Don't use syslog by default; user will have to request it explicitly with the --syslog option.

Use "sed -u" to get unbuffered output from sed, if it's supported.

Otherwise, don't use sed at all - don't strip the timestamp from mysqld messages.

Also, add new --syslog-tag=FOO option, which adds "-FOO" to the tag used when logging messages to syslog (i.e., mysqld-FOO or mysqld_safe-FOO)

Also, explicitly mention where log messages are going, so user can more easily find them.

Also, check if 'logger' is in the PATH, and log to the error log file if it can't be found.