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MySQL 5.1 Reference Manual :: 4 MySQL Programs :: 4.5 MySQL Client Programs :: 4.5.2 mysqladmin — Client for Administering a MySQL Server
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4.5.2. mysqladmin — Client for Administering a MySQL Server

mysqladmin is a client for performing administrative operations. You can use it to check the server's configuration and current status, to create and drop databases, and more.

Invoke mysqladmin like this: 

shell> mysqladmin [options] command [command-arg] [command [command-arg]] ...

mysqladmin supports the following commands. Some of the commands take an argument following the command name.

  • create db_name

    Create a new database named db_name.

  • debug

    Tell the server to write debug information to the error log.

    Beginning with MySQL 5.1.12, this includes information about the Event Scheduler. See Section 19.4.5, “Event Scheduler Status”.

  • drop db_name

    Delete the database named db_name and all its tables.

  • extended-status

    Display the server status variables and their values.

    MySQL Enterprise.  For expert advice on using server status variables, subscribe to the MySQL Enterprise Monitor. For more information, see http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html.

  • flush-hosts

    Flush all information in the host cache.

  • flush-logs

    Flush all logs.

  • flush-privileges

    Reload the grant tables (same as reload).

  • flush-status

    Clear status variables.

  • flush-tables

    Flush all tables.

  • flush-threads

    Flush the thread cache.

  • kill id,id,...

    Kill server threads. If multiple thread ID values are given, there must be no spaces in the list.

  • old-password new-password

    This is like the password command but stores the password using the old (pre-4.1) password-hashing format. (See Section 5.3.2.3, “Password Hashing in MySQL”.)

    MySQL Enterprise.  For expert advice on the security implications of using the old-password command, subscribe to the MySQL Enterprise Monitor. For more information, see http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html.

  • password new-password

    Set a new password. This changes the password to new-password for the account that you use with mysqladmin for connecting to the server. Thus, the next time you invoke mysqladmin (or any other client program) using the same account, you will need to specify the new password.

    If the new-password value contains spaces or other characters that are special to your command interpreter, you need to enclose it within quotes. On Windows, be sure to use double quotes rather than single quotes; single quotes are not stripped from the password, but rather are interpreted as part of the password. For example: 

    shell> mysqladmin password "my new password"

    Caution

    Do not use this command used if the server was started with the --skip-grant-tables option. No password change will be applied. This is true even if you precede the password command with flush-privileges on the same command line to re-enable the grant tables because the flush operation occurs after you connect. However, you can use mysqladmin flush-privileges to re-enable the grant table and then use a separate mysqladmin password command to change the password.

  • ping

    Check whether the server is alive. The return status from mysqladmin is 0 if the server is running, 1 if it is not. This is 0 even in case of an error such as Access denied, because this means that the server is running but refused the connection, which is different from the server not running.

  • processlist

    Show a list of active server threads. This is like the output of the SHOW PROCESSLIST statement. If the --verbose option is given, the output is like that of SHOW FULL PROCESSLIST. (See Section 12.4.5.31, “SHOW PROCESSLIST Syntax”.)

  • reload

    Reload the grant tables.

  • refresh

    Flush all tables and close and open log files.

  • shutdown

    Stop the server.

  • start-slave

    Start replication on a slave server.

  • status

    Display a short server status message.

  • stop-slave

    Stop replication on a slave server.

  • variables

    Display the server system variables and their values.

    MySQL Enterprise.  For expert advice on using server system variables, subscribe to the MySQL Enterprise Monitor. For more information, see http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html.

  • version

    Display version information from the server.

All commands can be shortened to any unique prefix. For example: 

shell> mysqladmin proc stat
+----+-------+-----------+----+---------+------+-------+------------------+
| Id | User  | Host      | db | Command | Time | State | Info             |
+----+-------+-----------+----+---------+------+-------+------------------+
| 51 | monty | localhost |    | Query   | 0    |       | show processlist |
+----+-------+-----------+----+---------+------+-------+------------------+
Uptime: 1473624  Threads: 1  Questions: 39487
Slow queries: 0  Opens: 541  Flush tables: 1
Open tables: 19  Queries per second avg: 0.0268

The mysqladmin status command result displays the following values:

  • Uptime

    The number of seconds the MySQL server has been running.

  • Threads

    The number of active threads (clients).

  • Questions

    The number of questions (queries) from clients since the server was started.

  • Slow queries

    The number of queries that have taken more than long_query_time seconds. See Section 5.2.5, “The Slow Query Log”.

  • Opens

    The number of tables the server has opened.

  • Flush tables

    The number of flush-*, refresh, and reload commands the server has executed.

  • Open tables

    The number of tables that currently are open.

  • Memory in use

    The amount of memory allocated directly by mysqld. This value is displayed only when MySQL has been compiled with --with-debug=full.

  • Maximum memory used

    The maximum amount of memory allocated directly by mysqld. This value is displayed only when MySQL has been compiled with --with-debug=full.

If you execute mysqladmin shutdown when connecting to a local server using a Unix socket file, mysqladmin waits until the server's process ID file has been removed, to ensure that the server has stopped properly.

mysqladmin supports the following options, which can be specified on the command line or in the [mysqladmin] and [client] option file groups. mysqladmin also supports the options for processing option files described at Section 4.2.3.3.1, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

Table 4.3. mysqladmin Options

Format Config File Description Introduction Deprecated Removed
--compress compress Compress all information sent between the client and the server      
--connect_timeout=seconds connect_timeout The number of seconds before connection timeout      
--count=# count The number of iterations to make for repeated command execution      
--debug[=debug_options] debug Write a debugging log      
--debug-check debug-check Print debugging information when the program exits 5.1.21    
--debug-info debug-info Print debugging information, memory and CPU statistics when the program exits 5.1.14    
--default-character-set=charset_name default-character-set Use charset_name as the default character set      
--force force Continue even if an SQL error occurs      
--help   Display help message and exit      
--host=host_name host Connect to the MySQL server on the given host      
--no-beep no-beep Do not beep when errors occur 5.1.17    
--password[=password] password The password to use when connecting to the server      
--pipe   On Windows, connect to server via a named pipe      
--port=port_num port The TCP/IP port number to use for the connection      
--protocol=type protocol The connection protocol to use      
--relative relative Show the difference between the current and previous values when used with the --sleep option      
--shutdown_timeout=seconds shutdown_timeout The maximum number of seconds to wait for server shutdown      
--silent silent Silent mode      
--sleep=delay sleep Execute commands repeatedly, sleeping for delay seconds in between      
--socket=path socket For connections to localhost      
--ssl-ca=file_name ssl-ca The path to a file that contains a list of trusted SSL CAs      
--ssl-capath=directory_name ssl-capath The path to a directory that contains trusted SSL CA certificates in PEM format      
--ssl-cert=file_name ssl-cert The name of the SSL certificate file to use for establishing a secure connection      
--ssl-cipher=cipher_list ssl-cipher A list of allowable ciphers to use for SSL encryption      
--ssl-key=file_name ssl-key The name of the SSL key file to use for establishing a secure connection      
--ssl-verify-server-cert ssl-verify-server-cert The server's Common Name value in its certificate is verified against the host name used when connecting to the server      
--user=user_name, user The MySQL user name to use when connecting to the server      
--verbose   Verbose mode      
--version   Display version information and exit      
--vertical vertical Print query output rows vertically (one line per column value)      
--wait wait If the connection cannot be established, wait and retry instead of aborting      

  • --help, -?

    Display a help message and exit.

  • --character-sets-dir=path

    The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 9.5, “Character Set Configuration”.

  • --compress, -C

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

  • --count=N, -c N

    The number of iterations to make for repeated command execution if the --sleep option is given.

  • --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,/tmp/mysqladmin.trace'.

  • --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 9.5, “Character Set Configuration”.

  • --force, -f

    Do not ask for confirmation for the drop db_name command. With multiple commands, continue even if an error occurs.

  • --host=host_name, -h host_name

    Connect to the MySQL server on the given host.

  • --no-beep, -b

    Suppress the warning beep that is emitted by default for errors such as a failure to connect to the server. This option was added in MySQL 5.1.17.

  • --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, mysqladmin prompts for one.

    Specifying a password on the command line should be considered insecure. See Section 5.3.2.2, “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”.

  • --relative, -r

    Show the difference between the current and previous values when used with the --sleep option. Currently, this option works only with the extended-status command.

  • --silent, -s

    Exit silently if a connection to the server cannot be established.

  • --sleep=delay, -i delay

    Execute commands repeatedly, sleeping for delay seconds in between. The --count option determines the number of iterations. If --count is not given, mysqladmin executes commands indefinitely until interrupted.

  • --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 5.5.6.3, “SSL Command Options”.

  • --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.

  • --version, -V

    Display version information and exit.

  • --vertical, -E

    Print output vertically. This is similar to --relative, but prints output vertically.

  • --wait[=count], -w[count]

    If the connection cannot be established, wait and retry instead of aborting. If a count value is given, it indicates the number of times to retry. The default is one time.

You can also set the following variables by using --var_name=value The --set-variable format is deprecated and is removed in MySQL 5.5. syntax:

  • connect_timeout

    The maximum number of seconds before connection timeout. The default value is 43200 (12 hours).

  • shutdown_timeout

    The maximum number of seconds to wait for server shutdown. The default value is 3600 (1 hour).


User Comments

Posted by time e.less on April 16 2007 11:17pm[Delete] [Edit]

In 4.1 and 5.0 version of this page, the mysqladmin proc stat explanation includes for everything EXCEPT queries/sec average. Given now I'm graphing this value, and the graphs look dubious, I'd guess this stat isn't really meant to be used anymore.

The average is either since mysqld uptime, or at least for a very large window of time, because when I stop sending any queries to a server, the falloff ramp is exceedingly slow (it looks like it'd take months for it to fall to zero, if it would ever do).

Take care with this stat. It might not measure what you think it does.

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