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 12.5.5, “SHOW Syntax”. 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] option file groups. mysqlshow also supports the options for processing option files described at Section 4.2.3.3.1, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

    • --help, -?

    Display a help message and exit.

    • --character-sets-dir=path

    The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 9.2, “The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting”.

    • --compress, -C

    Compress all information sent between the client and the server if both support compression.

    • --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'.

    • --debug-check

    Print some debugging information when the program exits. This option was added in MySQL 5.1.21.

    • --debug-info

    Print debugging information and memory and CPU usage statistics when the program exits. This option was added in MySQL 5.1.14.

    • --default-character-set=charset_name

    Use charset_name as the default character set. See Section 9.2, “The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting”.

    • --host=host_name, -h host_name

    Connect to the MySQL server on the given host.

    • --keys, -k

    Show table indexes.

    • --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”. You can use an option file to avoid giving the password on the command line.

    • --pipe, -W

    On Windows, connect to the server via a named pipe. This option applies only if the server supports named-pipe connections.

    • --port=port_num, -P port_num

    The TCP/IP port number to use for the connection.

    • --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 MySQL Server”.

    • --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.

    • --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”.

    • --status, -i

    Display extra information about each table.

    • --user=user_name, -u user_name

    The MySQL user name to use when 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 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/.

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
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (http://www.mysql.com/).