This actually only happens on log rotation, not on simple flush with the log file(s) still in place.

When doing a log rotate by first renaming the log file, then calling FLUSH LOGS, the open() call by flush actually needs to re-create the log file under its own name, and that rightfully fails if the mysql user does not have write permission on the directory.

The problem though is that it just reports "Unknown error" instead of "Can't create logfile $path" plus the correct error code, e.g. "errno 13: permission denied"

How to reproduce:

cd $datadir

mv *.err old_error_log

chmod a-w .

mysql -e "FLUSH LOGS;"