Provided by: percona-toolkit_2.2.7-1~dfsg1_all 
NAME
percona-toolkit - Advanced command-line tools for MySQL
DESCRIPTION
Percona Toolkit is a collection of advanced command-line tools used by Percona
(<http://www.percona.com/>) support staff to perform a variety of MySQL and system tasks
that are too difficult or complex to perform manually.
These tools are ideal alternatives to private or "one-off" scripts because they are
professionally developed, formally tested, and fully documented. They are also fully
self-contained, so installation is quick and easy and no libraries are installed.
Percona Toolkit is derived from Maatkit and Aspersa, two of the best-known toolkits for
MySQL server administration. It is developed and supported by Percona. For more
information and other free, open-source software developed by Percona, visit
<http://www.percona.com/software/>.
TOOLS
This release of Percona Toolkit includes the following tools:
pt-agent
Agent for Percona Cloud Tools
pt-align
Align output from other tools to columns.
pt-archiver
Archive rows from a MySQL table into another table or a file.
pt-config-diff
Diff MySQL configuration files and server variables.
pt-deadlock-logger
Log MySQL deadlocks.
pt-diskstats
An interactive I/O monitoring tool for GNU/Linux.
pt-duplicate-key-checker
Find duplicate indexes and foreign keys on MySQL tables.
pt-fifo-split
Split files and pipe lines to a fifo without really splitting.
pt-find
Find MySQL tables and execute actions, like GNU find.
pt-fingerprint
Convert queries into fingerprints.
pt-fk-error-logger
Log MySQL foreign key errors.
pt-heartbeat
Monitor MySQL replication delay.
pt-index-usage
Read queries from a log and analyze how they use indexes.
pt-ioprofile
Watch process IO and print a table of file and I/O activity.
pt-kill
Kill MySQL queries that match certain criteria.
pt-mext
Look at many samples of MySQL "SHOW GLOBAL STATUS" side-by-side.
pt-mysql-summary
Summarize MySQL information nicely.
pt-online-schema-change
ALTER tables without locking them.
pt-pmp
Aggregate GDB stack traces for a selected program.
pt-query-digest
Analyze MySQL queries from logs, processlist, and tcpdump.
pt-show-grants
Canonicalize and print MySQL grants so you can effectively replicate, compare and
version-control them.
pt-sift
Browses files created by pt-stalk.
pt-slave-delay
Make a MySQL slave server lag behind its master.
pt-slave-find
Find and print replication hierarchy tree of MySQL slaves.
pt-slave-restart
Watch and restart MySQL replication after errors.
pt-stalk
Collect forensic data about MySQL when problems occur.
pt-summary
Summarize system information nicely.
pt-table-checksum
Verify MySQL replication integrity.
pt-table-sync
Synchronize MySQL table data efficiently.
pt-table-usage
Analyze how queries use tables.
pt-upgrade
Verify that query results are identical on different servers.
pt-variable-advisor
Analyze MySQL variables and advise on possible problems.
pt-visual-explain
Format EXPLAIN output as a tree.
For more free, open-source software developed Percona, visit
<http://www.percona.com/software/>.
SPECIAL OPTION TYPES
Tool options use standard types ("int", "string", etc.) as well as these special types:
time
Time values are seconds by default. For example, "--run-time 60" means 60 seconds.
Time values support an optional suffix: s (seconds), m (minutes), h (hours), d (days).
"--run-time 1m" means 1 minute (the same as 60 seconds).
size
Size values are bytes by default. For example, "--disk-space-free 1024" means 1
Kibibyte. Size values support an optional suffix: k (Kibibyte), M (Mebibyte), G
(Gibibyte).
DSN See "DSN (DATA SOURCE NAME) SPECIFICATIONS".
Hash, hash, Array, array
Hash, hash, Array, and array values are comma-separated lists of values. For example,
"--ignore-tables foo,bar" ignores tables "foo" and "bar".
CONFIGURATION FILES
Percona Toolkit tools can read options from configuration files. The configuration file
syntax is simple and direct, and bears some resemblances to the MySQL command-line client
tools. The configuration files all follow the same conventions.
Internally, what actually happens is that the lines are read from the file and then added
as command-line options and arguments to the tool, so just think of the configuration
files as a way to write your command lines.
SYNTAX
The syntax of the configuration files is as follows:
• Whitespace followed by a hash sign (#) signifies that the rest of the line is a
comment. This is deleted. For example:
• Whitespace is stripped from the beginning and end of all lines.
• Empty lines are ignored.
• Each line is permitted to be in either of the following formats:
option
option=value
Do not prefix the option with "--". Do not quote the values, even if it has spaces;
value are literal. Whitespace around the equals sign is deleted during processing.
• Only long options are recognized.
• A line containing only two hyphens signals the end of option parsing. Any further
lines are interpreted as additional arguments (not options) to the program.
EXAMPLE
This config file for pt-stalk,
# Config for pt-stalk
variable=Threads_connected
cycles=2 # trigger if problem seen twice in a row
--
--user daniel
is equivalent to this command line:
pt-stalk --variable Threads_connected --cycles 2 -- --user daniel
Options after "--" are passed literally to mysql and mysqladmin.
READ ORDER
The tools read several configuration files in order:
1. The global Percona Toolkit configuration file,
/etc/percona-toolkit/percona-toolkit.conf. All tools read this file, so you should
only add options to it that you want to apply to all tools.
2. The global tool-specific configuration file, /etc/percona-toolkit/TOOL.conf, where
"TOOL" is a tool name like "pt-query-digest". This file is named after the specific
tool you're using, so you can add options that apply only to that tool.
3. The user's own Percona Toolkit configuration file, $HOME/.percona-toolkit.conf. All
tools read this file, so you should only add options to it that you want to apply to
all tools.
4. The user's tool-specific configuration file, $HOME/.TOOL.conf, where "TOOL" is a tool
name like "pt-query-digest". This file is named after the specific tool you're using,
so you can add options that apply only to that tool.
SPECIFYING
There is a special "--config" option, which lets you specify which configuration files
Percona Toolkit should read. You specify a comma-separated list of files. However, its
behavior is not like other command-line options. It must be given first on the command
line, before any other options. If you try to specify it anywhere else, it will cause an
error. Also, you cannot specify "--config=/path/to/file"; you must specify the option and
the path to the file separated by whitespace without an equal sign between them, like:
--config /path/to/file
If you don't want any configuration files at all, specify "--config ''" to provide an
empty list of files.
DSN (DATA SOURCE NAME) SPECIFICATIONS
Percona Toolkit tools use DSNs to specify how to create a DBD connection to a MySQL
server. A DSN is a comma-separated string of "key=value" parts, like:
h=host1,P=3306,u=bob
The standard key parts are shown below, but some tools add additional key parts. See each
tool's documentation for details.
Some tools do not use DSNs but still connect to MySQL using options like "--host",
"--user", and "--password". Such tools uses these options to create a DSN automatically,
behind the scenes.
Other tools uses both DSNs and options like the ones above. The options provide defaults
for all DSNs that do not specify the option's corresponding key part. For example, if DSN
"h=host1" and option "--port=12345" are specified, then the tool automatically adds
"P=12345" to DSN.
ESCAPING VALUES
DSNs are usually specified on the command line, so shell quoting and escaping must be
taken into account. Special characters, like asterisk ("*"), need to be quoted and/or
escaped properly to be passed as literal characters in DSN values.
Since DSN parts are separated by commas, literal commas in DSN values must be escaped with
a single backslash ("\"). And since a backslash is the escape character for most shells,
two backslashes are required to pass a literal backslash. For example, if the username is
literally "my,name", it must be specified as "my\\,name" on most shells. This applies to
DSNs and DSN-related options like "--user".
KEY PARTS
Many of the tools add more parts to DSNs for special purposes, and sometimes override
parts to make them do something slightly different. However, all the tools support at
least the following:
A Default character set for the connection ("SET NAMES").
Enables character set settings in Perl and MySQL. If the value is "utf8", sets Perl's
binmode on STDOUT to utf8, passes the "mysql_enable_utf8" option to DBD::mysql, and
runs "SET NAMES 'utf8'" after connecting to MySQL. Other values set binmode on STDOUT
without the utf8 layer and run "SET NAMES" after connecting to MySQL.
Unfortunately, there is no way from within Perl itself to specify the client library's
character set. "SET NAMES" only affects the server; if the client library's settings
don't match, there could be problems. You can use the defaults file to specify the
client library's character set, however. See the description of the F part below.
D Default database to use when connecting. Tools may "USE" a different databases while
running.
F Defaults file for the MySQL client library (the C client library used by DBD::mysql,
not Percona Toolkit itself). All tools all read the "[client]" section within the
defaults file. If you omit this, the standard defaults files will be read in the
usual order. "Standard" varies from system to system, because the filenames to read
are compiled into the client library. On Debian systems, for example, it's usually
"/etc/mysql/my.cnf" then "~/.my.cnf". If you place the following in "~/.my.cnf", you
won't have to specify your MySQL username and password on the command line:
[client]
user=your_user_name
pass=secret
Omitting the F part is usually the right thing to do. As long as you have configured
your "~/.my.cnf" correctly, that will result in tools connecting automatically without
needing a username or password.
You can also specify a default character set in the defaults file. Unlike the "A"
part described above, this will actually instruct the client library (DBD::mysql) to
change the character set it uses internally, which cannot be accomplished any other
way.
h MySQL hostname or IP address to connect to.
L Explicitly enable LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE.
For some reason, some vendors compile libmysql without the --enable-local-infile
option, which disables the statement. This can lead to weird situations, like the
server allowing LOCAL INFILE, but the client throwing exceptions if it's used.
However, as long as the server allows LOAD DATA, clients can easily re-enable it; see
<https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/load-data-local.html> and
<http://search.cpan.org/~capttofu/DBD-mysql/lib/DBD/mysql.pm>. This option does
exactly that.
p MySQL password to use when connecting.
P Port number to use for the connection. Note that the usual special-case behaviors
apply: if you specify "localhost" as your hostname on Unix systems, the connection
actually uses a socket file, not a TCP/IP connection, and thus ignores the port.
S MySQL socket file to use for the connection (on Unix systems).
u MySQL username to use when connecting, if not current system user.
BAREWORD
Many of the tools will let you specify a DSN as a single word, without any "key=value"
syntax. This is called a 'bareword'. How this is handled is tool-specific, but it is
usually interpreted as the "h" part. The tool's "--help" output will tell you the
behavior for that tool.
PROPAGATION
Many tools will let you propagate values from one DSN to the next, so you don't have to
specify all the parts for each DSN. For example, if you want to specify a username and
password for each DSN, you can connect to three hosts as follows:
h=host1,u=fred,p=wilma host2 host3
This is tool-specific.
ENVIRONMENT
The environment variable "PTDEBUG" enables verbose debugging output to STDERR. To enable
debugging and capture all output to a file, run the tool like:
PTDEBUG=1 pt-table-checksum ... > FILE 2>&1
Be careful: debugging output is voluminous and can generate several megabytes of output.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Most tools require:
• Perl v5.8 or newer
• Bash v3 or newer
• Core Perl modules like Time::HiRes
Tools that connect to MySQL require:
• Perl modules DBI and DBD::mysql
• MySQL 5.0 or newer
Percona Toolkit officially supports and is tested on many popular Linux distributions and
MySQL 5.0 through 5.6; see http://goo.gl/srHm7 for the list of supported platforms and
versions.
BUGS
Please report bugs at <https://bugs.launchpad.net/percona-toolkit>. Include the following
information in your bug report:
• Complete command-line used to run the tool
• Tool "--version"
• MySQL version of all servers involved
• Output from the tool including STDERR
• Input files (log/dump/config files, etc.)
If possible, include debugging output by running the tool with "PTDEBUG"; see
"ENVIRONMENT".
AUTHORS
Baron Schwartz
Baron created Maatkit, from which Percona Toolkit was forked. Many of the tools and
modules were originally written by Baron.
Daniel Nichter
Daniel began helping Baron with Maatkit and, later, Percona Toolkit in June, 2008. He
is the project's lead developer, employed by Percona.
Brian Fraser
Brian started with Percona in December, 2011. He works on Percona Toolkit full-time,
employed by Percona.
Others
Many people have contributed code over the years. See each tool's "AUTHORS" section
for details.
COPYRIGHT, LICENSE, AND WARRANTY
Percona Toolkit is copyright 2011-2014 Percona LLC and/or its affiliates, et al. See each
program's documentation for complete copyright notices.
THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING,
WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 2; OR
the Perl Artistic License. On UNIX and similar systems, you can issue `man perlgpl' or
`man perlartistic' to read these licenses.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program;
if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
MA 02111-1307 USA.
VERSION
Percona Toolkit v2.2.7 released 2014-02-20