my.cnf
[client]
default-character-set=utf8
[mysqld]
character_set_server=utf8 (5.6版本为这个格式，5.5以前的版本据说是另外的格式)
mysql> show variables like ‘coll%‘;
+----------------------+-----------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+----------------------+-----------------+
| collation_connection | utf8_general_ci |
| collation_database | utf8_general_ci |
| collation_server | utf8_general_ci |
+----------------------+-----------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> show variables like ‘character%‘;
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| character_set_client | utf8 |
| character_set_connection | utf8 |
| character_set_database | utf8 |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results | utf8 |
| character_set_server | utf8 |
| character_set_system | utf8 |
| character_sets_dir | /usr/share/mysql/charsets/ |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
8 rows in set (0.00 sec)
已经生成的表，需要改字符集
alter table tname CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET UTF8;
原文：http://gxblue.blog.51cto.com/11326567/1771203