[SHELL]$ cd ~ [SHELL-home]$ emacs .my.cnf[mysqld] max_allowed_packet=32M[SHELL-home]$ mysql -u username -p password -h mysql-server mysql> show variables like 'max_allowed_packet%'; +--------------------+----------+ | Variable_name | Value | +--------------------+----------+ | max_allowed_packet | 33554432 | +--------------------+----------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)