OK, now I understand. I had to install strace.
I ran: strace /usr/sbin/mysqld
I hope there's not another mysqld somewhere else.
The return was 866 lines total. You can see that here:
https://softlinksys.com/strace-mysqld.txt
Here are all the files in my /etc/mysql folder:
https://softlinksys.com/mysql/my.cnf
https://softlinksys.com/mysql/my.cnf.fallback
https://softlinksys.com/mysql/mysql.cnf
https://softlinksys.com/mysql/mariadb.cnf
https://softlinksys.com/mysql/conf.d/mysql.cnf
https://softlinksys.com/mysql/mysql.conf.d/default-auth-override.cnf
https://softlinksys.com/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf
I think what you're looking for is this:
----------------
stat("/etc/my.cnf", 0x7ffd3ce2b980) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/etc/mysql/my.cnf", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=1234, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/mysql/my.cnf", O_RDONLY) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=1234, ...}) = 0
read(3, "# The MariaDB configuration file"..., 4096) = 1234
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/mysql/conf.d/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 4
fstat(4, {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
brk(0x55b7a7c9e000) = 0x55b7a7c9e000
getdents64(4, 0x55b7a7c75c60 /* 3 entries */, 32768) = 80
getdents64(4, 0x55b7a7c75c60 /* 0 entries */, 32768) = 0
close(4) = 0
stat("/etc/mysql/conf.d/mysql.cnf", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=1273, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/mysql/conf.d/mysql.cnf", O_RDONLY) = 4
fstat(4, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=1273, ...}) = 0
read(4, "# Copyright (c) 2015, 2021, Orac"..., 4096) = 1273
read(4, "", 4096) = 0
close(4) = 0
brk(0x55b7a7c96000) = 0x55b7a7c96000
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 4
fstat(4, {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
getdents64(4, 0x55b7a7c75c60 /* 2 entries */, 32768) = 48
getdents64(4, 0x55b7a7c75c60 /* 0 entries */, 32768) = 0
close(4) = 0
read(3, "", 4096) = 0
close(3) = 0
brk(0x55b7a7c95000) = 0x55b7a7c95000
stat("/root/.my.cnf", 0x7ffd3ce2b980) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
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It's showing the config files that I indicated.