6.5.1.1 mysql Client Options

mysql supports the following options, which can be specified on the command line or in the [mysql] 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 6.10 mysql Client Options

Option Name	Description
--auto-rehash	Enable automatic rehashing
--auto-vertical-output	Enable automatic vertical result set display
--batch	Do not use history file
--binary-as-hex	Display binary values in hexadecimal notation
--binary-mode	Disable \r\n - to - \n translation and treatment of \0 as end-of-query
--bind-address	Use specified network interface to connect to MySQL Server
--character-sets-dir	Directory where character sets are installed
--column-names	Write column names in results
--column-type-info	Display result set metadata
--comments	Whether to retain or strip comments in statements sent to the server
--compress	Compress all information sent between client and server
--compression-algorithms	Permitted compression algorithms for connections to server
--connect-expired-password	Indicate to server that client can handle expired-password sandbox mode
--connect-timeout	Number of seconds before connection timeout
--database	The database to use
--debug	Write debugging log; supported only if MySQL was built with debugging support
--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
--delimiter	Set the statement delimiter
--dns-srv-name	Use DNS SRV lookup for host information
--enable-cleartext-plugin	Enable cleartext authentication plugin
--execute	Execute the statement and quit
--force	Continue even if an SQL error occurs
--get-server-public-key	Request RSA public key from server
--help	Display help message and exit
--histignore	Patterns specifying which statements to ignore for logging
--host	Host on which MySQL server is located
--html	Produce HTML output
--ignore-spaces	Ignore spaces after function names
--init-command	SQL statement to execute after connecting
--init-command-add	Add an additional SQL statement to execute after connecting or re-connecting to MySQL server
--line-numbers	Write line numbers for errors
--load-data-local-dir	Directory for files named in LOAD DATA LOCAL statements
--local-infile	Enable or disable for LOCAL capability for LOAD DATA
--login-path	Read login path options from .mylogin.cnf
--max-allowed-packet	Maximum packet length to send to or receive from server
--max-join-size	The automatic limit for rows in a join when using --safe-updates
--named-commands	Enable named mysql commands
--net-buffer-length	Buffer size for TCP/IP and socket communication
--network-namespace	Specify network namespace
--no-auto-rehash	Disable automatic rehashing
--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
--oci-config-file	Defines an alternate location for the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure CLI configuration file.
--one-database	Ignore statements except those for the default database named on the command line
--pager	Use the given command for paging query output
--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-authentication-kerberos-client-mode	Permit GSSAPI pluggable authentication through the MIT Kerberos library on Windows
--plugin-authentication-webauthn-client-preserve-privacy	Permit user to choose a key to be used for assertion
--plugin-dir	Directory where plugins are installed
--port	TCP/IP port number for connection
--print-defaults	Print default options
--prompt	Set the prompt to the specified format
--protocol	Transport protocol to use
--quick	Do not cache each query result
--raw	Write column values without escape conversion
--reconnect	If the connection to the server is lost, automatically try to reconnect
--register-factor	Multifactor authentication factors for which registration must be done
--safe-updates, --i-am-a-dummy	Allow only UPDATE and DELETE statements that specify key values
--select-limit	The automatic limit for SELECT statements when using --safe-updates
--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 each statement if there are any
--sigint-ignore	Ignore SIGINT signals (typically the result of typing Control+C)
--silent	Silent mode
--skip-auto-rehash	Disable automatic rehashing
--skip-column-names	Do not write column names in results
--skip-line-numbers	Skip line numbers for errors
--skip-named-commands	Disable named mysql commands
--skip-pager	Disable paging
--skip-reconnect	Disable reconnecting
--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
--syslog	Log interactive statements to syslog
--table	Display output in tabular format
--tee	Append a copy of output to named file
--telemetry_client	Enables the telemetry client.
--otel_bsp_max_export_batch_size	See variable OTEL_BSP_MAX_EXPORT_BATCH_SIZE.
--otel_bsp_max_queue_size	See variable OTEL_BSP_MAX_QUEUE_SIZE.
--otel_bsp_schedule_delay	See variable OTEL_BSP_SCHEDULE_DELAY.
--otel_exporter_otlp_traces_certificates	Not in use at this time. Reserved for future development.
--otel_exporter_otlp_traces_client_certificates	Not in use at this time. Reserved for future development.
--otel_exporter_otlp_traces_client_key	Not in use at this time. Reserved for future development.
--otel_exporter_otlp_traces_compression	Compression type
--otel_exporter_otlp_traces_endpoint	The trace export endpoint
--otel_exporter_otlp_traces_headers	Key-value pairs to be used as headers associated with HTTP requests
--otel_exporter_otlp_traces_protocol	The OTLP transport protocol
--otel_exporter_otlp_traces_timeout	Time OLTP exporter waits for each batch export
--otel-help	When enabled, prints help about telemetry_client options.
--otel_log_level	Controls which opentelemetry logs are printed in the server logs
--otel_resource_attributes	See corresponding OpenTelemetry variable OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES.
--otel-trace	This system variable controls whether telemetry traces are collected or not.
--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
--unbuffered	Flush the buffer after each query
--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
--xml	Produce XML output
--zstd-compression-level	Compression level for connections to server that use zstd compression

• --help, -?

  Command-Line Format	--help

  Display a help message and exit.

• --auto-rehash

  Command-Line Format	--auto-rehash
  Disabled by	skip-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.

  Note

  This feature requires a MySQL client that is compiled with the readline library. Typically, the readline library is not available on Windows.

• --auto-vertical-output

  Command-Line Format	--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

  Command-Line Format	--batch

  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-as-hex

  Command-Line Format	--binary-as-hex
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE in noninteractive mode

  When this option is given, mysql displays binary data using hexadecimal notation (0xvalue). This occurs whether the overall output display format is tabular, vertical, HTML, or XML.

  --binary-as-hex when enabled affects display of all binary strings, including those returned by functions such as CHAR() and UNHEX(). The following example demonstrates this using the ASCII code for A (65 decimal, 41 hexadecimal):

  • --binary-as-hex disabled:

    mysql> SELECT CHAR(0x41), UNHEX('41');
    +------------+-------------+
    | CHAR(0x41) | UNHEX('41') |
    +------------+-------------+
    | A          | A           |
    +------------+-------------+

  • --binary-as-hex enabled:

    mysql> SELECT CHAR(0x41), UNHEX('41');
    +------------------------+--------------------------+
    | CHAR(0x41)             | UNHEX('41')              |
    +------------------------+--------------------------+
    | 0x41                   | 0x41                     |
    +------------------------+--------------------------+

  To write a binary string expression so that it displays as a character string regardless of whether --binary-as-hex is enabled, use these techniques:

  • The CHAR() function has a USING charset clause:

    mysql> SELECT CHAR(0x41 USING utf8mb4);
    +--------------------------+
    | CHAR(0x41 USING utf8mb4) |
    +--------------------------+
    | A                        |
    +--------------------------+

  • More generally, use CONVERT() to convert an expression to a given character set:

    mysql> SELECT CONVERT(UNHEX('41') USING utf8mb4);
    +------------------------------------+
    | CONVERT(UNHEX('41') USING utf8mb4) |
    +------------------------------------+
    | A                                  |
    +------------------------------------+

  When mysql operates in interactive mode, this option is enabled by default. In addition, output from the status (or \s) command includes this line when the option is enabled implicitly or explicitly:

  Binary data as: Hexadecimal

  To disable hexadecimal notation, use --skip-binary-as-hex

• --binary-mode

  Command-Line Format	--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 noninteractive mode (for input piped to mysql or loaded using the source command).

• --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=dir_name
  Type	Directory name

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

• --column-names

  Command-Line Format	--column-names

  Write column names in results.

• --column-type-info

  Command-Line Format	--column-type-info

  Display result set metadata. This information corresponds to the contents of C API MYSQL_FIELD data structures. See C API Basic Data Structures.

• --comments, -c

  Command-Line Format	--comments
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	TRUE

  Whether to preserve or strip comments in statements sent to the server. The default is to preserve them; to strip them, start mysql with --skip-comments.

  Note

  The mysql client always passes optimizer hints to the server, regardless of whether this option is given.

  Comment stripping is deprecated. Expect this feature and the options to control it to be removed in a future MySQL release.

• --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-expired-password

  Command-Line Format	--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 8.2.16, “Server Handling of Expired Passwords”.)

• --connect-timeout=value

  Command-Line Format	--connect-timeout=value
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	0

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

• --database=db_name, -D db_name

  Command-Line Format	--database=dbname
  Type	String

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

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

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

  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

  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, -T

  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 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 12.4, “Connection Character Sets and Collations”, and 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, mysql normally reads the [client] and [mysql] groups. If this option is given as --defaults-group-suffix=_other, mysql also reads the [client_other] and [mysql_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”.

• --delimiter=str

  Command-Line Format	--delimiter=str
  Type	String
  Default Value	;

  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 6.5.1.2, “mysql Client Commands”.

• --dns-srv-name=name

  Command-Line Format	--dns-srv-name=name
  Type	String

  Specifies the name of a DNS SRV record that determines the candidate hosts to use for establishing a connection to a MySQL server. For information about DNS SRV support in MySQL, see Section 6.2.6, “Connecting to the Server Using DNS SRV Records”.

  Suppose that DNS is configured with this SRV information for the example.com domain:

  Name                     TTL   Class   Priority Weight Port Target
  _mysql._tcp.example.com. 86400 IN SRV  0        5      3306 host1.example.com
  _mysql._tcp.example.com. 86400 IN SRV  0        10     3306 host2.example.com
  _mysql._tcp.example.com. 86400 IN SRV  10       5      3306 host3.example.com
  _mysql._tcp.example.com. 86400 IN SRV  20       5      3306 host4.example.com

  To use that DNS SRV record, invoke mysql like this:

  mysql --dns-srv-name=_mysql._tcp.example.com

  mysql then attempts a connection to each server in the group until a successful connection is established. A failure to connect occurs only if a connection cannot be established to any of the servers. The priority and weight values in the DNS SRV record determine the order in which servers should be tried.

  When invoked with --dns-srv-name, mysql attempts to establish TCP connections only.

  The --dns-srv-name option takes precedence over the --host option if both are given. --dns-srv-name causes connection establishment to use the mysql_real_connect_dns_srv() C API function rather than mysql_real_connect(). However, if the connect command is subsequently used at runtime and specifies a host name argument, that host name takes precedence over any --dns-srv-name option given at mysql startup to specify a DNS SRV record.

• --enable-cleartext-plugin

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

  Enable the mysql_clear_password cleartext authentication plugin. (See Section 8.4.1.3, “Client-Side Cleartext Pluggable Authentication”.)

• --execute=statement, -e statement

  Command-Line Format	--execute=statement
  Type	String

  Execute the statement and quit. The default output format is like that produced with --batch. See Section 6.2.2.1, “Using Options on the Command Line”, for some examples. With this option, mysql does not use the history file.

• --force, -f

  Command-Line Format	--force

  Continue even if an SQL 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 8.4.1.1, “Caching SHA-2 Pluggable Authentication”.

• --histignore

  Command-Line Format	--histignore=pattern_list
  Type	String

  A list of one or more colon-separated 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, and to syslog if the --syslog option is given. For more information, see Section 6.5.1.3, “mysql Client Logging”.

• --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.

  The --dns-srv-name option takes precedence over the --host option if both are given. --dns-srv-name causes connection establishment to use the mysql_real_connect_dns_srv() C API function rather than mysql_real_connect(). However, if the connect command is subsequently used at runtime and specifies a host name argument, that host name takes precedence over any --dns-srv-name option given at mysql startup to specify a DNS SRV record.

• --html, -H

  Command-Line Format	--html

  Produce HTML output.

• --ignore-spaces, -i

  Command-Line Format	--ignore-spaces

  Ignore spaces after function names. The effect of this is described in the discussion for the IGNORE_SPACE SQL mode (see Section 7.1.11, “Server SQL Modes”).

• --init-command=str

  Command-Line Format	--init-command=str

  Single SQL statement to execute after connecting to the server. If auto-reconnect is enabled, the statement is executed again after reconnection occurs. The definition resets existing statements defined by it or init-command-add.

• --init-command-add=str

  Command-Line Format	--init-command-add=str

  Add an additional SQL statement to execute after connecting or reconnecting to the MySQL server. It's usable without --init-command but has no effect if used before it because init-command resets the list of commands to call.

• --line-numbers

  Command-Line Format	--line-numbers
  Disabled by	skip-line-numbers

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

• --load-data-local-dir=dir_name

  Command-Line Format	--load-data-local-dir=dir_name
  Type	Directory name
  Default Value	empty string

  This option affects the client-side LOCAL capability for LOAD DATA operations. It specifies the directory in which files named in LOAD DATA LOCAL statements must be located. The effect of --load-data-local-dir depends on whether LOCAL data loading is enabled or disabled:

  • If LOCAL data loading is enabled, either by default in the MySQL client library or by specifying --local-infile[=1], the --load-data-local-dir option is ignored.

  • If LOCAL data loading is disabled, either by default in the MySQL client library or by specifying --local-infile=0, the --load-data-local-dir option applies.

  When --load-data-local-dir applies, the option value designates the directory in which local data files must be located. Comparison of the directory path name and the path name of files to be loaded is case-sensitive regardless of the case sensitivity of the underlying file system. If the option value is the empty string, it names no directory, with the result that no files are permitted for local data loading.

  For example, to explicitly disable local data loading except for files located in the /my/local/data directory, invoke mysql like this:

  mysql --local-infile=0 --load-data-local-dir=/my/local/data

  When both --local-infile and --load-data-local-dir are given, the order in which they are given does not matter.

  Successful use of LOCAL load operations within mysql also requires that the server permits local loading; see Section 8.1.6, “Security Considerations for LOAD DATA LOCAL”

• --local-infile[={0|1}]

  Command-Line Format	--local-infile[={0|1}]
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE

  By default, LOCAL capability for LOAD DATA is determined by the default compiled into the MySQL client library. To enable or disable LOCAL data loading explicitly, use the --local-infile option. When given with no value, the option enables LOCAL data loading. When given as --local-infile=0 or --local-infile=1, the option disables or enables LOCAL data loading.

  If LOCAL capability is disabled, the --load-data-local-dir option can be used to permit restricted local loading of files located in a designated directory.

  Successful use of LOCAL load operations within mysql also requires that the server permits local loading; see Section 8.1.6, “Security Considerations for LOAD DATA LOCAL”

• --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”.

• --max-allowed-packet=value

  Command-Line Format	--max-allowed-packet=value
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	16777216

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

• --max-join-size=value

  Command-Line Format	--max-join-size=value
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	1000000

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

• --named-commands, -G

  Command-Line Format	--named-commands
  Disabled by	skip-named-commands

  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 6.5.1.2, “mysql Client Commands”.

• --net-buffer-length=value

  Command-Line Format	--net-buffer-length=value
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	16384

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

• --network-namespace=name

  Command-Line Format	--network-namespace=name
  Type	String

  The network namespace to use for TCP/IP connections. If omitted, the connection uses the default (global) namespace. For information about network namespaces, see Section 7.1.14, “Network Namespace Support”.

  This option is available only on platforms that implement network namespace support.

• --no-auto-rehash, -A

  Command-Line Format	--no-auto-rehash
  Deprecated	Yes

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

• --no-beep, -b

  Command-Line Format	--no-beep

  Do not beep when errors occur.

• --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”.

• --oci-config-file=PATH

  Command-Line Format	--oci-config-file
  Type	String
  Default Value

  Alternate path to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure CLI configuration file. Specify the location of the configuration file. If your existing default profile is the correct one, you do not need to specify this option. However, if you have an existing configuration file, with multiple profiles or a different default from the tenancy of the user you want to connect with, specify this option.

• --one-database, -o

  Command-Line Format	--one-database

  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:

  • The DELETE statement is executed because the default database is db1, even though the statement names a table in a different database.

  • The DROP TABLE and CREATE TABLE statements are not executed because the default database is not db1, even though the statements name a table in db1.

  • The INSERT and CREATE TABLE statements are executed because the default database is db1, even though the CREATE TABLE statement names a table in a different database.

• --pager[=command]

  Command-Line Format	--pager[=command]
  Disabled by	skip-pager
  Type	String

  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 6.5.1.2, “mysql Client Commands”, discusses output paging further.

• --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, mysql 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 mysql 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 mysql 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-authentication-kerberos-client-mode=value

  Command-Line Format	--plugin-authentication-kerberos-client-mode
  Type	String
  Default Value	SSPI
  Valid Values	GSSAPI SSPI

  On Windows, the authentication_kerberos_client authentication plugin supports this plugin option. It provides two possible values that the client user can set at runtime: SSPI and GSSAPI.

  The default value for the client-side plugin option uses Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI), which is capable of acquiring credentials from the Windows in-memory cache. Alternatively, the client user can select a mode that supports Generic Security Service Application Program Interface (GSSAPI) through the MIT Kerberos library on Windows. GSSAPI is capable of acquiring cached credentials previously generated by using the kinit command.

  For more information, see Commands for Windows Clients in GSSAPI Mode.

• --plugin-authentication-webauthn-client-preserve-privacy={OFF|ON}

  Command-Line Format	--plugin-authentication-webauthn-client-preserve-privacy
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	OFF

  Determines how assertions are sent to server in case there is more than one discoverable credential stored for a given RP ID (a unique name given to the relying-party server, which is the MySQL server). If the FIDO2 device contains multiple resident keys for a given RP ID, this option allows the user to choose a key to be used for assertion. It provides two possible values that the client user can set. The default value is OFF. If set to OFF, the challenge is signed by all credentials available for a given RP ID and all signatures are sent to server. If set to ON, the user is prompted to choose the credential to be used for signature.

  Note

  This option has no effect if the device does not support the resident-key feature.

  For more information, see Section 8.4.1.10, “WebAuthn Pluggable Authentication”.

• --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 mysql 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”.

• --prompt=format_str

  Command-Line Format	--prompt=format_str
  Type	String
  Default Value	mysql>

  Set the prompt to the specified format. The default is mysql>. The special sequences that the prompt can contain are described in Section 6.5.1.2, “mysql Client Commands”.

• --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”.

• --quick, -q

  Command-Line Format	--quick

  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.

  By default, mysql fetches all result rows before producing any output; while storing these, it calculates a running maximum column length from the actual value of each column in succession. When printing the output, it uses this maximum to format it. When --quick is specified, mysql does not have the rows for which to calculate the length before starting, and so uses the maximum length. In the following example, table t1 has a single column of type BIGINT and containing 4 rows. The default output is 9 characters wide; this width is equal the maximum number of characters in any of the column values in the rows returned (5), plus 2 characters each for the spaces used as padding and the | characters used as column delimiters). The output when using the --quick option is 25 characters wide; this is equal to the number of characters needed to represent -9223372036854775808, which is the longest possible value that can be stored in a (signed) BIGINT column, or 19 characters, plus the 4 characters used for padding and column delimiters. The difference can be seen here:

  $> mysql -t test -e "SELECT * FROM t1"
  +-------+
  | c1    |
  +-------+
  |   100 |
  |  1000 |
  | 10000 |
  |    10 |
  +-------+
  
  $> mysql --quick -t test -e "SELECT * FROM t1"
  +----------------------+
  | c1                   |
  +----------------------+
  |                  100 |
  |                 1000 |
  |                10000 |
  |                   10 |
  +----------------------+

• --raw, -r

  Command-Line Format	--raw

  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

  Command-Line Format	--reconnect
  Disabled by	skip-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.

• --register-factor=value

  Command-Line Format	--register-factor=value
  Type	String

  The factor or factors for which FIDO/FIDO2 device registration must be performed before WebAuthn device-based authentication can be used. This option value must be a single value, or two values separated by commas. Each value must be 2 or 3, so the permitted option values are '2', '3', '2,3' and '3,2'.

  For example, an account that requires registration for a third authentication factor invokes the mysql client as follows:

  mysql --user=user_name --register-factor=3

  An account that requires registration for second and third authentication factors invokes the mysql client as follows:

  mysql --user=user_name --register-factor=2,3

  If registration is successful, a connection is established. If there is an authentication factor with a pending registration, a connection is placed into pending registration mode when attempting to connect to the server. In this case, disconnect and reconnect with the correct --register-factor value to complete the registration.

  Registration is a two-step process comprising initiate registration and finish registration steps. The initiate registration step executes this statement:

  ALTER USER user factor INITIATE REGISTRATION

  The statement returns a result set containing a 32 byte challenge, the user name, and the relying party ID (see authentication_webauthn_rp_id).

  The finish registration step executes this statement:

  ALTER USER user factor FINISH REGISTRATION SET CHALLENGE_RESPONSE AS 'auth_string'

  The statement completes the registration and sends the following information to the server as part of the auth_string: authenticator data, an optional attestation certificate in X.509 format, and a signature.

  The initiate and registration steps must be performed in a single connection, as the challenge received by the client during the initiate step is saved to the client connection handler. Registration would fail if the registration step was performed by a different connection. The --register-factor option executes both the initiate and registration steps, which avoids the failure scenario described above and prevents having to execute the ALTER USER initiate and registration statements manually.

  The --register-factor option is only available for the mysql and MySQL Shell clients. Other MySQL client programs do not support it.

  For related information, see Using WebAuthn Authentication.

• --safe-updates, --i-am-a-dummy, -U

  Command-Line Format	--safe-updates --i-am-a-dummy
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE

  If this option is enabled, UPDATE and DELETE statements that do not use a key in the WHERE clause or a LIMIT clause produce an error. In addition, restrictions are placed on SELECT statements that produce (or are estimated to produce) very large result sets. If you have set this option in an option file, you can use --skip-safe-updates on the command line to override it. For more information about this option, see Using Safe-Updates Mode (--safe-updates).

• --select-limit=value

  Command-Line Format	--select-limit=value
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	1000

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

• --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 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, this option applies only if MySQL was built using OpenSSL.

  For information about the sha256_password and caching_sha2_password plugins, see Section 8.4.1.2, “SHA-256 Pluggable Authentication”, and Section 8.4.1.1, “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

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

• --sigint-ignore

  Command-Line Format	--sigint-ignore

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

  Without this option, typing Control+C interrupts the current statement if there is one, or cancels any partial input line otherwise.

• --silent, -s

  Command-Line Format	--silent

  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

  Command-Line Format	--skip-column-names

  Do not write column names in results. Use of this option causes the output to be right-aligned, as shown here:

  $> echo "SELECT * FROM t1" | mysql -t test
  +-------+
  | c1    |
  +-------+
  | a,c,d |
  | c     |
  +-------+
  $> echo "SELECT * FROM t1" | ./mysql -uroot -Nt test
  +-------+
  | a,c,d |
  |     c |
  +-------+

• --skip-line-numbers, -L

  Command-Line Format	--skip-line-numbers

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

• --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.

• --syslog, -j

  Command-Line Format	--syslog

  This option causes mysql to send interactive statements to the system logging facility. On Unix, this is syslog; on Windows, it is the Windows Event Log. The destination where logged messages appear is system dependent. On Linux, the destination is often the /var/log/messages file.

  Here is a sample of output generated on Linux by using --syslog. This output is formatted for readability; each logged message actually takes a single line.

  Mar  7 12:39:25 myhost MysqlClient[20824]:
    SYSTEM_USER:'oscar', MYSQL_USER:'my_oscar', CONNECTION_ID:23,
    DB_SERVER:'127.0.0.1', DB:'--', QUERY:'USE test;'
  Mar  7 12:39:28 myhost MysqlClient[20824]:
    SYSTEM_USER:'oscar', MYSQL_USER:'my_oscar', CONNECTION_ID:23,
    DB_SERVER:'127.0.0.1', DB:'test', QUERY:'SHOW TABLES;'

  For more information, see Section 6.5.1.3, “mysql Client Logging”.

• --table, -t

  Command-Line Format	--table

  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

  Command-Line Format	--tee=file_name
  Type	File name

  Append a copy of output to the given file. This option works only in interactive mode. Section 6.5.1.2, “mysql Client Commands”, discusses tee files further.

• --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”.

• --unbuffered, -n

  Command-Line Format	--unbuffered

  Flush the buffer after each query.

• --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.

• --verbose, -v

  Command-Line Format	--verbose

  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

  Command-Line Format	--version

  Display version information and exit.

• --vertical, -E

  Command-Line Format	--vertical

  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

  Command-Line Format	--wait

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

• --xml, -X

  Command-Line Format	--xml

  Produce XML output.

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

  The output when --xml is used with mysql matches that of mysqldump --xml. See Section 6.5.4, “mysqldump — A Database Backup Program”, for details.

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

  $> 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>

• --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”.

• telemetry_client

  Command-Line Format	--telemetry_client
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	OFF

  Enables the telemetry client plugin (Linux only).

  For more information, see Chapter 35, Telemetry.