MYSQLSHOW(1)

NAME
mysqlshow - display database, table, and column information

SYNOPSIS

mysqlshow [options] [db_name [tbl_name [col_name]]]

DESCRIPTION

The mysqlshow client can be used to quickly see which databases exist, their tables, or a table's columns or indexes.

mysqlshow provides a command-line interface to several SQL SHOW statements. See Section 13.7.5, “SHOW Statements”. The same information can be obtained by using those statements directly. For example, you can issue them from the mysql client program.

Invoke mysqlshow like this:

    shell> mysqlshow [options] [db_name [tbl_name [col_name]]]

    • If no database is given, a list of database names is shown.

    • If no table is given, all matching tables in the database are shown.

    • If no column is given, all matching columns and column types in the table are shown.

The output displays only the names of those databases, tables, or columns for which you have some privileges.

If the last argument contains shell or SQL wildcard characters (*, ?, %, or _), only those names that are matched by the wildcard are shown. If a database name contains any underscores, those should be escaped with a backslash (some Unix shells require two) to get a list of the proper tables or columns. * and ? characters are converted into SQL % and _ wildcard characters. This might cause some confusion when you try to display the columns for a table with a _ in the name, because in this case, mysqlshow shows you only the table names that match the pattern. This is easily fixed by adding an extra % last on the command line as a separate argument.

mysqlshow supports the following options, which can be specified on the command line or in the [mysqlshow] and [client] groups of an option file. For information about option files used by MySQL programs, see Section 4.2.2.2, “Using Option Files”.

    • --help, -? Display a help message and exit.

    • --bind-address=ip_address On a computer having multiple network interfaces, use this option to select which interface to use for connecting to the MySQL server.

    • --character-sets-dir=dir_name The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 10.15, “Character Set Configuration”.

    • --compress, -C Compress all information sent between the client and the server if possible. See Section 4.2.6, “Connection Compression Control”.

    • --count Show the number of rows per table. This can be slow for non-MyISAM tables.

    • --debug[=debug_options], -# [debug_options] Write a debugging log. A typical debug_options string is d:t:o,file_name. The default is d:t:o.

    This option is available only if MySQL was built using WITH_DEBUG. MySQL release binaries provided by Oracle are not built using this option.

    • --debug-check Print some debugging information when the program exits.

    This option is available only if MySQL was built using WITH_DEBUG. MySQL release binaries provided by Oracle are not built using this option.

    • --debug-info Print debugging information and memory and CPU usage statistics when the program exits.

    This option is available only if MySQL was built using WITH_DEBUG. MySQL release binaries provided by Oracle are not built using this option.

    • --default-character-set=charset_name Use charset_name as the default character set. See Section 10.15, “Character Set Configuration”.

    • --default-auth=plugin A hint about which client-side authentication plugin to use. See Section 6.2.11, “Pluggable Authentication”.

    • --defaults-extra-file=file_name Read this option file after the global option file but (on Unix) before the user option file. If the file does not exist or is otherwise inaccessible, an error occurs. file_name is interpreted relative to the current directory if given as a relative path name rather than a full path name.

    For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 4.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

    • --defaults-file=file_name Use only the given option file. If the file does not exist or is otherwise inaccessible, an error occurs. file_name is interpreted relative to the current directory if given as a relative path name rather than a full path name.

    Exception: Even with --defaults-file, client programs read .mylogin.cnf.

    For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 4.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

    • --defaults-group-suffix=str Read not only the usual option groups, but also groups with the usual names and a suffix of str. For example, mysqlshow normally reads the [client] and [mysqlshow] groups. If the --defaults-group-suffix=_other option is given, mysqlshow also reads the [client_other] and [mysqlshow_other] groups.

    For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 4.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

    • --enable-cleartext-plugin Enable the mysql_clear_password cleartext authentication plugin. (See Section 6.4.1.5, “Client-Side Cleartext Pluggable Authentication”.)

    This option was added in MySQL 5.6.28.

    • --host=host_name, -h host_name Connect to the MySQL server on the given host.

    • --keys, -k Show table indexes.

    • --login-path=name Read options from the named login path in the .mylogin.cnf login path file. A “login path” is an option group containing options that specify which MySQL server to connect to and which account to authenticate as. To create or modify a login path file, use the mysql_config_editor utility. See mysql_config_editor(1).

    For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 4.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

    • --no-defaults Do not read any option files. If program startup fails due to reading unknown options from an option file, --no-defaults can be used to prevent them from being read.

    The exception is that the .mylogin.cnf file, if it exists, is read in all cases. This permits passwords to be specified in a safer way than on the command line even when --no-defaults is used. (.mylogin.cnf is created by the mysql_config_editor utility. See mysql_config_editor(1).)

    For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 4.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

    • --password[=password], -p[password] The password of the MySQL account used for connecting to the server. The password value is optional. If not given, mysqlshow prompts for one. If given, there must be no space between --password= or -p and the password following it. If no password option is specified, the default is to send no password.

    Specifying a password on the command line should be considered insecure. To avoid giving the password on the command line, use an option file. See Section 6.1.2.1, “End-User Guidelines for Password Security”.

    To explicitly specify that there is no password and that mysqlshow should not prompt for one, use the --skip-password option.

    • --pipe, -W On Windows, connect to the server using a named pipe. This option applies only if the server was started with the named_pipe system variable enabled to support named-pipe connections. In addition, the user making the connection must be a member of the Windows group specified by the named_pipe_full_access_group system variable.

    • --plugin-dir=dir_name The directory in which to look for plugins. Specify this option if the --default-auth option is used to specify an authentication plugin but mysqlshow does not find it. See Section 6.2.11, “Pluggable Authentication”.

    • --port=port_num, -P port_num For TCP/IP connections, the port number to use.

    • --print-defaults Print the program name and all options that it gets from option files.

    For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 4.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

    • --protocol={TCP|SOCKET|PIPE|MEMORY} The transport protocol to use for connecting to the server. It is useful when the other connection parameters normally result in use of a protocol other than the one you want. For details on the permissible values, see Section 4.2.5, “Connection Transport Protocols”.

    • --secure-auth Do not send passwords to the server in old (pre-4.1) format. This prevents connections except for servers that use the newer password format. This option is enabled by default; use --skip-secure-auth to disable it. This option was added in MySQL 5.6.17.

        Note
        Passwords that use the pre-4.1 hashing method are less secure than passwords that use the native password hashing method and should be avoided. Pre-4.1 passwords are deprecated; expect support for them to be removed in a future MySQL release. For account upgrade instructions, see Section 6.4.1.3, “Migrating Away from Pre-4.1 Password Hashing and the mysql_old_password Plugin”.

        Note
        This option is deprecated; expect it to be removed in a future release. As of MySQL 5.7.5, it is always enabled and attempting to disable it produces an error.

    • --shared-memory-base-name=name On Windows, the shared-memory name to use for connections made using shared memory to a local server. The default value is MYSQL. The shared-memory name is case-sensitive.

    This option applies only if the server was started with the shared_memory system variable enabled to support shared-memory connections.

    • --show-table-type, -t Show a column indicating the table type, as in SHOW FULL TABLES. The type is BASE TABLE or VIEW.

    • --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.

    On Windows, this option applies only if the server was started with the named_pipe system variable enabled to support named-pipe connections. In addition, the user making the connection must be a member of the Windows group specified by the named_pipe_full_access_group system variable.

    • --ssl* Options that begin with --ssl specify whether to connect to the server using SSL and indicate where to find SSL keys and certificates. See the section called “Command Options for Encrypted Connections”.

    • --status, -i Display extra information about each table.

    • --user=user_name, -u user_name The user name of the MySQL account to use for connecting to the server.

    • --verbose, -v Verbose mode. Print more information about what the program does. This option can be used multiple times to increase the amount of information.

    • --version, -V Display version information and exit.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 1997, 2021, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

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 Reference Manual, which may already be installed locally and which is also available online at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.

AUTHOR
Oracle Corporation (http://dev.mysql.com/).