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14.6.4 MySQL Proxy Scripting »
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14.6.3. MySQL Proxy Command-Line Options

To start mysql-proxy you can just run the command directly. However, for most situations you will want to specify at the very least the address/host name and port number of the backend MySQL server to which the MySQL Proxy should pass on queries.

You can get a list of the supported command-line options using the --help-all command-line option. The majority of these options set up the environment, either in terms of the address/port number that mysql-proxy should listen on for connections, or the onward connection to a MySQL server. A full description of the options is shown below:

  • --help-all — show all help options.

  • --help-admin — show options for the admin-module.

  • --help-proxy — Show options for the proxy-module.

  • --admin-address=host:port — specify the host name (or IP address) and port for the administration port. The default is localhost:4041.

  • --proxy-address=host:port — the listening host name (or IP address) and port of the proxy server. The default is localhost:4040.

  • --proxy-read-only-backend-address=host:port — the listening host name (or IP address) and port of the proxy server for read-only connections. The default is for this information not to be set.

  • --proxy-backend-addresses=host:port — the host name (or IP address) and port of the MySQL server to connect to. You can specify multiple backend servers by supplying multiple options. Clients are connected to each backend server in round-robin fashion. For example, if you specify two servers A and B, the first client connection will go to server A; the second client connection to server B and the third client connection to server A.

  • --proxy-skip-profiling — disables profiling of queries (tracking time statistics). The default is for tracking to be enabled.

  • --proxy-fix-bug-25371 — gets round an issue when connecting to a MySQL server later than 5.1.12 when using a MySQL client library of any earlier version.

  • --proxy-lua-script=file — specify the Lua script file to be loaded. Note that the script file is not physically loaded and parsed until a connection is made. Also note that the specified Lua script is reloaded for each connection; if the content of the Lua script changes while mysql-proxy is running then the updated content will automatically be used when a new connection is made.

  • --daemon — starts the proxy in daemon mode.

  • --pid-file=file — sets the name of the file to be used to store the process ID.

  • --version — show the version number.

The most common usage is as a simple proxy service (that is, without addition scripting). For basic proxy operation you must specify at least one proxy-backend-addresses option to specify the MySQL server to connect to by default: 

shell> mysql-proxy
--proxy-backend-addresses=MySQL.example.com:3306

The default proxy port is 4040, so you can connect to your MySQL server through the proxy by specifying the host name and port details: 

shell> mysql --host=localhost --port=4040

If your server requires authentication information then this will be passed through natively without alteration by mysql-proxy, so you must also specify the authentication information if required: 

shell> mysql --host=localhost --port=4040 \
   --user=username --password=password

You can also connect to a read-only port (which filters out UPDATE and INSERT queries) by connecting to the read-only port. By default the host name is the default, and the port is 4042, but you can alter the host/port information by using the --proxy-read-only-address command-line option.

For more detailed information on how to use these command line options, and mysql-proxy in general in combination with Lua scripts, see Section 14.6.5, “Using MySQL Proxy”.