MYSQLSHOW(1)

NAME
mysqlshow - display database, table, and column information

SYNOPSIS

mysqlshow [options] [db_name [tbl_name [col_name]]]

DESCRIPTION

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. See Section 5.4, “SHOW Syntax”.

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 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 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 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. 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, you are 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.

•   --show-table-type

    Show a column indicating the table type, as in SHOW FULL TABLES. Added in MySQL 5.0.4.

•   --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.

SEE ALSO
msql2mysql(1), myisamchk(1), myisamlog(1), myisampack(1), mysql(1), mysql.server(1), mysql_config(1), mysql_fix_privilege_tables(1), mysql_zap(1), mysqlaccess(1), mysqladmin(1), mysqlbinlog(1), mysqlcheck(1), mysqld(1), mysqld_multi(1), mysqld_safe(1), mysqldump(1), mysqlhotcopy(1), mysqlimport(1), mysqlmanager(1), perror(1), replace(1), safe_mysqld(1)

For more information, please refer to the MySQL Reference Manual, which may already be installed locally and which is also available online at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.

AUTHOR
MySQL AB (http://www.mysql.com/). This software comes with no warranty.