LOAD DATA is considered unsafe for statement-based logging (see Section 17.2.1.3, “Determination of Safe and Unsafe Statements in Binary Logging”). When binlog_format=MIXED is set, the statement is logged in row-based format. When binlog_format=STATEMENT is set, note that LOAD DATA does not generate a warning, unlike other unsafe statements.

If you do use LOAD DATA when binlog_format=STATEMENT is set, a temporary file containing the data is created on the replica where the changes are applied. The replica then uses a LOAD DATA INFILE statement to apply the changes. If binary log encryption is active on the server, note that this temporary file is not encrypted. When encryption is required, be sure to use row-based or mixed binary logging format instead, which do not create the temporary files.

If a PRIVILEGE_CHECKS_USER account has been used to help secure the replication channel (see Section 17.3.3, “Replication Privilege Checks”), it is strongly recommended that you log LOAD DATA operations using row-based binary logging (binlog_format=ROW). If REQUIRE_ROW_FORMAT is set for the channel, row-based binary logging is required. With this logging format, the FILE privilege is not needed to execute the event, so do not give the PRIVILEGE_CHECKS_USER account this privilege. If you need to recover from a replication error involving a LOAD DATA INFILE operation logged in statement format, and the replicated event is trusted, you could grant the FILE privilege to the PRIVILEGE_CHECKS_USER account temporarily, removing it after the replicated event has been applied.

When mysqlbinlog reads log events for LOAD DATA statements logged in statement-based format, a generated local file is created in a temporary directory. These temporary files are not automatically removed by mysqlbinlog or any other MySQL program. If you do use LOAD DATA statements with statement-based binary logging, you should delete the temporary files yourself after you no longer need the statement log. For more information, see Section 4.6.8, “mysqlbinlog — Utility for Processing Binary Log Files”.