When upgrading to MySQL 3.23.49 or higher, many people did encounter a problem when using "LOAD DATA LOCAL" with MySQL and PHP. This was caused because MySQL authors did alter some configuration of MySQL. Starting with MySQL 3.23.49 there is another option ("local-infile") which has to be passed to the MySQL server and clients in order to have LOAD DATA LOCAL to work again.

The problem: Passing this ("local-infile[=1]") does not affect PHP. Many people still have problems to get LOAD DATA LOCAL to work.

Background: If you have passed the parameter to MySQL (in my.cnf or via the startup script) and the command LOAD DATA LOCAL still leads to "...command not allowed..." then your PHP was not compiled correctly.

When compiling PHP with "--enable-safe-mode" the problem still occurs independent on what your MySQL server settings or what php.ini says (attentions: even if you deactivate safe mode in php.ini the error is there).

The solutions: The only way to solve the problem is not to use "--enable-safe-mode" when configuring PHP and then set it manually in php.ini. Then LOAD DATA LOCAL works again.