Controls how often the MySQL server synchronizes the binary log to disk.

sync_binlog=0: Disables synchronization of the binary log to disk by the MySQL server. Instead, the MySQL server relies on the operating system to flush the binary log to disk from time to time as it does for any other file. This setting provides the best performance, but in the event of a power failure or operating system crash, it is possible that the server has committed transactions that have not been synchronized to the binary log.

sync_binlog=1: Enables synchronization of the binary log to disk before transactions are committed. This is the safest setting but can have a negative impact on performance due to the increased number of disk writes. In the event of a power failure or operating system crash, transactions that are missing from the binary log are only in a prepared state. This permits the automatic recovery routine to roll back the transactions, which guarantees that no transaction is lost from the binary log.

sync_binlog=N, where N is a value other than 0 or 1: The binary log is synchronized to disk after N binary log commit groups have been collected. In the event of a power failure or operating system crash, it is possible that the server has committed transactions that have not been flushed to the binary log. This setting can have a negative impact on performance due to the increased number of disk writes. A higher value improves performance, but with an increased risk of data loss.

For the greatest possible durability and consistency in a replication setup that uses InnoDB with transactions, use these settings:

sync_binlog=1.
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit=1.