Delete All Binary Logs for MySQL

Today I discovered that one of my servers mysteriously ran out of disk space.

I ran the following Linux command to find all the biggest files and folders on the server:

sudo du -a / | sort -n -r | head -n 100

... and found that it was the binary logs used for MySQL replication that were gobbling up all the disk space:

7375152	/
4691636	/var
4324880	/var/lib
4284952	/var/lib/mysql
1079420	/usr
1048588	/var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000004
1048584	/var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000006
1048584	/var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000003
802356	/var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000007

Now I first found some advise that using the PURGE BINARY LOGS should be the way to go. That is true if you want to delete the logs without hurting your ongoing MySQL replication.

However, I was just interested in deleting all the binary logs and the way to do that is by logging into your server with a user with SUPER privileges and executing the following command:

RESET SQL;

Now all those pesky 'mysql-bin.*' files should have disappeared!