7.1. Overview of Client and Utility Programs

The following list briefly describes the MySQL client programs and utilities:

• myisamchk

  A utility to describe, check, optimize, and repair MyISAM tables. See Section 7.2, "myisamchkMyISAM Table-Maintenance Utility."

• myisamlog

  A utility that processes the contents of a MyISAM log file. See Section 7.3, "myisamlog Display MyISAM Log File Contents."

• myisampack

  A utility that compresses MyISAM tables to produce smaller read-only tables. See Section 7.4, "myisampack Generate Compressed, Read-Only MyISAM Tables."

• mysql

  The command-line tool for interactively entering SQL statements or executing them from a file in batch mode. See Section 7.5, "mysqlThe MySQL Command-Line Tool."

• mysqlaccess

  A script that checks the access privileges for a hostname, username, and database combination. See Section 7.6, "mysqlaccessClient for Checking Access Privileges."

• mysqladmin

  A client that performs administrative operations, such as creating or dropping databases, reloading the grant tables, flushing tables to disk, and reopening log files. mysqladmin can also be used to retrieve version, process, and status information from the server. See Section 7.7, "mysqladminClient for Administering a MySQL Server."

• mysqlbinlog

  A utility for reading statements from a binary log. The log of executed statements contained in the binary log files can be used to help recover from a crash. See Section 7.8, "mysqlbinlogUtility for Processing Binary Log Files."

• mysqlcheck

  A table-maintenance client that checks, repairs, analyzes, and optimizes tables. See Section 7.9, "mysqlcheckA Table Maintenance and Repair Program."

• mysqldump

  A client that dumps a MySQL database into a file as SQL statements or as tab-separated text files. See Section 7.10, "mysqldumpA Database Backup Program."

• mysqlhotcopy

  A utility that quickly makes backups of MyISAM tables while the server is running. See Section 7.11, "mysqlhotcopyA Database Backup Program."

• mysqlimport

  A client that imports text files into their respective tables using LOAD DATA INFILE. See Section 7.12, "mysqlimportA Data Import Program."

• mysqlshow

  A client that displays information about databases, tables, columns, and indexes. See Section 7.13, "mysqlshowDisplay Database, Table, and Column Information."

• mysql_zap

  A utility that kills processes that match a pattern. Section 7.14, "mysql_zapKill Processes That Match a Pattern."

• perror

  A utility that displays the meaning of system or MySQL error codes. See Section 7.15, "perrorExplain Error Codes."

• replace

  A utility program that performs string replacement in the input text. See Section 7.16, "replaceA String-Replacement Utility."

MySQL AB also provides a number of GUI tools for administering and otherwise working with MySQL servers. For basic information about these, see Chapter 3, "Using MySQL Programs."

Each MySQL program takes many different options. Most programs provide a --help option that you can use to get a full description of the program's different options. For example, try mysql --help.

MySQL client programs that communicate with the server using the MySQL client/server library use the following environment variables:

MYSQL_UNIX_PORT	The default Unix socket file; used for connections to localhost
MYSQL_TCP_PORT	The default port number; used for TCP/IP connections
MYSQL_PWD	The default password
MYSQL_DEBUG	Debug trace options when debugging
TMPDIR	The directory where temporary tables and files are created

Use of MYSQL_PWD is insecure. See Section 4.9.6, "Keeping Your Password Secure."

You can override the default option values or values specified in environment variables for all standard programs by specifying options in an option file or on the command line. See Section 3.3, "Specifying Program Options."