Documentation Home
MySQL 9.1 Reference Manual
Related Documentation Download this Manual
PDF (US Ltr) - 40.4Mb
PDF (A4) - 40.5Mb
Man Pages (TGZ) - 259.5Kb
Man Pages (Zip) - 366.7Kb
Info (Gzip) - 4.0Mb
Info (Zip) - 4.0Mb


MySQL 9.1 Reference Manual  /  ...  /  mysql Client Server-Side Help

6.5.1.4 mysql Client Server-Side Help

Press CTRL+C to copy
mysql> help search_string

If you provide an argument to the help command, mysql uses it as a search string to access server-side help from the contents of the MySQL Reference Manual. The proper operation of this command requires that the help tables in the mysql database be initialized with help topic information (see Section 7.1.17, “Server-Side Help Support”).

If there is no match for the search string, the search fails:

Press CTRL+C to copy
mysql> help me Nothing found Please try to run 'help contents' for a list of all accessible topics

Use help contents to see a list of the help categories:

Press CTRL+C to copy
mysql> help contents You asked for help about help category: "Contents" For more information, type 'help <item>', where <item> is one of the following categories: Account Management Administration Data Definition Data Manipulation Data Types Functions Functions and Modifiers for Use with GROUP BY Geographic Features Language Structure Plugins Storage Engines Stored Routines Table Maintenance Transactions Triggers

If the search string matches multiple items, mysql shows a list of matching topics:

Press CTRL+C to copy
mysql> help logs Many help items for your request exist. To make a more specific request, please type 'help <item>', where <item> is one of the following topics: SHOW SHOW BINARY LOGS SHOW ENGINE SHOW LOGS

Use a topic as the search string to see the help entry for that topic:

Press CTRL+C to copy
mysql> help show binary logs Name: 'SHOW BINARY LOGS' Description: Syntax: SHOW BINARY LOGS Lists the binary log files on the server. This statement is used as part of the procedure described in [purge-binary-logs], that shows how to determine which logs can be purged.
Press CTRL+C to copy
mysql> SHOW BINARY LOGS; +---------------+-----------+-----------+ | Log_name | File_size | Encrypted | +---------------+-----------+-----------+ | binlog.000015 | 724935 | Yes | | binlog.000016 | 733481 | Yes | +---------------+-----------+-----------+

The search string can contain the wildcard characters % and _. These have the same meaning as for pattern-matching operations performed with the LIKE operator. For example, HELP rep% returns a list of topics that begin with rep:

Press CTRL+C to copy
mysql> HELP rep% Many help items for your request exist. To make a more specific request, please type 'help <item>', where <item> is one of the following topics: REPAIR TABLE REPEAT FUNCTION REPEAT LOOP REPLACE REPLACE FUNCTION