error: Found option without preceding group in config file: /etc/my.cnf at line: 1

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error: Found option without preceding group in config file: /etc/my.cnf at line: 1

 #./scripts/mysql_install_db --user=mysql
error: Found option without preceding group in config file: /etc/my.cnf at line: 1
Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted
Installing MariaDB/MySQL system tables in './data' ...
error: Found option without preceding group in config file: /etc/my.cnf at line: 1
Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted
Installation of system tables failed!  Examine the logs in
./data for more information.
The problem could be conflicting information in an external
my.cnf files. You can ignore these by doing:
    shell> ./scripts/mysql_install_db --defaults-file=~/.my.cnf
You can also try to start the mysqld daemon with:
    shell> ./bin/mysqld --skip-grant-tables --general-log &
and use the command line tool ./bin/mysql
to connect to the mysql database and look at the grant tables:
    shell> ./bin/mysql -u root mysql
    mysql> show tables;
Try 'mysqld --help' if you have problems with paths.  Using
--general-log gives you a log in ./data that may be helpful.
The latest information about mysql_install_db is available at
https://mariadb.com/kb/en/installing-system-tables-mysql_install_db
You can find the latest source at https://downloads.mariadb.org and
the maria-discuss email list at https://launchpad.net/~maria-discuss
Please check all of the above before submitting a bug report
at http://mariadb.org/jira

Solution:

Correct /etc/my.cnf file. It should look like this

# cat /etc/my.cnf
[mysqld]
basedir=/var/lib/mariadb/mysql
datadir=/var/lib/mariadb
user=mysql