MySQL :: MySQL 5.6 Reference Manual :: 4.5.6 mysqlshow — Display Database, Table, and Column Information

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4.5.6 mysqlshow — Display Database, Table, and Column Information

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 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] groups of an option file. For information about option files used by MySQL programs, see Section 4.2.6, “Using Option Files”.

Table 4.13 mysqlshow Options

Format	Description	Introduced
--bind-address	Use specified network interface to connect to MySQL Server	5.6.1
--compress	Compress all information sent between client and server
--count	Show the number of rows per table
--debug	Write debugging log
--debug-check	Print debugging information when program exits
--debug-info	Print debugging information, memory, and CPU statistics when program exits
--default-auth	Authentication plugin to use	5.6.2
--default-character-set	Specify default character set
--defaults-extra-file	Read named option file in addition to usual option files
--defaults-file	Read only named option file
--defaults-group-suffix	Option group suffix value
--enable-cleartext-plugin	Enable cleartext authentication plugin	5.6.28
--help	Display help message and exit
--host	Connect to MySQL server on given host
--keys	Show table indexes
--login-path	Read login path options from .mylogin.cnf	5.6.6
--no-defaults	Read no option files
--password	Password to use when connecting to server
--pipe	On Windows, connect to server using named pipe
--plugin-dir	Directory where plugins are installed	5.6.2
--port	TCP/IP port number to use for connection
--print-defaults	Print default options
--protocol	Connection protocol to use
--secure-auth	Do not send passwords to server in old (pre-4.1) format	5.6.17
--shared-memory-base-name	The name of shared memory to use for shared-memory connections
--show-table-type	Show a column indicating the table type
--socket	For connections to localhost, the Unix socket file to use
--ssl	Enable secure connection
--ssl-ca	Path of file that contains list of trusted SSL CAs
--ssl-capath	Path of directory that contains trusted SSL CA certificates in PEM format
--ssl-cert	Path of file that contains X509 certificate in PEM format
--ssl-cipher	List of permitted ciphers to use for connection encryption
--ssl-crl	Path of file that contains certificate revocation lists	5.6.3
--ssl-crlpath	Path of directory that contains certificate revocation list files	5.6.3
--ssl-key	Path of file that contains X509 key in PEM format
--ssl-mode	Security state of connection to server	5.6.30
--ssl-verify-server-cert	Verify server certificate Common Name value against host name used when connecting to server
--status	Display extra information about each table
--user	MySQL user name to use when connecting to server
--verbose	Verbose mode
--version	Display version information and exit

--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.
This option is supported beginning with MySQL 5.6.1.
--character-sets-dir=dir_name
The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 10.5, “Character Set Configuration”.
--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.
--debug-info
Print debugging information and memory and CPU usage statistics when the program exits.
--default-character-set=charset_name
Use charset_name as the default character set. See Section 10.5, “Character Set Configuration”.
--default-auth=plugin
A hint about the client-side authentication plugin to use. See Section 6.3.7, “Pluggable Authentication”.
This option was added in MySQL 5.6.2.
--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.
--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.
--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.
--enable-cleartext-plugin
Enable the mysql_clear_password cleartext authentication plugin. (See Section 6.5.1.7, “The Cleartext Client-Side Authentication Plugin”.)
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 Section 4.6.6, “mysql_config_editor — MySQL Configuration Utility”. This option was added in MySQL 5.6.6.
--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 Section 4.6.6, “mysql_config_editor — MySQL Configuration Utility”.)
--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, mysqlshow prompts for one.
Specifying a password on the command line should be considered insecure. See Section 6.1.2.1, “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 using a named pipe. This option applies only if the server supports named-pipe connections.
--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 6.3.7, “Pluggable Authentication”.
This option was added in MySQL 5.6.2.
--port=port_num, -P port_num
The TCP/IP port number to use for the connection.
--print-defaults
Print the program name and all options that it gets from option files.
--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 permissible values, see Section 4.2.2, “Connecting to the MySQL Server”.
--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 and support for them will be removed in a future MySQL release. For account upgrade instructions, see Section 6.5.1.3, “Migrating Away from Pre-4.1 Password Hashing and the mysql_old_password Plugin”.

Note

This option is deprecated and will 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.
The server must be started with the --shared-memory option to enable 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.
--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 Section 6.4.5, “Command Options for Secure Connections”.
--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.

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User Comments

Posted by arjan muyen on June 18, 2004

I needed to drop 38 tables on database php1 and could not find a metadata table on which I could execute SQL like: delete from metadata where table_name like 'phpbb208%'
Workaround-Solution:

mysqlshow -uroot -p php1 phpbb208\\_% |sed 's/[|+-]//g'|sed 's/[ ]*$/,/'>drop208.sql
(**note the \\ to get the phpbb208_% wildcard**)

provided me the table_name, table_name, ... list
editing drop208.sql and adding 'drop table' provided me the complete drop-statement.

mysql php1 -u root -p < drop208.sql

Done

Posted by Nan Li on April 7, 2005

Another example use of mysqlshow.
I wanted to have all the tables in a database that contains a certain field.
Here is the bash shell script I wrote:

#!/bin/sh
#This scripts returns all the tables in a database that contains some field

function usage
{
echo "Usage: $0 USER DB COLUMN"
}

function ExistsColumn
{
local USER=$1
local DB=$2
local TABLE=$3
local COLUMN=$4

SEARCH_RESULT=$(mysqlshow -u ${USER} ${DB} ${TABLE} ${COLUMN} | awk '{ if ( NR == 5) print $2 }')
if [ "${COLUMN}" = "${SEARCH_RESULT}" ];
then
echo "true";
else
echo "false";
fi
}

function main
{
local USER=$1
local DB=$2
local COLUMN=$3

if [[ "${USER}" = "" || "${DB}" = "" || "${COLUMN}" = "" ]];
then
usage
exit 1
fi

all_tables=$(mysqlshow -u ${USER} ${DB} | \
awk '{ if (NR >4 ) print $_}' | \
sed -e 's/[|+-]//g; /^$/d ' | \
xargs )
for TABLE in ${all_tables}; do
if [ "true" = "$(ExistsColumn $USER $DB $TABLE $COLUMN)" ];
then
echo $TABLE
fi
done

}

main $*

Posted by Arnoldas Brazys on November 16, 2010

Was searching how to describe all tables in database, here goes a one liner

echo "show tables;" | mysql table_name | grep -v "Tables_in_" | while read table; do echo "Table: $table"; (echo "describe $table" | mysql -t table_name); done >> show_tables_verbose.txt

Posted by joshua sox on December 4, 2013

This script using mysqlshow will dump every user database to a folder marked by the current date. you can also dump system databases by using -u root -p password in the command. the paths created and used are relative so create a dir where you want to keep them and place the script inside.

#! /bin/bash
d=`date +%y%m%d`
db=$(mysqlshow | sed '1,/Databases/d' | awk '{print $2}')
mkdir -p $d-dump
cd $d-dump
for dbs in $db; do mysqldump $dbs > $d-$dbs.sql
wait
done
cd ../
exit