6.5.2 mysqladmin — A MySQL Server Administration Program

mysqladmin is a client for performing administrative operations. You can use it to check the server's configuration and current status, to create and drop databases, and more.

Invoke mysqladmin like this:

mysqladmin [options] command [command-arg] [command [command-arg]] ...

mysqladmin supports the following commands. Some of the commands take an argument following the command name.

• create db_name

  Create a new database named db_name.

• debug

  Tells the server to write debug information to the error log. The connected user must have the SUPER privilege. Format and content of this information is subject to change.

  This includes information about the Event Scheduler. See Section 27.4.5, “Event Scheduler Status”.

• drop db_name

  Delete the database named db_name and all its tables.

• extended-status

  Display the server status variables and their values.

• flush-hosts

  Flush all information in the host cache. See Section 7.1.12.3, “DNS Lookups and the Host Cache”.

• flush-logs [log_type ...]

  Flush all logs.

  The mysqladmin flush-logs command permits optional log types to be given, to specify which logs to flush. Following the flush-logs command, you can provide a space-separated list of one or more of the following log types: binary, engine, error, general, relay, slow. These correspond to the log types that can be specified for the FLUSH LOGS SQL statement.

• flush-privileges

  Reload the grant tables (same as reload).

• flush-status

  Clear status variables.

• flush-tables

  Flush all tables.

• kill id,id,...

  Kill server threads. If multiple thread ID values are given, there must be no spaces in the list.

  To kill threads belonging to other users, the connected user must have the CONNECTION_ADMIN privilege (or the deprecated SUPER privilege).

• password new_password

  Set a new password. This changes the password to new_password for the account that you use with mysqladmin for connecting to the server. Thus, the next time you invoke mysqladmin (or any other client program) using the same account, you must specify the new password.

  Warning

  Setting a password using mysqladmin should be considered insecure. On some systems, your password becomes visible to system status programs such as ps that may be invoked by other users to display command lines. MySQL clients typically overwrite the command-line password argument with zeros during their initialization sequence. However, there is still a brief interval during which the value is visible. Also, on some systems this overwriting strategy is ineffective and the password remains visible to ps. (SystemV Unix systems and perhaps others are subject to this problem.)

  If the new_password value contains spaces or other characters that are special to your command interpreter, you need to enclose it within quotation marks. On Windows, be sure to use double quotation marks rather than single quotation marks; single quotation marks are not stripped from the password, but rather are interpreted as part of the password. For example:

  mysqladmin password "my new password"

  The new password can be omitted following the password command. In this case, mysqladmin prompts for the password value, which enables you to avoid specifying the password on the command line. Omitting the password value should be done only if password is the final command on the mysqladmin command line. Otherwise, the next argument is taken as the password.

  Caution

  Do not use this command used if the server was started with the --skip-grant-tables option. No password change is applied. This is true even if you precede the password command with flush-privileges on the same command line to re-enable the grant tables because the flush operation occurs after you connect. However, you can use mysqladmin flush-privileges to re-enable the grant table and then use a separate mysqladmin password command to change the password.

• ping

  Check whether the server is available. The return status from mysqladmin is 0 if the server is running, 1 if it is not. This is 0 even in case of an error such as Access denied, because this means that the server is running but refused the connection, which is different from the server not running.

• processlist

  Show a list of active server threads. This is like the output of the SHOW PROCESSLIST statement. If the --verbose option is given, the output is like that of SHOW FULL PROCESSLIST. (See Section 15.7.7.31, “SHOW PROCESSLIST Statement”.)

• reload

  Reload the grant tables.

• refresh

  Flush all tables and close and open log files.

• shutdown

  Stop the server.

• start-replica

  Start replication on a replica server.

• start-slave

  This is a deprecated alias for start-replica.

• status

  Display a short server status message.

• stop-replica

  Stop replication on a replica server.

• stop-slave

  This is a deprecated alias for stop-replica.

• variables

  Display the server system variables and their values.

• version

  Display version information from the server.

All commands can be shortened to any unique prefix. For example:

$> mysqladmin proc stat
+----+-------+-----------+----+---------+------+-------+------------------+
| Id | User  | Host      | db | Command | Time | State | Info             |
+----+-------+-----------+----+---------+------+-------+------------------+
| 51 | jones | localhost |    | Query   | 0    |       | show processlist |
+----+-------+-----------+----+---------+------+-------+------------------+
Uptime: 1473624  Threads: 1  Questions: 39487
Slow queries: 0  Opens: 541  Flush tables: 1
Open tables: 19  Queries per second avg: 0.0268

The mysqladmin status command result displays the following values:

• Uptime

  The number of seconds the MySQL server has been running.

• Threads

  The number of active threads (clients).

• Questions

  The number of questions (queries) from clients since the server was started.

• Slow queries

  The number of queries that have taken more than long_query_time seconds. See Section 7.4.5, “The Slow Query Log”.

• Opens

  The number of tables the server has opened.

• Flush tables

  The number of flush-*, refresh, and reload commands the server has executed.

• Open tables

  The number of tables that currently are open.

If you execute mysqladmin shutdown when connecting to a local server using a Unix socket file, mysqladmin waits until the server's process ID file has been removed, to ensure that the server has stopped properly.

mysqladmin supports the following options, which can be specified on the command line or in the [mysqladmin] and [client] groups of an option file. For information about option files used by MySQL programs, see Section 6.2.2.2, “Using Option Files”.

Table 6.11 mysqladmin Options

Option Name	Description
--bind-address	Use specified network interface to connect to MySQL Server
--character-sets-dir	Directory where character sets can be found
--compress	Compress all information sent between client and server
--compression-algorithms	Permitted compression algorithms for connections to server
--connect-timeout	Number of seconds before connection timeout
--count	Number of iterations to make for repeated command execution
--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
--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
--force	Continue even if an SQL error occurs
--get-server-public-key	Request RSA public key from server
--help	Display help message and exit
--host	Host on which MySQL server is located
--login-path	Read login path options from .mylogin.cnf
--no-beep	Do not beep when errors occur
--no-defaults	Read no option files
--no-login-paths	Do not read login paths from the login path file
--password	Password to use when connecting to server
--password1	First multifactor authentication password to use when connecting to server
--password2	Second multifactor authentication password to use when connecting to server
--password3	Third multifactor authentication password to use when connecting to server
--pipe	Connect to server using named pipe (Windows only)
--plugin-dir	Directory where plugins are installed
--port	TCP/IP port number for connection
--print-defaults	Print default options
--protocol	Transport protocol to use
--relative	Show the difference between the current and previous values when used with the --sleep option
--server-public-key-path	Path name to file containing RSA public key
--shared-memory-base-name	Shared-memory name for shared-memory connections (Windows only)
--show-warnings	Show warnings after statement execution
--shutdown-timeout	The maximum number of seconds to wait for server shutdown
--silent	Silent mode
--sleep	Execute commands repeatedly, sleeping for delay seconds in between
--socket	Unix socket file or Windows named pipe to use
--ssl-ca	File that contains list of trusted SSL Certificate Authorities
--ssl-capath	Directory that contains trusted SSL Certificate Authority certificate files
--ssl-cert	File that contains X.509 certificate
--ssl-cipher	Permissible ciphers for connection encryption
--ssl-crl	File that contains certificate revocation lists
--ssl-crlpath	Directory that contains certificate revocation-list files
--ssl-fips-mode	Whether to enable FIPS mode on client side
--ssl-key	File that contains X.509 key
--ssl-mode	Desired security state of connection to server
--ssl-session-data	File that contains SSL session data
--ssl-session-data-continue-on-failed-reuse	Whether to establish connections if session reuse fails
--tls-ciphersuites	Permissible TLSv1.3 ciphersuites for encrypted connections
--tls-sni-servername	Server name supplied by the client
--tls-version	Permissible TLS protocols for encrypted connections
--user	MySQL user name to use when connecting to server
--verbose	Verbose mode
--version	Display version information and exit
--vertical	Print query output rows vertically (one line per column value)
--wait	If the connection cannot be established, wait and retry instead of aborting
--zstd-compression-level	Compression level for connections to server that use zstd compression

• --help, -?

  Command-Line Format	--help

  Display a help message and exit.

• --bind-address=ip_address

  Command-Line Format	--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.

• --character-sets-dir=dir_name

  Command-Line Format	--character-sets-dir=path
  Type	String
  Default Value	[none]

  The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 12.15, “Character Set Configuration”.

• --compress, -C

  Command-Line Format	--compress[={OFF|ON}]
  Deprecated	Yes
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	OFF

  Compress all information sent between the client and the server if possible. See Section 6.2.8, “Connection Compression Control”.

  This option is deprecated. Expect it to be removed in a future version of MySQL. See Configuring Legacy Connection Compression.

• --compression-algorithms=value

  Command-Line Format	--compression-algorithms=value
  Type	Set
  Default Value	uncompressed
  Valid Values	zlib zstd uncompressed

  The permitted compression algorithms for connections to the server. The available algorithms are the same as for the protocol_compression_algorithms system variable. The default value is uncompressed.

  For more information, see Section 6.2.8, “Connection Compression Control”.

• --connect-timeout=value

  Command-Line Format	--connect-timeout=value
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	43200

  The maximum number of seconds before connection timeout. The default value is 43200 (12 hours).

• --count=N, -c N

  Command-Line Format	--count=#

  The number of iterations to make for repeated command execution if the --sleep option is given.

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

  Command-Line Format	--debug[=debug_options]
  Type	String
  Default Value	d:t:o,/tmp/mysqladmin.trace

  Write a debugging log. A typical debug_options string is d:t:o,file_name. The default is d:t:o,/tmp/mysqladmin.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

  Command-Line Format	--debug-check
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE

  Print some debugging information when the program exits.

  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-info

  Command-Line Format	--debug-info
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE

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

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

• --default-auth=plugin

  Command-Line Format	--default-auth=plugin
  Type	String

  A hint about which client-side authentication plugin to use. See Section 8.2.17, “Pluggable Authentication”.

• --default-character-set=charset_name

  Command-Line Format	--default-character-set=charset_name
  Type	String

  Use charset_name as the default character set. See Section 12.15, “Character Set Configuration”.

• --defaults-extra-file=file_name

  Command-Line Format	--defaults-extra-file=file_name
  Type	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. If file_name is not an absolute path name, it is interpreted relative to the current directory.

  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 6.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --defaults-file=file_name

  Command-Line Format	--defaults-file=file_name
  Type	File name

  Use only the given option file. If the file does not exist or is otherwise inaccessible, an error occurs. If file_name is not an absolute path name, it is interpreted relative to the current directory.

  Exception: Even with --defaults-file, client programs read .mylogin.cnf.

  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 6.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --defaults-group-suffix=str

  Command-Line Format	--defaults-group-suffix=str
  Type	String

  Read not only the usual option groups, but also groups with the usual names and a suffix of str. For example, mysqladmin normally reads the [client] and [mysqladmin] groups. If this option is given as --defaults-group-suffix=_other, mysqladmin also reads the [client_other] and [mysqladmin_other] groups.

  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 6.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --enable-cleartext-plugin

  Command-Line Format	--enable-cleartext-plugin
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE

  Enable the mysql_clear_password cleartext authentication plugin. (See Section 8.4.1.4, “Client-Side Cleartext Pluggable Authentication”.)

• --force, -f

  Command-Line Format	--force

  Do not ask for confirmation for the drop db_name command. With multiple commands, continue even if an error occurs.

• --get-server-public-key

  Command-Line Format	--get-server-public-key
  Type	Boolean

  Request from the server the public key required for RSA key pair-based password exchange. This option applies to clients that authenticate with the caching_sha2_password authentication plugin. For that plugin, the server does not send the public key unless requested. This option is ignored for accounts that do not authenticate with that plugin. It is also ignored if RSA-based password exchange is not used, as is the case when the client connects to the server using a secure connection.

  If --server-public-key-path=file_name is given and specifies a valid public key file, it takes precedence over --get-server-public-key.

  For information about the caching_sha2_password plugin, see Section 8.4.1.2, “Caching SHA-2 Pluggable Authentication”.

• --host=host_name, -h host_name

  Command-Line Format	--host=host_name
  Type	String
  Default Value	localhost

  Connect to the MySQL server on the given host.

• --login-path=name

  Command-Line Format	--login-path=name
  Type	String

  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 6.6.7, “mysql_config_editor — MySQL Configuration Utility”.

  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 6.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --no-login-paths

  Command-Line Format	--no-login-paths

  Skips reading options from the login path file.

  See --login-path for related information.

  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 6.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --no-beep, -b

  Command-Line Format	--no-beep

  Suppress the warning beep that is emitted by default for errors such as a failure to connect to the server.

• --no-defaults

  Command-Line Format	--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 is read in all cases, if it exists. This permits passwords to be specified in a safer way than on the command line even when --no-defaults is used. To create .mylogin.cnf, use the mysql_config_editor utility. See Section 6.6.7, “mysql_config_editor — MySQL Configuration Utility”.

  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 6.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --password[=password], -p[password]

  Command-Line Format	--password[=password]
  Type	String

  The password of the MySQL account used for connecting to the server. The password value is optional. If not given, mysqladmin prompts for one. If given, there must be no space between --password= or -p and the password following it. If no password option is specified, the default is to send no password.

  Specifying a password on the command line should be considered insecure. To avoid giving the password on the command line, use an option file. See Section 8.1.2.1, “End-User Guidelines for Password Security”.

  To explicitly specify that there is no password and that mysqladmin should not prompt for one, use the --skip-password option.

• --password1[=pass_val]

  The password for multifactor authentication factor 1 of the MySQL account used for connecting to the server. The password value is optional. If not given, mysql prompts for one. If given, there must be no space between --password1= and the password following it. If no password option is specified, the default is to send no password.

  Specifying a password on the command line should be considered insecure. To avoid giving the password on the command line, use an option file. See Section 8.1.2.1, “End-User Guidelines for Password Security”.

  To explicitly specify that there is no password and that mysqladmin should not prompt for one, use the --skip-password1 option.

  --password1 and --password are synonymous, as are --skip-password1 and --skip-password.

• --password2[=pass_val]

  The password for multifactor authentication factor 2 of the MySQL account used for connecting to the server. The semantics of this option are similar to the semantics for --password1; see the description of that option for details.

• --password3[=pass_val]

  The password for multifactor authentication factor 3 of the MySQL account used for connecting to the server. The semantics of this option are similar to the semantics for --password1; see the description of that option for details.

• --pipe, -W

  Command-Line Format	--pipe
  Type	String

  On Windows, connect to the server using a named pipe. This option applies only if the server was started with the named_pipe system variable enabled to support named-pipe connections. In addition, the user making the connection must be a member of the Windows group specified by the named_pipe_full_access_group system variable.

• --plugin-dir=dir_name

  Command-Line Format	--plugin-dir=dir_name
  Type	Directory 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 mysqladmin does not find it. See Section 8.2.17, “Pluggable Authentication”.

• --port=port_num, -P port_num

  Command-Line Format	--port=port_num
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	3306

  For TCP/IP connections, the port number to use.

• --print-defaults

  Command-Line Format	--print-defaults

  Print the program name and all options that it gets from option files.

  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 6.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --protocol={TCP|SOCKET|PIPE|MEMORY}

  Command-Line Format	--protocol=type
  Type	String
  Default Value	[see text]
  Valid Values	TCP SOCKET PIPE MEMORY

  The transport protocol to use for connecting to the server. It is useful when the other connection parameters normally result in use of a protocol other than the one you want. For details on the permissible values, see Section 6.2.7, “Connection Transport Protocols”.

• --relative, -r

  Command-Line Format	--relative

  Show the difference between the current and previous values when used with the --sleep option. This option works only with the extended-status command.

• --server-public-key-path=file_name

  Command-Line Format	--server-public-key-path=file_name
  Type	File name

  The path name to a file in PEM format containing a client-side copy of the public key required by the server for RSA key pair-based password exchange. This option applies to clients that authenticate with the sha256_password (deprecated) or caching_sha2_password authentication plugin. This option is ignored for accounts that do not authenticate with one of those plugins. It is also ignored if RSA-based password exchange is not used, as is the case when the client connects to the server using a secure connection.

  If --server-public-key-path=file_name is given and specifies a valid public key file, it takes precedence over --get-server-public-key.

  For sha256_password (deprecated), this option applies only if MySQL was built using OpenSSL.

  For information about the sha256_password and caching_sha2_password plugins, see Section 8.4.1.3, “SHA-256 Pluggable Authentication”, and Section 8.4.1.2, “Caching SHA-2 Pluggable Authentication”.

• --shared-memory-base-name=name

  Command-Line Format	--shared-memory-base-name=name
  Platform Specific	Windows

  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.

  This option applies only if the server was started with the shared_memory system variable enabled to support shared-memory connections.

• --show-warnings

  Command-Line Format	--show-warnings

  Show warnings resulting from execution of statements sent to the server.

• --shutdown-timeout=value

  Command-Line Format	--shutdown-timeout=seconds
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	3600

  The maximum number of seconds to wait for server shutdown. The default value is 3600 (1 hour).

• --silent, -s

  Command-Line Format	--silent

  Exit silently if a connection to the server cannot be established.

• --sleep=delay, -i delay

  Command-Line Format	--sleep=delay

  Execute commands repeatedly, sleeping for delay seconds in between. The --count option determines the number of iterations. If --count is not given, mysqladmin executes commands indefinitely until interrupted.

• --socket=path, -S path

  Command-Line Format	--socket={file_name|pipe_name}
  Type	String

  For connections to localhost, the Unix socket file to use, or, on Windows, the name of the named pipe to use.

  On Windows, this option applies only if the server was started with the named_pipe system variable enabled to support named-pipe connections. In addition, the user making the connection must be a member of the Windows group specified by the named_pipe_full_access_group system variable.

• --ssl*

  Options that begin with --ssl specify whether to connect to the server using encryption and indicate where to find SSL keys and certificates. See Command Options for Encrypted Connections.

• --ssl-fips-mode={OFF|ON|STRICT}

  Command-Line Format	--ssl-fips-mode={OFF|ON|STRICT}
  Deprecated	Yes
  Type	Enumeration
  Default Value	OFF
  Valid Values	OFF ON STRICT

  Controls whether to enable FIPS mode on the client side. The --ssl-fips-mode option differs from other --ssl-xxx options in that it is not used to establish encrypted connections, but rather to affect which cryptographic operations to permit. See Section 8.8, “FIPS Support”.

  These --ssl-fips-mode values are permitted:

  • OFF: Disable FIPS mode.

  • ON: Enable FIPS mode.

  • STRICT: Enable “strict” FIPS mode.

  Note

  If the OpenSSL FIPS Object Module is not available, the only permitted value for --ssl-fips-mode is OFF. In this case, setting --ssl-fips-mode to ON or STRICT causes the client to produce a warning at startup and to operate in non-FIPS mode.

  This option is deprecated. Expect it to be removed in a future version of MySQL.

• --tls-ciphersuites=ciphersuite_list

  Command-Line Format	--tls-ciphersuites=ciphersuite_list
  Type	String

  The permissible ciphersuites for encrypted connections that use TLSv1.3. The value is a list of one or more colon-separated ciphersuite names. The ciphersuites that can be named for this option depend on the SSL library used to compile MySQL. For details, see Section 8.3.2, “Encrypted Connection TLS Protocols and Ciphers”.

• --tls-sni-servername=server_name

  Command-Line Format	--tls-sni-servername=server_name
  Type	String

  When specified, the name is passed to the libmysqlclient C API library using the MYSQL_OPT_TLS_SNI_SERVERNAME option of mysql_options(). The server name is not case-sensitive. To show which server name the client specified for the current session, if any, check the Tls_sni_server_name status variable.

  Server Name Indication (SNI) is an extension to the TLS protocol (OpenSSL must be compiled using TLS extensions for this option to function). The MySQL implementation of SNI represents the client-side only.

• --tls-version=protocol_list

  Command-Line Format	--tls-version=protocol_list
  Type	String
  Default Value	TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2,TLSv1.3 (OpenSSL 1.1.1 or higher) TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2 (otherwise)

  The permissible TLS protocols for encrypted connections. The value is a list of one or more comma-separated protocol names. The protocols that can be named for this option depend on the SSL library used to compile MySQL. For details, see Section 8.3.2, “Encrypted Connection TLS Protocols and Ciphers”.

• --user=user_name, -u user_name

  Command-Line Format	--user=user_name,
  Type	String

  The user name of the MySQL account to use for connecting to the server.

  If you are using the Rewriter plugin, grant this user the SKIP_QUERY_REWRITE privilege.

• --verbose, -v

  Command-Line Format	--verbose

  Verbose mode. Print more information about what the program does.

• --version, -V

  Command-Line Format	--version

  Display version information and exit.

• --vertical, -E

  Command-Line Format	--vertical

  Print output vertically. This is similar to --relative, but prints output vertically.

• --wait[=count], -w[count]

  Command-Line Format	--wait

  If the connection cannot be established, wait and retry instead of aborting. If a count value is given, it indicates the number of times to retry. The default is one time.

• --zstd-compression-level=level

  Command-Line Format	--zstd-compression-level=#
  Type	Integer

  The compression level to use for connections to the server that use the zstd compression algorithm. The permitted levels are from 1 to 22, with larger values indicating increasing levels of compression. The default zstd compression level is 3. The compression level setting has no effect on connections that do not use zstd compression.

  For more information, see Section 6.2.8, “Connection Compression Control”.