7.11 mysqlshow, Showing Databases, Tables, and Columns

7.11 mysqlshow , Showing Databases, Tables, and Columns

The mysqlshow client can be used to quickly look at which databases exist, their tables, and a table's columns or indexes.

mysqlshow provides a command-line interface to several SQL SHOW statements. 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, all matching databases are 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.

Note that in newer MySQL versions, you see only those database, 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 will require two) in order 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:

• --help , -?

  Display a help message and exit.

• --character-sets-dir= path

  The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 4.7.1, "The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting."

• --compress , -C

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

• --debug[= debug_options ] , -# [ debug_options ]

  Write a debugging log. The debug_options string often is 'd:t:o, file_name ' .

• --default- character-set = charset

  Use charset as the default character set. See Section 4.7.1, "The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting."

• --host= host_name , -h host_name

  Connect to the MySQL server on the given host.

• --keys , -k

  Show table indexes.

• --password[= password ] , -p[ password ]

  The password to use when connecting to the server. Note that if you use the short option form ( -p ), you cannot have a space between the option and the password. If no password is given on the command line, you will be prompted for one.

• --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. New in MySQL 4.1.

• --socket= path , -S path

  The socket file to use when connecting to localhost (which is the default host).

• --status , -i

  Display extra information about each table.

• -- user = user_name , -u user_name

  The MySQL username to use when connecting to the server.

• --verbose , -v

  Verbose mode. Print out more information what the program does. This option can be used multiple times to increase the amount of information.

• --version , -V

  Display version information and exit.