Anyone know why the MySql Client and MySql Server have different Default max_allowed_packet values?

Question

When looking at the MySql 5.5 basic installation, I noticed that the mysql client sets the default value for max_allowed_packet to be 16M while the server mysqld uses 1M as the default value. This seems like a bit of a mismatch to me and at best backwards. The client is using default settings that can easily trounce the server limit.

Does anyone know why this is the default setup? Was it intentional or just an overlooked setting that deviated as the products evolved?

Answer 1

The max_allowed_packet is a global variable, and you cannot set max_allowed_packet for session.

More information - max_allowed_packet