--help, -?

Display a help message and exit.

--auto-rehash

Enable automatic rehashing. This option is on by default, which enables database, table, and column name completion. Use --disable-auto-rehash to disable rehashing. That causes mysql to start faster, but you must issue the rehash command or its \# shortcut if you want to use name completion.

To complete a name, enter the first part and press Tab. If the name is unambiguous, mysql completes it. Otherwise, you can press Tab again to see the possible names that begin with what you have typed so far. Completion does not occur if there is no default database.

--auto-vertical-output

Cause result sets to be displayed vertically if they are too wide for the current window, and using normal tabular format otherwise. (This applies to statements terminated by ; or \G.)

--batch, -B

Print results using tab as the column separator, with each row on a new line. With this option, mysql does not use the history file.

Batch mode results in nontabular output format and escaping of special characters. Escaping may be disabled by using raw mode; see the description for the --raw option.

--binary-mode

This option helps when processing mysqlbinlog output that may contain BLOB values. By default, mysql translates \r\n in statement strings to \n and interprets \0 as the statement terminator. --binary-mode disables both features. It also disables all mysql commands except charset and delimiter in non-interactive mode (for input piped to mysql or loaded using the source command).

This option was added in MySQL 5.6.3.

--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”.

--column-names

Write column names in results.

--column-type-info

Display result set metadata.

--comments, -c

Whether to preserve comments in statements sent to the server. The default is --skip-comments (discard comments), enable with --comments (preserve comments).

--compress, -C

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

--connect-expired-password

Indicate to the server that the client can handle sandbox mode if the account used to connect has an expired password. This can be useful for noninteractive invocations of mysql because normally the server disconnects noninteractive clients that attempt to connect using an account with an expired password. (See Section 6.3.6, “Password Expiration and Sandbox Mode”.) This option was added in MySQL 5.6.12.

--database=db_name, -D db_name

The database to use. This is useful primarily in an option file.

--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/mysql.trace.

This option is available only if MySQL was built using WITH_DEBUG. MySQL release binaries provided by Oracle are not built using this option.

--debug-check

Print some debugging information when the program exits.

--debug-info, -T

Print debugging information and memory and CPU usage statistics when the program exits.

--default-auth=plugin

A hint about the client-side authentication plugin to use. See Section 6.3.7, “Pluggable Authentication”.

--default-character-set=charset_name

Use charset_name as the default character set for the client and connection.

This option can be useful if the operating system uses one character set and the mysql client by default uses another. In this case, output may be formatted incorrectly. You can usually fix such issues by using this option to force the client to use the system character set instead.

For more information, see Section 10.1.4, “Connection Character Sets and Collations”, and Section 10.5, “Character Set Configuration”.

--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, mysql normally reads the [client] and [mysql] groups. If the --defaults-group-suffix=_other option is given, mysql also reads the [client_other] and [mysql_other] groups.

--delimiter=str

Set the statement delimiter. The default is the semicolon character (;).

--disable-named-commands

Disable named commands. Use the \* form only, or use named commands only at the beginning of a line ending with a semicolon (;). mysql starts with this option enabled by default. However, even with this option, long-format commands still work from the first line. See Section 4.5.1.2, “mysql Commands”.

--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 5.6.7.

--execute=statement, -e statement

Execute the statement and quit. The default output format is like that produced with --batch. See Section 4.2.4, “Using Options on the Command Line”, for some examples. With this option, mysql does not use the history file.

--force, -f

Continue even if an SQL error occurs.

--histignore

A colon-separated list of one or more patterns specifying statements to ignore for logging purposes. These patterns are added to the default pattern list ("*IDENTIFIED*:*PASSWORD*"). The value specified for this option affects logging of statements written to the history file. For more information, see Section 4.5.1.3, “mysql Logging”. This option was added in MySQL 5.6.8.

--host=host_name, -h host_name

Connect to the MySQL server on the given host.

--html, -H

Produce HTML output.

--ignore-spaces, -i

Ignore spaces after function names. The effect of this is described in the discussion for the IGNORE_SPACE SQL mode (see Section 5.1.8, “Server SQL Modes”).

--init-command=str

SQL statement to execute after connecting to the server. If auto-reconnect is enabled, the statement is executed again after reconnection occurs.

--line-numbers

Write line numbers for errors. Disable this with --skip-line-numbers.

--local-infile[={0|1}]

Enable or disable LOCAL capability for LOAD DATA INFILE. With no value, the option enables LOCAL. The option may be given as --local-infile=0 or --local-infile=1 to explicitly disable or enable LOCAL. Enabling LOCAL has no effect if the server does not also support it.

--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.

--named-commands, -G

Enable named mysql commands. Long-format commands are permitted, not just short-format commands. For example, quit and \q both are recognized. Use --skip-named-commands to disable named commands. See Section 4.5.1.2, “mysql Commands”.

--no-auto-rehash, -A

This has the same effect as --skip-auto-rehash. See the description for --auto-rehash.

--no-beep, -b

Do not beep when errors occur.

--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”.)

--one-database, -o

Ignore statements except those that occur while the default database is the one named on the command line. This option is rudimentary and should be used with care. Statement filtering is based only on USE statements.

Initially, mysql executes statements in the input because specifying a database db_name on the command line is equivalent to inserting USE db_name at the beginning of the input. Then, for each USE statement encountered, mysql accepts or rejects following statements depending on whether the database named is the one on the command line. The content of the statements is immaterial.

Suppose that mysql is invoked to process this set of statements:

DELETE FROM db2.t2;
USE db2;
DROP TABLE db1.t1;
CREATE TABLE db1.t1 (i INT);
USE db1;
INSERT INTO t1 (i) VALUES(1);
CREATE TABLE db2.t1 (j INT);

If the command line is mysql --force --one-database db1, mysql handles the input as follows:

--pager[=command]

Use the given command for paging query output. If the command is omitted, the default pager is the value of your PAGER environment variable. Valid pagers are less, more, cat [> filename], and so forth. This option works only on Unix and only in interactive mode. To disable paging, use --skip-pager. Section 4.5.1.2, “mysql Commands”, discusses output paging further.

--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, mysql 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 mysql does not find it. See Section 6.3.7, “Pluggable Authentication”.

--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.

--prompt=format_str

Set the prompt to the specified format. The default is mysql>. The special sequences that the prompt can contain are described in Section 4.5.1.2, “mysql Commands”.

--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”.

--quick, -q

Do not cache each query result, print each row as it is received. This may slow down the server if the output is suspended. With this option, mysql does not use the history file.

--raw, -r

For tabular output, the “boxing” around columns enables one column value to be distinguished from another. For nontabular output (such as is produced in batch mode or when the --batch or --silent option is given), special characters are escaped in the output so they can be identified easily. Newline, tab, NUL, and backslash are written as \n, \t, \0, and \\. The --raw option disables this character escaping.

The following example demonstrates tabular versus nontabular output and the use of raw mode to disable escaping:

% mysql
mysql> SELECT CHAR(92);
+----------+
| CHAR(92) |
+----------+
| \        |
+----------+

% mysql -s
mysql> SELECT CHAR(92);
CHAR(92)
\\

% mysql -s -r
mysql> SELECT CHAR(92);
CHAR(92)
\

--reconnect

If the connection to the server is lost, automatically try to reconnect. A single reconnect attempt is made each time the connection is lost. To suppress reconnection behavior, use --skip-reconnect.

--safe-updates, --i-am-a-dummy, -U

Permit only those UPDATE and DELETE statements that specify which rows to modify by using key values. If you have set this option in an option file, you can override it by using --safe-updates on the command line. See Section 4.5.1.6, “mysql Tips”, for more information about this option.

--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. As of MySQL 5.6.7, this option is enabled by default; use --skip-secure-auth to disable it.

--server-public-key-path=file_name

The path name to a file containing the server RSA public key. The file must be in PEM format. The public key is used for RSA encryption of the client password for connections to the server made using accounts that authenticate with the sha256_password plugin. This option is ignored for client accounts that do not authenticate with that plugin. It is also ignored if password encryption is not needed, as is the case when the client connects to the server using an SSL connection.

The server sends the public key to the client as needed, so it is not necessary to use this option for RSA password encryption to occur. It is more efficient to do so because then the server need not send the key.

For additional discussion regarding use of the sha256_password plugin, including how to get the RSA public key, see Section 6.5.1.4, “The SHA-256 Authentication Plugin”.

This option is available only if MySQL was built using OpenSSL. It was added in MySQL 5.6.6 under the name --server-public-key and renamed in 5.6.7 to --server-public-key-path.

--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-warnings

Cause warnings to be shown after each statement if there are any. This option applies to interactive and batch mode.

--sigint-ignore

Ignore SIGINT signals (typically the result of typing Control+C).

--silent, -s

Silent mode. Produce less output. This option can be given multiple times to produce less and less output.

This option results in nontabular output format and escaping of special characters. Escaping may be disabled by using raw mode; see the description for the --raw option.

--skip-column-names, -N

Do not write column names in results.

--skip-line-numbers, -L

Do not write line numbers for errors. Useful when you want to compare result files that include error messages.

--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”.

--table, -t

Display output in table format. This is the default for interactive use, but can be used to produce table output in batch mode.

--tee=file_name

Append a copy of output to the given file. This option works only in interactive mode. Section 4.5.1.2, “mysql Commands”, discusses tee files further.

--unbuffered, -n

Flush the buffer after each query.

--user=user_name, -u user_name

The MySQL user name to use when connecting to the server.

--verbose, -v

Verbose mode. Produce more output about what the program does. This option can be given multiple times to produce more and more output. (For example, -v -v -v produces table output format even in batch mode.)

--version, -V

Display version information and exit.

--vertical, -E

Print query output rows vertically (one line per column value). Without this option, you can specify vertical output for individual statements by terminating them with \G.

--wait, -w

If the connection cannot be established, wait and retry instead of aborting.

--xml, -X

Produce XML output.

<field name="column_name">NULL</field>

The output when --xml is used with mysql matches that of mysqldump --xml. See Section 4.5.4, “mysqldump — A Database Backup Program” for details.

The XML output also uses an XML namespace, as shown here:

shell> mysql --xml -uroot -e "SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'version%'"
<?xml version="1.0"?>

<resultset statement="SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'version%'" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<row>
<field name="Variable_name">version</field>
<field name="Value">5.0.40-debug</field>
</row>

<row>
<field name="Variable_name">version_comment</field>
<field name="Value">Source distribution</field>
</row>

<row>
<field name="Variable_name">version_compile_machine</field>
<field name="Value">i686</field>
</row>

<row>
<field name="Variable_name">version_compile_os</field>
<field name="Value">suse-linux-gnu</field>
</row>
</resultset>

(See Bug #25946.)

connect_timeout

The number of seconds before connection timeout. (Default value is 0.)

max_allowed_packet

The maximum size of the buffer for client/server communication. The default is 16MB, the maximum is 1GB.

max_join_size

The automatic limit for rows in a join when using --safe-updates. (Default value is 1,000,000.)

net_buffer_length

The buffer size for TCP/IP and socket communication. (Default value is 16KB.)

select_limit

The automatic limit for SELECT statements when using --safe-updates. (Default value is 1,000.)