If I strace mysqlshow I see ... stat("/usr/local/etc/mariadb.DEFAULT/my.cnf", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=202, ...}) = 0 open("/usr/local/etc/mariadb.DEFAULT/my.cnf", O_RDONLY) = 3 fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=202, ...}) = 0 mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f1db94ec000 read(3, "#\n# This group is read both both"..., 4096) = 202 openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/my.cnf.d/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 4 getdents(4, /* 3 entries */, 32768) = 88 getdents(4, /* 0 entries */, 32768) = 0 close(4) = 0 stat("/etc/my.cnf.d/default_plugins.cnf", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0640, st_size=122, ...}) = 0 open("/etc/my.cnf.d/default_plugins.cnf", O_RDONLY) = 4 fstat(4, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0640, st_size=122, ...}) = 0 mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f1db94eb000 read(4, "[server]\n#plugin-load=blackhole="..., 4096) = 122 read(4, "", 4096) = 0 close(4) = 0 munmap(0x7f1db94eb000, 4096) = 0 read(3, "", 4096) = 0 close(3) = 0 munmap(0x7f1db94ec000, 4096) = 0 stat("/root/.my.cnf", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=8792, ...}) = 0 open("/root/.my.cnf", O_RDONLY) = 3 ... Notice, stat("/usr/local/etc/mariadb.DEFAULT/my.cnf", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=202, ...}) = 0 open("/usr/local/etc/mariadb.DEFAULT/my.cnf", O_RDONLY) = 3 then stat("/root/.my.cnf", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=8792, ...}) = 0 open("/root/.my.cnf", O_RDONLY) = 3 is searched. There's no indication at all that the specified dir (as noted in my prior post) -DDEFAULT_SYSCONFDIR=/usr/local/etc/mariadb \ is searched.