14 '17 at 15:20

answered Nov 18 '15 at 17:16

Joel

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You probably had some invisible characters in the file, as indicated in the question I linked to in the comment. – Barmar Nov 18 '15 at 18:08

unable to start mysql server. Error preceding group in config

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