Provided by: mysql-utilities_1.6.4-1_all 
NAME
mysqldiff - Identify Differences Among Database Objects
SYNOPSIS
mysqldiff [options] {db1[:db1] | {db1.obj1[:db2.obj2]} ...
DESCRIPTION
This utility reads the definitions of objects and compares them using a diff-like method to determine
whether they are the same. The utility displays the differences for objects that are not the same.
Use the notation db1:db2 to name two databases to compare, or, alternatively just db1 to compare two
databases with the same name. The latter case is a convenience notation for comparing same-named
databases on different servers.
The comparison may be executed against two databases of different names on a single server by specifying
only the --server1 option. The user can also connect to another server by specifying the --server2
option. In this case, db1 is taken from server1 and db2 from server2.
When a database pair is specified, all objects in one database are compared to the corresponding objects
in the other. Objects not appearing in either database produce an error.
To compare a specific pair of objects, add an object name to each database name using the db.obj format.
For example, use the db1.obj1:db2.obj2 format to compare two named objects, or db1.obj1 to compare an
object with the same name in databases with the same name. It is not permitted to mix a database name
with an object name. For example, db1.obj1:db2 and db1:db2.obj2 are illegal formats.
The comparison may be run against a single server for comparing two databases of different names on the
same server by specifying only the --server1 option. Alternatively, you can also connect to another
server by specifying the --server2 option. In this case, the first object to compare is taken from
server1 and the second from server2.
By default, the utility generates object differences as a difference report. However, you can generate a
transformation report containing SQL statements for transforming the objects for conformity instead. Use
the 'sql' value for the --difftype option to produce a listing that contains the appropriate ALTER
commands to conform the object definitions for the object pairs specified. If a transformation cannot be
formed, the utility reports the diff of the object along with a warning statement. See important
limitations in the NOTES section.
To specify how to display the diff styled output, use one of the following values with the --difftype
option:
• unified (default)
Display unified format output.
• context
Display context format output.
• differ
Display differ-style format output.
• sql
Display SQL transformation statement output.
The --changes-for option controls the direction of the difference (by specifying the object to be
transformed) in either the difference report (default) or the transformation report (designated with the
--difftype=sql option). Consider the following command:
shell> mysqldiff --server1=root@host1 --server2=root@host2 --difftype=sql \
db1.table1:dbx.table3
The leftmost database (db1) exists on the server designated by the --server1 option (host1). The
rightmost database (dbx) exists on the server designated by the --server2 option (host2).
• --changes-for=server1: Produces output that shows how to make the definitions of objects on server1
like the definitions of the corresponding objects on server2.
• --changes-for=server2: Produces output that shows how to make the definitions of objects on server2
like the definitions of the corresponding objects on server1.
The default direction is server1.
For the sql difference format, you can also see the reverse transformation by specifying the
--show-reverse option.
The utility stops at the first occurrence of missing objects or when an object does not match. To
override this behavior, specify the --force option to cause the utility to attempt to compare all objects
listed as arguments. OPTIONS.PP mysqldiff accepts the following command-line options:
• --help
Display a help message and exit.
• --license
Display license information and exit.
• --changes-for=<direction>
Specify the server to show transformations to match the other server. For example, to see the
transformation for transforming object definitions on server1 to match the corresponding definitions
on server2, use --changes-for=server1. Permitted values are server1 and server2. The default is
server1.
• --character-set=<charset>
Sets the client character set. The default is retrieved from the server variable
character_set_client.
• --difftype=<difftype>, -d<difftype>
Specify the difference display format. Permitted format values are unified (default), context,
differ, and sql.
• --compact
Compacts the output by reducing the control lines that are displayed in the diff results. This option
should be used together with one of the following difference types: unified or context.
• --force
Do not halt at the first difference found. Process all objects to find all differences.
• --quiet, -q
Do not print anything. Return only an exit code of success or failure.
• --server1=<source>
Connection information for the first server.
To connect to a server, it is necessary to specify connection parameters such as the user name, host
name, password, and either a port or socket. MySQL Utilities provides a number of ways to supply this
information. All of the methods require specifying your choice via a command-line option such as
--server, --master, --slave, etc. The methods include the following in order of most secure to least
secure.
• Use login-paths from your .mylogin.cnf file (encrypted, not visible). Example :
<login-path>[:<port>][:<socket>]
• Use a configuration file (unencrypted, not visible) Note: available in release-1.5.0. Example :
<configuration-file-path>[:<section>]
• Specify the data on the command-line (unencrypted, visible). Example :
<user>[:<passwd>]@<host>[:<port>][:<socket>]
• --server2=<source>
Connection information for the second server.
To connect to a server, it is necessary to specify connection parameters such as the user name, host
name, password, and either a port or socket. MySQL Utilities provides a number of ways to supply this
information. All of the methods require specifying your choice via a command-line option such as
--server, --master, --slave, etc. The methods include the following in order of most secure to least
secure.
• Use login-paths from your .mylogin.cnf file (encrypted, not visible). Example :
<login-path>[:<port>][:<socket>]
• Use a configuration file (unencrypted, not visible) Note: available in release-1.5.0. Example :
<configuration-file-path>[:<section>]
• Specify the data on the command-line (unencrypted, visible). Example :
<user>[:<passwd>]@<host>[:<port>][:<socket>]
• --show-reverse
Produce a transformation report containing the SQL statements to conform the object definitions
specified in reverse. For example, if --changes-for is set to server1, also generate the
transformation for server2.
Note
The reverse changes are annotated and marked as comments.
• --skip-table-options
Ignore the differences between all table options, such as AUTO_INCREMENT, ENGINE, CHARSET, etc.). A
warning is issued if the --skip-table-options option is used and table option differences are found.
• --ssl-ca
The path to a file that contains a list of trusted SSL CAs.
• --ssl-cert
The name of the SSL certificate file to use for establishing a secure connection.
• --ssl-cert
The name of the SSL key file to use for establishing a secure connection.
• --ssl
Specifies if the server connection requires use of SSL. If an encrypted connection cannot be
established, the connection attempt fails. Default setting is 0 (SSL not required).
• --verbose, -v
Specify how much information to display. Use this option multiple times to increase the amount of
information. For example, -v = verbose, -vv = more verbose, -vvv = debug.
• --version
Display version information and exit.
• --width=<number>
Change the display width of the test report. The default is 75 characters.
SQL TRANSFORMATION LIMITATIONS.PP The SQL transformation feature has these known limitations:
• When tables with partition differences are encountered, the utility generates the ALTER TABLE
statement for all other changes but prints a warning and omits the partition differences.
• If the transformation detects table options in the source table (specified with the --changes-for
option) that are not changed or do not exist in the target table, the utility generates the ALTER
TABLE statement for all other changes but prints a warning and omits the table option differences.
• Rename for events is not supported. This is because mysqldiff compares objects by name. In this case,
depending on the direction of the diff, the event is identified as needing to be added or a DROP
EVENT statement is generated.
• Changes in the definer clause for events are not supported.
• SQL extensions specific to MySQL Cluster are not supported.
NOTES.PP You must provide connection parameters (user, host, password, and so forth) for an account that
has the appropriate privileges to access all objects to be compared.
For the --difftype option, the permitted values are not case sensitive. In addition, values may be
specified as any unambiguous prefix of a valid value. For example, --difftype=d specifies the differ
type. An error occurs if a prefix matches more than one valid value.
The path to the MySQL client tools should be included in the PATH environment variable in order to use
the authentication mechanism with login-paths. This will allow the utility to use the my_print_defaults
tools which is required to read the login-path values from the login configuration file (.mylogin.cnf).
If any database object identifier specified as an argument contains special characters or is a reserved
word, then it must be appropriately quoted with backticks (`). In turn, names quoted with backticks must
also be quoted with single or double quotes depending on the operating system, i.e. (") in Windows or (')
in non-Windows systems, in order for the utilities to read backtick quoted identifiers as a single
argument. For example, to show the difference between table weird`table1 from database weird`db.name and
table weird`table2 from database other:weird`db.name, the objects pair must be specified using the
following syntax (in non-Windows):
'`weird``db.name`.`weird``table1`:`other:weird``db.name`.`weird``table2`'. EXAMPLES.PP To compare the
employees and emp databases on the local server, use this command:
shell> mysqldiff --server1=root@localhost employees:emp1
# server1 on localhost: ... connected.
WARNING: Objects in server1:employees but not in server2:emp1:
EVENT: e1
Compare failed. One or more differences found.
shell> mysqldiff --server1=root@localhost \
employees.t1:emp1.t1 employees.t3:emp1.t3
# server1 on localhost: ... connected.
# Comparing employees.t1 to emp1.t1 [PASS]
# server1 on localhost: ... connected.
# Comparing employees.t3 to emp1.t3 [PASS]
Success. All objects are the same.
shell> mysqldiff --server1=root@localhost \
employees.salaries:emp1.salaries --differ
# server1 on localhost: ... connected.
# Comparing employees.salaries to emp1.salaries [FAIL]
# Object definitions are not the same:
CREATE TABLE `salaries` (
`emp_no` int(11) NOT NULL,
`salary` int(11) NOT NULL,
`from_date` date NOT NULL,
`to_date` date NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`emp_no`,`from_date`),
KEY `emp_no` (`emp_no`)
- ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
? ^^^^^
+ ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
? ++ ^^^
Compare failed. One or more differences found.
The following examples show how to generate a transformation report. Assume the following object
definitions:
Host1:
CREATE TABLE db1.table1 (num int, misc char(30));
Host2:
CREATE TABLE dbx.table3 (num int, notes char(30), misc char(55));
To generate a set of SQL statements that transform the definition of db1.table1 to dbx.table3, use this
command:
shell> mysqldiff --server1=root@host1 --server2=root@host2 \
--changes-for=server1 --difftype=sql \
db1.table1:dbx.table3
# server1 on host1: ... connected.
# server2 on host2: ... connected.
# Comparing db1.table1 to dbx.table3 [FAIL]
# Transformation statements:
ALTER TABLE db1.table1
ADD COLUMN notes char(30) AFTER a,
CHANGE COLUMN misc misc char(55);
Compare failed. One or more differences found.
To generate a set of SQL statements that transform the definition of dbx.table3 to db1.table1, use this
command:
shell> mysqldiff --server1=root@host1 --server2=root@host2 \
--changes-for=server2 --difftype=sql \
db1.table1:dbx.table3
# server1 on host1: ... connected.
# server2 on host2: ... connected.
# Comparing db1.table1 to dbx.table3 [FAIL]
# Transformation statements:
ALTER TABLE dbx.table3
DROP COLUMN notes,
CHANGE COLUMN misc misc char(30);
Compare failed. One or more differences found.
To generate a set of SQL statements that transform the definitions of dbx.table3 and db1.table1 in both
directions, use this command:
shell> mysqldiff --server1=root@host1 --server2=root@host2 \
--show-reverse --difftype=sql \
db1.table1:dbx.table3
# server1 on host1: ... connected.
# server2 on host2: ... connected.
# Comparing db1.table1 to dbx.table3 [FAIL]
# Transformation statements:
# --destination=server1:
ALTER TABLE db1.table1
ADD COLUMN notes char(30) AFTER a,
CHANGE COLUMN misc misc char(55);
# --destination=server2:
# ALTER TABLE dbx.table3
# DROP COLUMN notes,
# CHANGE COLUMN misc misc char(30);
Compare failed. One or more differences found.
PERMISSIONS REQUIRED.PP The user must have SELECT privileges for both objects on both servers as well as
SELECT on the mysql database.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2006, 2016, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
This documentation is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it only under the terms of the
GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.
This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without
even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with the program; if not, write
to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA or see
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
SEE ALSO
For more information, please refer to the MySQL Utilities and Fabric documentation, which is available
online at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/index-utils-fabric.html
AUTHOR
Oracle Corporation (http://dev.mysql.com/).