PT-TABLE-USAGE(1)

NAME
pt-table-usage - Analyze how queries use tables.

SYNOPSIS
Usage: pt-table-usage [OPTIONS] [FILES]

pt-table-usage reads queries from a log and analyzes how they use tables. If no FILE is specified, it reads STDIN. It prints a report for each query.

RISKS
Percona Toolkit is mature, proven in the real world, and well tested, but all database tools can pose a risk to the system and the database server. Before using this tool, please:

•   Read the tool's documentation

•   Review the tool's known "BUGS"

•   Test the tool on a non-production server

•   Backup your production server and verify the backups

DESCRIPTION
pt-table-usage reads queries from a log and analyzes how they use tables. The log should be in MySQL's slow query log format.

Table usage is more than simply an indication of which tables the query reads or writes. It also indicates data flow: data in and data out. The tool determines the data flow by the contexts in which tables appear. A single query can use a table in several different contexts simultaneously. The tool's output lists every context for every table. This CONTEXT-TABLE list indicates how data flows between tables. The "OUTPUT" section lists the possible contexts and describes how to read a table usage report.

The tool analyzes data flow down to the level of individual columns, so it is helpful if columns are identified unambiguously in the query. If a query uses only one table, then all columns must be from that table, and there's no difficulty. But if a query uses multiple tables and the column names are not table-qualified, then it is necessary to use "EXPLAIN EXTENDED", followed by "SHOW WARNINGS", to determine to which tables the columns belong.

If the tool does not know the query's default database, which can occur when the database is not printed in the log, then "EXPLAIN EXTENDED" can fail. In this case, you can specify a default database with "--database". You can also use the "--create-table-definitions" option to help resolve ambiguities.

OUTPUT
The tool prints a usage report for each table in every query, similar to the following:

  Query_id: 0x1CD27577D202A339.1
  UPDATE t1
  SELECT DUAL
  JOIN t1
  JOIN t2
  WHERE t1

  Query_id: 0x1CD27577D202A339.2
  UPDATE t2
  SELECT DUAL
  JOIN t1
  JOIN t2
  WHERE t1

The first line contains the query ID, which by default is the same as those shown in pt-query-digest reports. It is an MD5 checksum of the query's "fingerprint," which is what remains after removing literals, collapsing white space, and a variety of other transformations. The query ID has two parts separated by a period: the query ID and the table number. If you wish to use a different value to identify the query, you can specify the "--id-attribute" option.

The previous example shows two paragraphs for a single query, not two queries. Note that the query ID is identical for the two, but the table number differs. The table number increments by 1 for each table that the query updates. Only multi-table UPDATE queries can update multiple tables with a single query, so the table number is 1 for all other types of queries. (The tool does not support multi-table DELETE queries.) The example output above is from this query:

  UPDATE t1 AS a JOIN t2 AS b USING (id)
  SET a.foo="bar", b.foo="bat"
  WHERE a.id=1;

The "SET" clause indicates that the query updates two tables: "a" aliased as "t1", and "b" aliased as "t2".

After the first line, the tool prints a variable number of CONTEXT-TABLE lines. Possible contexts are as follows:

•   SELECT

    SELECT means that the query retrieves data from the table for one of two reasons. The first is to be returned to the user as part of a result set. Only SELECT queries return result sets, so the report always shows a SELECT context for SELECT queries.

    The second case is when data flows to another table as part of an INSERT or UPDATE. For example, the UPDATE query in the example above has the usage:

      SELECT DUAL

    This refers to:

      SET a.foo="bar", b.foo="bat"

    The tool uses DUAL for any values that do not originate in a table, in this case the literal values "bar" and "bat". If that "SET" clause were "SET a.foo=b.foo" instead, then the complete usage would be:

      Query_id: 0x1CD27577D202A339.1
      UPDATE t1
      SELECT t2
      JOIN t1
      JOIN t2
      WHERE t1

    The presence of a SELECT context after another context, such as UPDATE or INSERT, indicates where the UPDATE or INSERT retrieves its data. The example immediately above reflects an UPDATE query that updates rows in table "t1" with data from table "t2".

•   Any other verb

    Any other verb, such as INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, etc. may be a context. These verbs indicate that the query modifies data in some way. If a SELECT context follows one of these verbs, then the query reads data from the SELECT table and writes it to this table. This happens, for example, with INSERT..SELECT or UPDATE queries that use values from tables instead of constant values.

    These query types are not supported: SET, LOAD, and multi-table DELETE.

•   JOIN

    The JOIN context lists tables that are joined, either with an explicit JOIN in the FROM clause, or implicitly in the WHERE clause, such as "t1.id = t2.id".

•   WHERE

    The WHERE context lists tables that are used in the WHERE clause to filter results. This does not include tables that are implicitly joined in the WHERE clause; those are listed as JOIN contexts. For example:

      WHERE t1.id > 100 AND t1.id < 200 AND t2.foo IS NOT NULL

    Results in:

      WHERE t1
      WHERE t2

    The tool lists only distinct tables; that is why table "t1" is listed only once.

•   TLIST

    The TLIST context lists tables that the query accesses, but which do not appear in any other context. These tables are usually an implicit cartesian join. For example, the query "SELECT * FROM t1, t2" results in:

      Query_id: 0xBDDEB6EDA41897A8.1
      SELECT t1
      SELECT t2
      TLIST t1
      TLIST t2

    First of all, there are two SELECT contexts, because "SELECT *" selects rows from all tables; "t1" and "t2" in this case. Secondly, the tables are implicitly joined, but without any kind of join condition, which results in a cartesian join as indicated by the TLIST context for each.

EXIT STATUS
pt-table-usage exits 1 on any kind of error, or 0 if no errors.

OPTIONS
This tool accepts additional command-line arguments. Refer to the "SYNOPSIS" and usage information for details.

--ask-pass
    Prompt for a password when connecting to MySQL.

--[no]buffer-stdout
    default: yes

    Enables STDOUT buffering. Disable this option if you want to see live progress when using output post-processing tools such as "tee" or "kubectl logs".

--charset
    short form: -A; type: string

    Default character set. 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. Any other value sets binmode on STDOUT without the utf8 layer, and runs SET NAMES after connecting to MySQL.

--config
    type: Array

    Read this comma-separated list of config files; if specified, this must be the first option on the command line.

--constant-data-value
    type: string; default: DUAL

    Table to print as the source for constant data (literals). This is any data not retrieved from tables (or subqueries, because subqueries are not supported). This includes literal values such as strings ("foo") and numbers (42), or functions such as NOW(). For example, in the query "INSERT INTO t (c) VALUES ('a')", the string 'a' is constant data, so the table usage report is:

      INSERT t
      SELECT DUAL

    The first line indicates that the query inserts data into table "t", and the second line indicates that the inserted data comes from some constant value.

--[no]continue-on-error
    default: yes

    Continue to work even if there is an error.

--create-table-definitions
    type: array

    Read "CREATE TABLE" definitions from this list of comma-separated files. If you cannot use "--explain-extended" to fully qualify table and column names, you can save the output of "mysqldump --no-data" to one or more files and specify those files with this option. The tool will parse all "CREATE TABLE" definitions from the files and use this information to qualify table and column names. If a column name appears in multiple tables, or a table name appears in multiple databases, the ambiguities cannot be resolved.

--daemonize
    Fork to the background and detach from the shell. POSIX operating systems only.

--database
    short form: -D; type: string

    Default database.

--defaults-file
    short form: -F; type: string

    Only read mysql options from the given file. You must give an absolute pathname.

--explain-extended
    type: DSN

    A server to execute EXPLAIN EXTENDED queries. This may be necessary to resolve ambiguous (unqualified) column and table names.

--filter
    type: string

    Discard events for which this Perl code doesn't return true.

    This option is a string of Perl code or a file containing Perl code that is compiled into a subroutine with one argument: $event. If the given value is a readable file, then pt-table-usage reads the entire file and uses its contents as the code.

    Filters are implemented in the same fashion as in the pt-query-digest tool, so please refer to its documentation for more information.

--help
    Show help and exit.

--host
    short form: -h; type: string

    Connect to host.

--id-attribute
    type: string

    Identify each event using this attribute. The default is to use a query ID, which is an MD5 checksum of the query's fingerprint.

--log
    type: string

    Print all output to this file when daemonized.

--mysql_ssl
    short form: -s; type: int

    Create SSL MySQL connection.

--password
    short form: -p; type: string

    Password to use when connecting. If password contains commas they must be escaped with a backslash: "exam\,ple"

--pid
    type: string

    Create the given PID file. The tool won't start if the PID file already exists and the PID it contains is different than the current PID. However, if the PID file exists and the PID it contains is no longer running, the tool will overwrite the PID file with the current PID. The PID file is removed automatically when the tool exits.

--port
    short form: -P; type: int

    Port number to use for connection.

--progress
    type: array; default: time,30

    Print progress reports to STDERR. The value is a comma-separated list with two parts. The first part can be percentage, time, or iterations; the second part specifies how often an update should be printed, in percentage, seconds, or number of iterations.

--query
    type: string

    Analyze the specified query instead of reading a log file.

--read-timeout
    type: time; default: 0

    Wait this long for an event from the input; 0 to wait forever.

    This option sets the maximum time to wait for an event from the input. If an event is not received after the specified time, the tool stops reading the input and prints its reports.

    This option requires the Perl POSIX module.

--run-time
    type: time

    How long to run before exiting. The default is to run forever (you can interrupt with CTRL-C).

--set-vars
    type: Array

    Set the MySQL variables in this comma-separated list of "variable=value" pairs.

    By default, the tool sets:

       wait_timeout=10000

    Variables specified on the command line override these defaults. For example, specifying "--set-vars wait_timeout=500" overrides the defaultvalue of 10000.

    The tool prints a warning and continues if a variable cannot be set.

--socket
    short form: -S; type: string

    Socket file to use for connection.

--user
    short form: -u; type: string

    User for login if not current user.

--version
    Show version and exit.

DSN OPTIONS
These DSN options are used to create a DSN. Each option is given like "option=value". The options are case-sensitive, so P and p are not the same option. There cannot be whitespace before or after the "=" and if the value contains whitespace it must be quoted. DSN options are comma-separated. See the percona-toolkit manpage for full details.

•   A

    dsn: charset; copy: yes

    Default character set.

•   D

    copy: no

    Default database.

•   F

    dsn: mysql_read_default_file; copy: no

    Only read default options from the given file

•   h

    dsn: host; copy: yes

    Connect to host.

•   p

    dsn: password; copy: yes

    Password to use when connecting. If password contains commas they must be escaped with a backslash: "exam\,ple"

•   P

    dsn: port; copy: yes

    Port number to use for connection.

•   S

    dsn: mysql_socket; copy: no

    Socket file to use for connection.

•   u

    dsn: user; copy: yes

    User for login if not current user.

•   s

    dsn: mysql_ssl; copy: yes

    Create SSL connection

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-usage ... > FILE 2>&1

Be careful: debugging output is voluminous and can generate several megabytes of output.

ATTENTION
Using <PTDEBUG> might expose passwords. When debug is enabled, all command line parameters are shown in the output.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
You need Perl, DBI, DBD::mysql, and some core packages that ought to be installed in any reasonably new version of Perl.

BUGS
For a list of known bugs, see <https://jira.percona.com/projects/PT/issues>.

Please report bugs at <https://jira.percona.com/projects/PT>. 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".

DOWNLOADING
Visit <http://www.percona.com/software/percona-toolkit/> to download the latest release of Percona Toolkit. Or, get the latest release from the command line:

   wget percona.com/get/percona-toolkit.tar.gz

   wget percona.com/get/percona-toolkit.rpm

   wget percona.com/get/percona-toolkit.deb

You can also get individual tools from the latest release:

   wget percona.com/get/TOOL

Replace "TOOL" with the name of any tool.

AUTHORS
Daniel Nichter

ABOUT PERCONA TOOLKIT
This tool is part of Percona Toolkit, a collection of advanced command-line tools for MySQL developed by Percona. Percona Toolkit was forked from two projects in June, 2011: Maatkit and Aspersa. Those projects were created by Baron Schwartz and primarily developed by him and Daniel Nichter. Visit <http://www.percona.com/software/> to learn about other free, open-source software from Percona.

COPYRIGHT, LICENSE, AND WARRANTY
This program is copyright 2012-2026 Percona LLC and/or its affiliates.

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, version 2 along with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

VERSION
pt-table-usage 3.7.1-4