Cómo setear variables globales en MySQL

Desde línea de comandos (consola linux)...

#>mysql -uroot -e "show variables like '%timeout';" -p

+----------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name              | Value |
+----------------------------+-------+
| connect_timeout            | 10    |
| delayed_insert_timeout     | 300   |
| innodb_lock_wait_timeout   | 50    |
| innodb_rollback_on_timeout | OFF   |
| interactive_timeout        | 28800 |
| net_read_timeout           | 30    |
| net_write_timeout          | 60    |
| slave_net_timeout          | 3600  |
| table_lock_wait_timeout    | 50    |
| wait_timeout               | 28800 |
+----------------------------+-------+ 

10 rows in set (0.00 sec)

#>mysql -uroot -e "SET GLOBAL net_read_timeout=600;" -p 

#>mysql -uroot -e "show variables like '%timeout';" -p

+----------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name              | Value |
+----------------------------+-------+
| connect_timeout            | 10    |
| delayed_insert_timeout     | 300   |
| innodb_lock_wait_timeout   | 50    |
| innodb_rollback_on_timeout | OFF   |
| interactive_timeout        | 28800 |
| net_read_timeout           | 600   |
| net_write_timeout          | 60    |
| slave_net_timeout          | 3600  |
| table_lock_wait_timeout    | 50    |
| wait_timeout               | 28800 |
+----------------------------+-------+ 
10 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Listo!
:-P