# Be aware that this log type is a performance killer. I read this line from configuration file of MySQL, when trying to enable disabled-by-default general logging option for MySQL Server, in Linux. I decided to dig in deep and find out why? And what are the alternatives? Performance loss: If you enable MySQL logging, you'll notice instant drop in performance if you are dealing with large data, being manipulated by over a dozen connections. The primary reason for this is the IO operation after every database event; if the database repository and log files are on the same storage device, the performance reduces even more due to the simultaneous write operations (not to forget that write is more expensive than read). Secondarily, the size of the log file is from 4 to 20 times than actual data, depending on the architecture of data feeding application (you try this yourself). This is because the file contains not only the actual values present in the data, but also the qu...