Enable LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE in MySQL

Problem:

How to enable LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE in the MySQL configuration file (my.cnf) for MySQL 5.5 on Ubuntu 12 LTS.

Solution:

To enable LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE, you need to add the following option to the [mysql] section of your my.cnf file:

local-infile=1

Alternatively, you can call the MySQL client with the --local-infile option:

mysql --local-infile -uroot -pyourpwd yourdbname

You can also set the global variable at runtime with the following query:

SET GLOBAL local_infile=ON;

Additional Note:

Ensure that the local-infile parameter is also defined in the [mysqld] section of the my.cnf file to enable the "local infile" feature server-side. This restriction is in place for security reasons.