mysql(1) - Linux man page

Name

mysql - the MySQL command-line tool

Synopsis

mysql [options] db_name

Description

mysql is a simple SQL shell (with GNU readline capabilities). It supports interactive and non-interactive use. When used interactively, query results are presented in an ASCII-table format. When used non-interactively (for example, as a filter), the result is presented in tab-separated format. The output format can be changed using command options.

If you have problems due to insufficient memory for large result sets, use the --quick option. This forces mysql to retrieve results from the server a row at a time rather than retrieving the entire result set and buffering it in memory before displaying it. This is done by returning the result set using the mysql_use_result() C API function in the client/server library rather than mysql_store_result().

Using mysql is very easy. Invoke it from the prompt of your command interpreter as follows: 

shell> mysql db_name
Or: 
shell> mysql --user=user_name --password=your_password db_name
Then type an SQL statement, end it with oq;cq, \g, or \G and press Enter.

You can execute SQL statements in a script file (batch file) like this: 

shell> mysql db_name < script.sql > output.tab

\fbmysql\fr Options

mysql supports the following options:

You can also set the following variables by using --var_name=value syntax:

It is also possible to set variables by using --set-variable=var_name=value or -O var_name=value syntax. This syntax is deprecated.

On Unix, the mysql client writes a record of executed statements to a history file. By default, the history file is named .mysql_history and is created in your home directory. To specify a different file, set the value of the MYSQL_HISTFILE environment variable.

If you do not want to maintain a history file, first remove .mysql_history if it exists, and then use either of the following techniques:

\fbmysql\fr Commands

mysql sends each SQL statement that you issue to the server to be executed. There is also a set of commands that mysql itself interprets. For a list of these commands, type help or \h at the mysql> prompt: 

mysql> help
List of all MySQL commands:
Note that all text commands must be first on line and end with ';'
?         (\?) Synonym for 'help'.
clear     (\c) Clear command.
connect   (\r) Reconnect to the server. Optional arguments are db and host.
delimiter (\d) Set statement delimiter. NOTE: Takes the rest of the line
as
               new delimiter.
edit      (\e) Edit command with $EDITOR.
ego       (\G) Send command to mysql server, display result vertically.
exit      (\q) Exit mysql. Same as quit.
go        (\g) Send command to mysql server.
help      (\h) Display this help.
nopager   (\n) Disable pager, print to stdout.
notee     (\t) Don't write into outfile.
pager     (\P) Set PAGER [to_pager]. Print the query results via PAGER.
print     (\p) Print current command.
prompt    (\R) Change your mysql prompt.
quit      (\q) Quit mysql.
rehash    (\#) Rebuild completion hash.
source    (\.) Execute an SQL script file. Takes a file name as an argument.
status    (\s) Get status information from the server.
system    (\!) Execute a system shell command.
tee       (\T) Set outfile [to_outfile]. Append everything into given
               outfile.
use       (\u) Use another database. Takes database name as argument.
charset   (\C) Switch to another charset. Might be needed for processing
binlog with multi-byte charsets.
warnings  (\W) Show warnings after every statement.
nowarning (\w) Don't show warnings after every statement.
Each command has both a long and short form. The long form is not case sensitive; the short form is. The long form can be followed by an optional semicolon terminator, but the short form should not.

In the delimiter command, you should avoid the use of the backslash (oq\cq) character because that is the escape character for MySQL.

The edit, nopager, pager, and system commands work only in Unix.

The status command provides some information about the connection and the server you are using. If you are running in --safe-updates mode, status also prints the values for the mysql variables that affect your queries.

To log queries and their output, use the tee command. All the data displayed on the screen is appended into a given file. This can be very useful for debugging purposes also. You can enable this feature on the command line with the --tee option, or interactively with the tee command. The tee file can be disabled interactively with the notee command. Executing tee again re-enables logging. Without a parameter, the previous file is used. Note that tee flushes query results to the file after each statement, just before mysql prints its next prompt.

By using the --pager option, it is possible to browse or search query results in interactive mode with Unix programs such as less, more, or any other similar program. If you specify no value for the option, mysql checks the value of the PAGER environment variable and sets the pager to that. Output paging can be enabled interactively with the pager command and disabled with nopager. The command takes an optional argument; if given, the paging program is set to that. With no argument, the pager is set to the pager that was set on the command line, or stdout if no pager was specified.

Output paging works only in Unix because it uses the popen() function, which does not exist on Windows. For Windows, the tee option can be used instead to save query output, although this is not as convenient as pager for browsing output in some situations.

Here are a few tips about the pager command:

You can also combine the tee and pager functions. Have a tee file enabled and pager set to less, and you are able to browse the results using the less program and still have everything appended into a file the same time. The difference between the Unix tee used with the pager command and the mysql built-in tee command is that the built-in tee works even if you do not have the Unix tee available. The built-in tee also logs everything that is printed on the screen, whereas the Unix tee used with pager does not log quite that much. Additionally, tee file logging can be turned on and off interactively from within mysql. This is useful when you want to log some queries to a file, but not others.

The default mysql> prompt can be reconfigured. The string for defining the prompt can contain the following special sequences: OptionDescription\vThe server version\dThe default database\hThe server host\pThe current TCP/IP port or socket file\uYour username\UYour full user_name@host_name
account name\\A literal oq\cq backslash character\nA newline character\tA tab character\ A space (a space follows the backslash)\_A space\RThe current time, in 24-hour military time (0-23)\rThe current time, standard 12-hour time (1-12)\mMinutes of the current time\yThe current year, two digits\YThe current year, four digits\DThe full current date\sSeconds of the current time\wThe current day of the week in three-letter format (Mon, Tue, ...)\Pam/pm\oThe current month in numeric format\OThe current month in three-letter format (Jan, Feb, ...)\cA counter that increments for each statement you issue\SSemicolon\'Single quote\"Double quote.PP
oq\cq followed by any other letter just becomes that letter.

If you specify the prompt command with no argument, mysql resets the prompt to the default of mysql>.

You can set the prompt in several ways:

Executing Sql Statements from a Text File

The mysql client typically is used interactively, like this: 

shell> mysql db_name
However, it is also possible to put your SQL statements in a file and then tell mysql to read its input from that file. To do so, create a text file text_file that contains the statements you wish to execute. Then invoke mysql as shown here: 
shell> mysql db_name < text_file
If you place a USE db_name statement as the first statement in the file, it is unnecessary to specify the database name on the command line: 
shell> mysql < text_file
If you are already running mysql, you can execute an SQL script file using the source or \. command: 
mysql> source file_name
mysql> \. file_name
Sometimes you may want your script to display progress information to the user. For this you can insert statements like this: 
SELECT '<info_to_display>' AS ' ';
The statement shown outputs <info_to_display>.

For more information about batch mode, see Section 5, lqUsing mysql in Batch Moderq.

\fbmysql\fr Tips

This section describes some techniques that can help you use mysql more effectively.

Displaying Query Results Vertically

Some query results are much more readable when displayed vertically, instead of in the usual horizontal table format. Queries can be displayed vertically by terminating the query with \G instead of a semicolon. For example, longer text values that include newlines often are much easier to read with vertical output: 

mysql> SELECT * FROM mails WHERE LENGTH(txt) < 300 LIMIT 300,1\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
  msg_nro: 3068
     date: 2000-03-01 23:29:50
time_zone: +0200
mail_from: Monty
    reply: monty@no.spam.com
  mail_to: "Thimble Smith" <tim@no.spam.com>
      sbj: UTF-8
      txt: >>>>> "Thimble" == Thimble Smith writes:
Thimble> Hi.  I think this is a good idea.  Is anyone familiar
Thimble> with UTF-8 or Unicode? Otherwise, I'll put this on my
Thimble> TODO list and see what happens.
Yes, please do that.
Regards,
Monty
     file: inbox-jani-1
     hash: 190402944
1 row in set (0.09 sec)

Using the --safe-updates Option

For beginners, a useful startup option is --safe-updates (or --i-am-a-dummy, which has the same effect). It is helpful for cases when you might have issued a DELETE FROM tbl_name statement but forgotten the WHERE clause. Normally, such a statement deletes all rows from the table. With --safe-updates, you can delete rows only by specifying the key values that identify them. This helps prevent accidents.

When you use the --safe-updates option, mysql issues the following statement when it connects to the MySQL server: 

SET SQL_SAFE_UPDATES=1,SQL_SELECT_LIMIT=1000, SQL_MAX_JOIN_SIZE=1000000;
See Section 5.3, lqSET Syntaxrq.

The SET statement has the following effects:

To specify limits different from 1,000 and 1,000,000, you can override the defaults by using the --select_limit and --max_join_size options: 

shell> mysql --safe-updates --select_limit=500 --max_join_size=10000

Disabling mysql Auto-Reconnect

If the mysql client loses its connection to the server while sending a query, it immediately and automatically tries to reconnect once to the server and send the query again. However, even if mysql succeeds in reconnecting, your first connection has ended and all your previous session objects and settings are lost: temporary tables, the autocommit mode, and user-defined and session variables. Also, any current transaction rolls back. This behavior may be dangerous for you, as in the following example where the server was shut down and restarted without you knowing it: 

mysql> SET @a=1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.05 sec)
mysql> INSERT INTO t VALUES(@a);
ERROR 2006: MySQL server has gone away
No connection. Trying to reconnect...
Connection id:    1
Current database: test
Query OK, 1 row affected (1.30 sec)
mysql> SELECT * FROM t;
+------+
| a    |
+------+
| NULL |
+------+
1 row in set (0.05 sec)
The @a user variable has been lost with the connection, and after the reconnection it is undefined. If it is important to have mysql terminate with an error if the connection has been lost, you can start the mysql client with the --skip-reconnect option.

See Also

msql2mysql(1), myisam_ftdump(1), myisamchk(1), myisamlog(1), myisampack(1), mysql.server(1), mysql_config(1), mysql_fix_privilege_tables(1), mysql_upgrade(1), mysql_zap(1), mysqlaccess(1), mysqladmin(1), mysqlbinlog(1), mysqlcheck(1), mysqld(1), mysqld_multi(1), mysqld_safe(1), mysqldump(1), mysqlhotcopy(1), mysqlimport(1), mysqlmanager(1), mysqlshow(1), perror(1), replace(1), safe_mysqld(1)

For more information, please refer to the MySQL Reference Manual, which may already be installed locally and which is also available online at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.

Author

MySQL AB (http://www.mysql.com/). This software comes with no warranty.

Referenced By

ezmlm-grant(1), ezmlm-mktab(1)