Provided by: drizzle-client_7.2.3-2ubuntu2_amd64 
DRIZZLE(1) Drizzle Database System DRIZZLE(1)
NAME
drizzle - the Drizzle command-line tool
SYNOPSIS
drizzle [options] db_name
DESCRIPTION
drizzle 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 drizzle 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.
Using drizzle is very easy. Invoke it from the prompt of your command interpreter as follows:
shell> drizzle db_name
Or:
shell> drizzle --user=user_name --password=your_password db_name
Then type an SQL statement, end it with “;”, \g, or \G and press Enter.
Typing Control-C causes drizzle to attempt to kill the current statement. If this cannot be done, or
Control-C is typed again before the statement is killed, drizzle exits.
You can execute SQL statements in a script file (batch file) like this:
shell> drizzle db_name < script.sql > output.tab
DRIZZLE OPTIONS
drizzle supports the options in the following list.
• --help, -?
Display a help message and exit.
• --auto-rehash
Enable automatic rehashing. This option is on by default, which enables database, table, and column
name completion. Use --disable-auto-rehash to disable rehashing. That causes drizzle to start faster,
but you must issue the rehash command if you want to use name completion.
To complete a name, enter the first part and press Tab. If the name is unambiguous, drizzle completes
it. Otherwise, you can press Tab again to see the possible names that begin with what you have typed
so far. Completion does not occur if there is no default database.
• --auto-vertical-output
Causes result sets to be displayed vertically if they are too wide for the current window, and using
normal tabular format otherwise. (This applies to statements terminated by ; or \G.) This option was
added in Drizzle 6.0.4.
• --batch, -B
Print results using tab as the column separator, with each row on a new line. With this option,
drizzle does not use the history file.
Batch mode results in non-tabular output format and escaping of special characters. Escaping may be
disabled by using raw mode; see the description for the --raw option.
• --character-sets-dir=path
The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 9.2, “The Character Set Used for Data
and Sorting”.
• --column-names
Write column names in results.
• --column-type-info, -m
Display result set metadata.
• --comments, -c
Whether to preserve comments in statements sent to the server. The default is --skip-comments (discard
comments), enable with --comments (preserve comments). This option was added in Drizzle 6.0.4.
• --compress, -C
Compress all information sent between the client and the server if both support compression.
• --database=db_name, -D db_name
The database to use. This is useful primarily in an option file.
• --debug-check
Print some debugging information when the program exits.
• --debug-info, -T
Print debugging information and memory and CPU usage statistics when the program exits.
• --delimiter=str
Set the statement delimiter. The default is the semicolon character (“;”).
• --disable-named-commands
Disable named commands. Use the \* form only, or use named commands only at the beginning of a line
ending with a semicolon (“;”). drizzle starts with this option enabled by default. However, even with
this option, long-format commands still work from the first line. See the section called “MYSQL
COMMANDS”.
• --execute=statement, -e statement
Execute the statement and quit. The default output format is like that produced with --batch. See
Section 4.2.3.1, “Using Options on the Command Line”, for some examples.
• --force, -f
Continue even if an SQL error occurs.
• --host=host_name, -h host_name
Connect to the Drizzle server on the given host.
• --html, -H
Produce HTML output.
• --ignore-spaces, -i
Ignore spaces after function names. The effect of this is described in the discussion for the
IGNORE_SPACE SQL mode (see Section 5.1.7, “Server SQL Modes”).
• --line-numbers
Write line numbers for errors. Disable this with --skip-line-numbers.
• --local-infile[={0|1}]
Enable or disable LOCAL capability for LOAD DATA INFILE. With no value, the option enables LOCAL. The
option may be given as --local-infile=0 or --local-infile=1 to explicitly disable or enable LOCAL.
Enabling LOCAL has no effect if the server does not also support it.
• --named-commands, -G
Enable named drizzle commands. Long-format commands are allowed, not just short-format commands. For
example, quit and \q both are recognized. Use --skip-named-commands to disable named commands. See the
section called “MYSQL COMMANDS”.
• --no-auto-rehash, -A
Deprecated form of -skip-auto-rehash. Use --disable-auto-rehash instead. See the description for
--auto-rehash.
• --no-beep, -b
Do not beep when errors occur.
• --no-named-commands, -g
Deprecated, use --disable-named-commands instead.
• --no-pager
Deprecated form of --skip-pager. See the --pager option.
• --no-tee
Do not copy output to a file. the section called “MYSQL COMMANDS”, discusses tee files further.
• --one-database, -o
Ignore statements except those for the default database named on the command line. This is useful for
skipping updates to other databases in the binary log.
• --pager[=command]
Use the given command for paging query output. If the command is omitted, the default pager is the
value of your PAGER environment variable. Valid pagers are less, more, cat [> filename], and so forth.
This option works only on Unix. It does not work in batch mode. To disable paging, use --skip-pager.
the section called “MYSQL COMMANDS”, discusses output paging further.
• --password[=password], -P[password]
The password to use when connecting to the server. If you use the short option form (-p), you cannot
have a space between the option and the password. If you omit the password value following the
--password or -p option on the command line, you are prompted for one.
Specifying a password on the command line should be considered insecure. See Section 5.5.6.2,
“End-User Guidelines for Password Security”.
• --pipe, -W
On Windows, connect to the server via a named pipe. This option applies only for connections to a
local server, and only if the server supports named-pipe connections.
• --port=port_num, -p port_num
The TCP/IP port number to use for the connection.
• --prompt=format_str
Set the prompt to the specified format. The default is drizzle>. The special sequences that the prompt
can contain are described in the section called “MYSQL COMMANDS”.
• --protocol={TCP|SOCKET|PIPE|MEMORY}
The connection protocol to use for connecting to the server. It is useful when the other connection
parameters normally would cause a protocol to be used other than the one you want. For details on the
allowable values, see Section 4.2.2, “Connecting to the Drizzle Server”.
• --quick, -q
Do not cache each query result, print each row as it is received. This may slow down the server if the
output is suspended. With this option, drizzle does not use the history file.
• --raw, -r
For tabular output, the “boxing” around columns enables one column value to be distinguished from
another. For non-tabular output (such as is produced in batch mode or when the --batch or --silent
option is given), special characters are escaped in the output so they can be identified easily.
Newline, tab, NUL, and backslash are written as \n, \t, \0, and \\. The --raw option disables this
character escaping.
The following example demonstrates tabular versus non-tabular output and the use of raw mode to
disable escaping:
% drizzle
drizzle> SELECT CHAR(92);
+----------+
| CHAR(92) |
+----------+
| \ |
+----------+
% drizzle -s
drizzle> SELECT CHAR(92);
CHAR(92)
\\
% drizzle -s -r
drizzle> SELECT CHAR(92);
CHAR(92)
\
• --reconnect
If the connection to the server is lost, automatically try to reconnect. A single reconnect attempt is
made each time the connection is lost. To suppress reconnection behavior, use --skip-reconnect.
• --safe-updates, --i-am-a-dummy, -U
Allow only those UPDATE and DELETE statements that specify which rows to modify by using key values.
If you have set this option in an option file, you can override it by using --safe-updates on the
command line. See the section called “MYSQL TIPS”, for more information about this option.
• --secure-auth
Do not send passwords to the server in old (pre-4.1.1) format. This prevents connections except for
servers that use the newer password format.
• --show-warnings
Cause warnings to be shown after each statement if there are any. This option applies to interactive
and batch mode.
• --sigint-ignore
Ignore SIGINT signals (typically the result of typing Control-C).
• --silent, -s
Silent mode. Produce less output. This option can be given multiple times to produce less and less
output.
This option results in non-tabular output format and escaping of special characters. Escaping may be
disabled by using raw mode; see the description for the --raw option.
• --skip-column-names, -N
Do not write column names in results. The short format, -N is deprecated, use the long format instead.
• --skip-line-numbers, -L
Do not write line numbers for errors. Useful when you want to compare result files that include error
messages. The short format, -L is deprecated, use the long format instead.
• --socket=path, -S path
For connections to localhost, the Unix socket file to use, or, on Windows, the name of the named pipe
to use.
• --ssl*
Options that begin with --ssl specify whether to connect to the server via SSL and indicate where to
find SSL keys and certificates. See Section 5.5.7.3, “SSL Command Options”.
• --table, -t
Display output in table format. This is the default for interactive use, but can be used to produce
table output in batch mode.
• --tee=file_name
Append a copy of output to the given file. This option does not work in batch mode. the section
called “MYSQL COMMANDS”, discusses tee files further.
• --unbuffered, -n
Flush the buffer after each query.
• --user=user_name, -u user_name
The Drizzle user name to use when connecting to the server.
• --verbose, -v
Verbose mode. Produce more output about what the program does. This option can be given multiple times
to produce more and more output. (For example, -v -v -v produces table output format even in batch
mode.)
• --version, -V
Display version information and exit.
• --vertical, -E
Print query output rows vertically (one line per column value). Without this option, you can specify
vertical output for individual statements by terminating them with \G.
• --wait, -w
If the connection cannot be established, wait and retry instead of aborting.
You can also set the following variables by using
--var_name=value. The --set-variable format is deprecated.
• connect_timeout
The number of seconds before connection timeout. (Default value is 0.)
• max_allowed_packet
The maximum packet length to send to or receive from the server. (Default value is 16MB.)
• max_join_size
The automatic limit for rows in a join when using --safe-updates. (Default value is 1,000,000.)
• net_buffer_length
The buffer size for TCP/IP and socket communication. (Default value is 16KB.)
• select_limit
The automatic limit for SELECT statements when using --safe-updates. (Default value is 1,000.)
On Unix, the mysql client writes a record of executed statements to a history file. By default, this 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.
The .mysql_history should be protected with a restrictive access mode because sensitive information might
be written to it, such as the text of SQL statements that contain passwords. See Section 5.5.6.2,
“End-User Guidelines for Password Security”.
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:
• Set the MYSQL_HISTFILE variable to /dev/null. To cause this setting to take effect each time you log
in, put the setting in one of your shell's startup files.
• Create .mysql_history as a symbolic link to /dev/null:
shell> ln -s /dev/null $HOME/.mysql_history
You need do this only once.
MYSQL 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 Drizzle 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.
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.
For server side help, type 'help contents'
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.
The use of short-form commands within multi-line /* ... */ comments is not supported.
• help [arg], \h [arg], \? [arg], ? [arg]
Displays a help message listing the available mysql commands.
If you provide an argument to the help command, mysql uses it as a search string to access server-side
help from the contents of the Drizzle Reference Manual. For more information, see the section called
“MYSQL SERVER-SIDE HELP”.
• charset charset_name, \C charset_name
The charset command changes the default character set and issues a SET NAMES statement. This enables
the character set to remain synchronized on the client and server if mysql is run with auto-reconnect
enabled (which is not recommended), because the specified character set is used for reconnects.
• clear, \c
Clears the current input. Use this if you change your mind about executing the statement that you are
entering.
• connect [db_name host_name]], \r [db_name host_name]]
Reconnects to the server. The optional database name and host name arguments may be given to specify
the default database or the host where the server is running. If omitted, the current values are used.
• delimiter str, \d str
The delimiter command changes the string that mysql interprets as the separator between SQL
statements. The default is the semicolon character (“;”).
The delimiter can be specified as an unquoted or quoted argument. Quoting can be done with either
single quote (') or douple quote (") characters. To include a quote within a quoted string, either
quote the string with the other quote character or escape the quote with a backslash (“\”) character.
Backslash should be avoided outside of quoted strings because it is the escape character for Drizzle.
For an unquoted argument, the delmiter is read up to the first space or end of line. For a quoted
argument, the delimiter is read up to the matching quote on the line.
When the delimiter recognized by mysql is set to something other than the default of “;”, instances of
that character are sent to the server without interpretation. However, the server itself still
interprets “;” as a statement delimiter and processes statements accordingly. This behavior on the
server side comes into play for multiple-statement execution (see Section 20.10.12, “C API Support for
Multiple Statement Execution”), and for parsing the body of stored procedures and functions, triggers,
and events (see Section 18.1, “Defining Stored Programs”).
• edit, \e
Edits the current input statement. mysql checks the values of the EDITOR and VISUAL environment
variables to determine which editor to use. The default editor is vi if neither variable is set.
The edit command works only in Unix.
• ego, \G
Sends the current statement to the server to be executed and displays the result using vertical
format.
• exit, \q
Exits mysql.
• go, \g
Sends the current statement to the server to be executed.
• nopager, \n
Disables output paging. See the description for pager.
The nopager command works only in Unix.
• notee, \t
Disables output copying to the tee file. See the description for tee.
• nowarning, \w
Enables display of warnings after each statement.
• pager [command], \P [command]
By using the --pager option when you invoke mysql, 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 it is not as
convenient as pager for browsing output in some situations.
• print, \p
Prints the current input statement without executing it.
• prompt [str], \R [str]
Reconfigures the mysql prompt to the given string. The special character sequences that can be used in
the prompt are described later in this section.
If you specify the prompt command with no argument, mysql resets the prompt to the default of mysql>.
• quit, \q
Exits mysql.
• rehash, \#
Rebuilds the completion hash that enables database, table, and column name completion while you are
entering statements. (See the description for the --auto-rehash option.)
• source file_name, \. file_name
Reads the named file and executes the statements contained therein. On Windows, you can specify path
name separators as / or \\.
• status, \s
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.
• system command, \! command
Executes the given command using your default command interpreter.
The system command works only in Unix.
• tee [file_name], \T [file_name]
By using the --tee option when you invoke mysql, you can log statements and their output. All the data
displayed on the screen is appended into a given file. This can be very useful for debugging purposes
also. mysql flushes results to the file after each statement, just before it prints its next prompt.
You can enable this feature interactively with the tee command. Without a parameter, the previous file
is used. The tee file can be disabled with the notee command. Executing tee again re-enables logging.
• use db_name, \u db_name
Uses db_name as the default database.
• warnings, \W
Enables display of warnings after each statement (if there are any).
Here are a few tips about the pager command:
• You can use it to write to a file and the results go only to the file:
mysql> pager cat > /tmp/log.txt
You can also pass any options for the program that you want to use as your pager:
mysql> pager less -n -i -S
• In the preceding example, note the -S option. You may find it very useful for browsing wide query
results. Sometimes a very wide result set is difficult to read on the screen. The -S option to less
can make the result set much more readable because you can scroll it horizontally using the left-arrow
and right-arrow keys. You can also use -S interactively within less to switch the horizontal-browse
mode on and off. For more information, read the less manual page:
shell> man less
• The -F and -X options may be used with less to cause it to exit if output fits on one screen, which is
convenient when no scrolling is necessary:
mysql> pager less -n -i -S -F -X
• You can specify very complex pager commands for handling query output:
mysql> pager cat | tee /dr1/tmp/res.txt \
| tee /dr2/tmp/res2.txt | less -n -i -S
In this example, the command would send query results to two files in two different directories on two
different file systems mounted on /dr1 and /dr2, yet still display the results onscreen via less.
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 prompt command reconfigures the default drizzle> prompt. The string for defining the prompt can
contain the following special sequences.
┌───────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Option │ Description │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \o │ The current month in numeric format │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \P │ am/pm │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \p │ The current TCP/IP port or socket │
│ │ file │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \& │ The current time, in 24-hour military │
│ │ time (0-23) │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \r │ The current time, standard 12-hour │
│ │ time (1-12) │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \S │ Semicolon │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \s │ Seconds of the current time │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \t │ A tab character │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \U │ Your full │
│ │ user@host │
│ │ account name │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \u │ Your user name │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \c │ A counter that increments for each │
│ │ statement you issue │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \v │ The server version │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \w │ The current day of the week in │
│ │ three-letter format (Mon, Tue, ...) │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \Y │ The current year, four digits │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \y │ The current year, two digits │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \_ │ A space │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \ │ A space (a space follows the │
│ │ backslash) │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \' │ Single quote │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \" │ Double quote │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \T}:T{ A literal “\” backslash │ │
│ character │ │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \x │ x, for any │
│ │ “x” not listed │
│ │ above │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \D │ The full current date │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \d │ The default database │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \h │ The server host │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \l │ The current delimiter │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \m │ Minutes of the current time │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \n │ A newline character │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ \O │ The current month in three-letter │
│ │ format (Jan, Feb, ...) │
└───────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
You can set the prompt in several ways:
• Use an environment variable. You can set the MYSQL_PS1 environment variable to a prompt string. For
example:
shell> export MYSQL_PS1="(\u@\h) [\d]> "
• Use a command-line option. You can set the --prompt option on the command line to mysql. For example:
shell> mysql --prompt="(\u@\h) [\d]> "
(user@host) [database]>
• Use an option file. You can set the prompt option in the [mysql] group of any Drizzle option file,
such as /etc/my.cnf or the .my.cnf file in your home directory. For example:
[mysql]
prompt=(\\u@\\h) [\\d]>\\_
In this example, note that the backslashes are doubled. If you set the prompt using the prompt option in
an option file, it is advisable to double the backslashes when using the special prompt options. There is
some overlap in the set of allowable prompt options and the set of special escape sequences that are
recognized in option files. (These sequences are listed in Section 4.2.3.2, “Using Option Files”.) The
overlap may cause you problems if you use single backslashes. For example, \s is interpreted as a space
rather than as the current seconds value. The following example shows how to define a prompt within an
option file to include the current time in HH:MM:SS> format:
[mysql]
prompt="\\r:\\m:\\s> "
• Set the prompt interactively. You can change your prompt interactively by using the prompt (or \R)
command. For example:
mysql> prompt (\u@\h) [\d]>\_
PROMPT set to '(\u@\h) [\d]>\_'
(user@host) [database]>
(user@host) [database]> prompt
Returning to default PROMPT of mysql>
mysql>
MYSQL SERVER-SIDE HELP
mysql> help search_string
If you provide an argument to the help command, mysql uses it as a search string to access server-side
help from the contents of the Drizzle Reference Manual. The proper operation of this command requires
that the help tables in the mysql database be initialized with help topic information (see Section 5.1.8,
“Server-Side Help”).
If there is no match for the search string, the search fails:
mysql> help me
Nothing found
Please try to run 'help contents' for a list of all accessible topics
Use help contents to see a list of the help categories:
mysql> help contents
You asked for help about help category: "Contents"
For more information, type 'help <item>', where <item> is one of the
following categories:
Account Management
Administration
Data Definition
Data Manipulation
Data Types
Functions
Functions and Modifiers for Use with GROUP BY
Geographic Features
Language Structure
Plugins
Storage Engines
Stored Routines
Table Maintenance
Transactions
Triggers
If the search string matches multiple items, mysql shows a list of matching topics:
mysql> help logs
Many help items for your request exist.
To make a more specific request, please type 'help <item>',
where <item> is one of the following topics:
SHOW
SHOW BINARY LOGS
SHOW ENGINE
SHOW LOGS
Use a topic as the search string to see the help entry for that topic:
mysql> help show binary logs
Name: 'SHOW BINARY LOGS'
Description:
Syntax:
SHOW BINARY LOGS
SHOW MASTER LOGS
Lists the binary log files on the server. This statement is used as
part of the procedure described in [purge-binary-logs], that shows how
to determine which logs can be purged.
mysql> SHOW BINARY LOGS;
+---------------+-----------+
| Log_name | File_size |
+---------------+-----------+
| binlog.000015 | 724935 |
| binlog.000016 | 733481 |
+---------------+-----------+
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 command 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>.
As of Drizzle 6.0.4, mysql ignores Unicode byte order mark (BOM) characters at the beginning of input
files. Previously, it read them and sent them to the server, resulting in a syntax error. Presence of a
BOM does not cause mysql to change its default character set. To do that, invoke mysql with an option
such as --default-character-set=utf8.
For more information about batch mode, see Section 3.5, “Using mysql in Batch Mode”.
MYSQL 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
Drizzle server:
SET sql_safe_updates=1, sql_select_limit=1000, sql_max_join_size=1000000;
See Section 5.1.4, “Session System Variables”.
The SET statement has the following effects:
• You are not allowed to execute an UPDATE or DELETE statement unless you specify a key constraint in
the WHERE clause or provide a LIMIT clause (or both). For example:
UPDATE tbl_name SET not_key_column=val WHERE key_column=val;
UPDATE tbl_name SET not_key_column=val LIMIT 1;
• The server limits all large SELECT results to 1,000 rows unless the statement includes a LIMIT clause.
• The server aborts multiple-table SELECT statements that probably need to examine more than 1,000,000
row combinations.
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 statement, it immediately and
automatically tries to reconnect once to the server and send the statement 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 between the first and second statements without you knowing
it:
mysql> SET @a=1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.05 sec)
mysql> INSERT INTO t VALUES(@a);
ERROR 2006: Drizzle 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.
For more information about auto-reconnect and its effect on state information when a reconnection occurs,
see Section 20.10.11, “Controlling Automatic Reconnection Behavior”.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2007-2008 MySQL AB, 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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/.
REFERENCES
1. Bug#25946
http://bugs.mysql.com/25946
SEE ALSO
For more information, please refer to the Drizzle Reference Manual, which may already be installed
locally and which is also available online at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.
AUTHOR
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (http://www.mysql.com/).
Drizzle 05/23/2009 DRIZZLE(1)