6.6.9 mysqlbinlog — Utility for Processing Binary Log Files

6.6.9.1 mysqlbinlog Hex Dump Format

6.6.9.2 mysqlbinlog Row Event Display

6.6.9.3 Using mysqlbinlog to Back Up Binary Log Files

6.6.9.4 Specifying the mysqlbinlog Server ID

The server's binary log consists of files containing “events” that describe modifications to database contents. The server writes these files in binary format. To display their contents in text format, use the mysqlbinlog utility. You can also use mysqlbinlog to display the contents of relay log files written by a replica server in a replication setup because relay logs have the same format as binary logs. The binary log and relay log are discussed further in Section 7.4.4, “The Binary Log”, and Section 19.2.4, “Relay Log and Replication Metadata Repositories”.

Invoke mysqlbinlog like this:

mysqlbinlog [options] log_file ...

For example, to display the contents of the binary log file named binlog.000003, use this command:

mysqlbinlog binlog.000003

The output includes events contained in binlog.000003. For statement-based logging, event information includes the SQL statement, the ID of the server on which it was executed, the timestamp when the statement was executed, how much time it took, and so forth. For row-based logging, the event indicates a row change rather than an SQL statement. See Section 19.2.1, “Replication Formats”, for information about logging modes.

Events are preceded by header comments that provide additional information. For example:

# at 141
#100309  9:28:36 server id 123  end_log_pos 245
  Query thread_id=3350  exec_time=11  error_code=0

In the first line, the number following at indicates the file offset, or starting position, of the event in the binary log file.

The second line starts with a date and time indicating when the statement started on the server where the event originated. For replication, this timestamp is propagated to replica servers. server id is the server_id value of the server where the event originated. end_log_pos indicates where the next event starts (that is, it is the end position of the current event + 1). thread_id indicates which thread executed the event. exec_time is the time spent executing the event, on a replication source server. On a replica, it is the difference of the end execution time on the replica minus the beginning execution time on the source. The difference serves as an indicator of how much replication lags behind the source. error_code indicates the result from executing the event. Zero means that no error occurred.

Note

When using event groups, the file offsets of events may be grouped together and the comments of events may be grouped together. Do not mistake these grouped events for blank file offsets.

The output from mysqlbinlog can be re-executed (for example, by using it as input to mysql) to redo the statements in the log. This is useful for recovery operations after an unexpected server exit. For other usage examples, see the discussion later in this section and in Section 9.5, “Point-in-Time (Incremental) Recovery”. To execute the internal-use BINLOG statements used by mysqlbinlog, the user requires the BINLOG_ADMIN privilege (or the deprecated SUPER privilege), or the REPLICATION_APPLIER privilege plus the appropriate privileges to execute each log event.

You can use mysqlbinlog to read binary log files directly and apply them to the local MySQL server. You can also read binary logs from a remote server by using the --read-from-remote-server option. To read remote binary logs, the connection parameter options can be given to indicate how to connect to the server. These options are --host, --password, --port, --protocol, --socket, and --user.

When binary log files have been encrypted, mysqlbinlog cannot read them directly, but can read them from the server using the --read-from-remote-server option. Binary log files are encrypted when the server's binlog_encryption system variable is set to ON. The SHOW BINARY LOGS statement shows whether a particular binary log file is encrypted or unencrypted. Encrypted and unencrypted binary log files can also be distinguished using the magic number at the start of the file header for encrypted log files (0xFD62696E), which differs from that used for unencrypted log files (0xFE62696E). Note that mysqlbinlog returns a suitable error if you attempt to read an encrypted binary log file directly, but older versions of mysqlbinlog do not recognise the file as a binary log file at all. For more information on binary log encryption, see Section 19.3.2, “Encrypting Binary Log Files and Relay Log Files”.

When binary log transaction payloads have been compressed, mysqlbinlog automatically decompresses and decodes the transaction payloads, and prints them as it would uncompressed events. When binlog_transaction_compression is set to ON, transaction payloads are compressed and then written to the server's binary log file as a single event (a Transaction_payload_event). With the --verbose option, mysqlbinlog adds comments stating the compression algorithm used, the compressed payload size that was originally received, and the resulting payload size after decompression.

Note

The end position (end_log_pos) that mysqlbinlog states for an individual event that was part of a compressed transaction payload is the same as the end position of the original compressed payload. Multiple decompressed events can therefore have the same end position.

mysqlbinlog's own connection compression does less if transaction payloads are already compressed, but still operates on uncompressed transactions and headers.

For more information on binary log transaction compression, see Section 7.4.4.5, “Binary Log Transaction Compression”.

When running mysqlbinlog against a large binary log, be careful that the filesystem has enough space for the resulting files. To configure the directory that mysqlbinlog uses for temporary files, use the TMPDIR environment variable.

mysqlbinlog sets the value of pseudo_replica_mode to true before executing any SQL statements. This system variable affects the handling of XA transactions, the original_commit_timestamp replication delay timestamp and the original_server_version system variable, and unsupported SQL modes.

mysqlbinlog supports the following options, which can be specified on the command line or in the [mysqlbinlog] 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 6.20 mysqlbinlog Options

Option Name	Description
--base64-output	Print binary log entries using base-64 encoding
--bind-address	Use specified network interface to connect to MySQL Server
--binlog-row-event-max-size	Binary log max event size
--character-sets-dir	Directory where character sets are installed
--compress	Compress all information sent between client and server
--compression-algorithms	Permitted compression algorithms for connections to server
--connection-server-id	Used for testing and debugging. See text for applicable default values and other particulars
--database	List entries for just this database
--debug	Write debugging log
--debug-check	Print debugging information when program exits
--debug-info	Print debugging information, memory, and CPU statistics when program exits
--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
--disable-log-bin	Disable binary logging
--force-if-open	Read binary log files even if open or not closed properly
--force-read	If mysqlbinlog reads a binary log event that it does not recognize, it prints a warning
--get-server-public-key	Request RSA public key from server
--help	Display help message and exit
--hexdump	Display a hex dump of the log in comments
--host	Host on which MySQL server is located
--idempotent	Cause the server to use idempotent mode while processing binary log updates from this session only
--local-load	Prepare local temporary files for LOAD DATA in the specified directory
--login-path	Read login path options from .mylogin.cnf
--no-defaults	Read no option files
--no-login-paths	Do not read login paths from the login path file
--offset	Skip the first N entries in the log
--password	Password to use when connecting to server
--port	TCP/IP port number for connection
--print-defaults	Print default options
--print-table-metadata	Print table metadata
--protocol	Transport protocol to use
--raw	Write events in raw (binary) format to output files
--read-from-remote-master	Read the binary log from a MySQL replication source server rather than reading a local log file
--read-from-remote-server	Read binary log from MySQL server rather than local log file
--read-from-remote-source	Read the binary log from a MySQL replication source server rather than reading a local log file
--require-row-format	Require row-based binary logging format
--result-file	Direct output to named file
--rewrite-db	Create rewrite rules for databases when playing back from logs written in row-based format. Can be used multiple times
--server-id	Extract only those events created by the server having the given server ID
--server-id-bits	Tell mysqlbinlog how to interpret server IDs in binary log when log was written by a mysqld having its server-id-bits set to less than the maximum; supported only by MySQL Cluster version of mysqlbinlog
--server-public-key-path	Path name to file containing RSA public key
--set-charset	Add a SET NAMES charset_name statement to the output
--shared-memory-base-name	Shared-memory name for shared-memory connections (Windows only)
--short-form	Display only the statements contained in the log
--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-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
--start-datetime	Read binary log from first event with timestamp equal to or later than datetime argument
--start-position	Decode binary log from first event with position equal to or greater than argument
--stop-datetime	Stop reading binary log at first event with timestamp equal to or greater than datetime argument
--stop-never	Stay connected to server after reading last binary log file
--stop-never-slave-server-id	Slave server ID to report when connecting to server
--stop-position	Stop decoding binary log at first event with position equal to or greater than argument
--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
--to-last-log	Do not stop at the end of requested binary log from a MySQL server, but rather continue printing to end of last binary log
--user	MySQL user name to use when connecting to server
--verbose	Reconstruct row events as SQL statements
--verify-binlog-checksum	Verify checksums in binary log
--version	Display version information and exit
--zstd-compression-level	Compression level for connections to server that use zstd compression

• --help, -?

  Command-Line Format	--help

  Display a help message and exit.

• --base64-output=value

  Command-Line Format	--base64-output=value
  Type	String
  Default Value	AUTO
  Valid Values	AUTO NEVER DECODE-ROWS

  This option determines when events should be displayed encoded as base-64 strings using BINLOG statements. The option has these permissible values (not case-sensitive):

  • AUTO ("automatic") or UNSPEC ("unspecified") displays BINLOG statements automatically when necessary (that is, for format description events and row events). If no --base64-output option is given, the effect is the same as --base64-output=AUTO.

    Note

    Automatic BINLOG display is the only safe behavior if you intend to use the output of mysqlbinlog to re-execute binary log file contents. The other option values are intended only for debugging or testing purposes because they may produce output that does not include all events in executable form.

  • NEVER causes BINLOG statements not to be displayed. mysqlbinlog exits with an error if a row event is found that must be displayed using BINLOG.

  • DECODE-ROWS specifies to mysqlbinlog that you intend for row events to be decoded and displayed as commented SQL statements by also specifying the --verbose option. Like NEVER, DECODE-ROWS suppresses display of BINLOG statements, but unlike NEVER, it does not exit with an error if a row event is found.

  For examples that show the effect of --base64-output and --verbose on row event output, see Section 6.6.9.2, “mysqlbinlog Row Event Display”.

• --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.

• --binlog-row-event-max-size=N

  Command-Line Format	--binlog-row-event-max-size=#
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	4294967040
  Minimum Value	256
  Maximum Value	18446744073709547520

  Specify the maximum size of a row-based binary log event, in bytes. Rows are grouped into events smaller than this size if possible. The value should be a multiple of 256. The default is 4GB.

• --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”.

• --compress

  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”.

• --connection-server-id=server_id

  Command-Line Format	--connection-server-id=#]
  Type	Integer
  Default Value	0 (1)
  Minimum Value	0 (1)
  Maximum Value	4294967295

  --connection-server-id specifies the server ID that mysqlbinlog reports when it connects to the server. It can be used to avoid a conflict with the ID of a replica server or another mysqlbinlog process.

  If the --read-from-remote-server option is specified, mysqlbinlog reports a server ID of 0, which tells the server to disconnect after sending the last log file (nonblocking behavior). If the --stop-never option is also specified to maintain the connection to the server, mysqlbinlog reports a server ID of 1 by default instead of 0, and --connection-server-id can be used to replace that server ID if required. See Section 6.6.9.4, “Specifying the mysqlbinlog Server ID”.

• --database=db_name, -d db_name

  Command-Line Format	--database=db_name
  Type	String

  This option causes mysqlbinlog to output entries from the binary log (local log only) that occur while db_name is been selected as the default database by USE.

  The --database option for mysqlbinlog is similar to the --binlog-do-db option for mysqld, but can be used to specify only one database. If --database is given multiple times, only the last instance is used.

  The effects of this option depend on whether the statement-based or row-based logging format is in use, in the same way that the effects of --binlog-do-db depend on whether statement-based or row-based logging is in use.

  Statement-based logging.  The --database option works as follows:

  • While db_name is the default database, statements are output whether they modify tables in db_name or a different database.

  • Unless db_name is selected as the default database, statements are not output, even if they modify tables in db_name.

  • There is an exception for CREATE DATABASE, ALTER DATABASE, and DROP DATABASE. The database being created, altered, or dropped is considered to be the default database when determining whether to output the statement.

  Suppose that the binary log was created by executing these statements using statement-based-logging:

  INSERT INTO test.t1 (i) VALUES(100);
  INSERT INTO db2.t2 (j)  VALUES(200);
  USE test;
  INSERT INTO test.t1 (i) VALUES(101);
  INSERT INTO t1 (i)      VALUES(102);
  INSERT INTO db2.t2 (j)  VALUES(201);
  USE db2;
  INSERT INTO test.t1 (i) VALUES(103);
  INSERT INTO db2.t2 (j)  VALUES(202);
  INSERT INTO t2 (j)      VALUES(203);

  mysqlbinlog --database=test does not output the first two INSERT statements because there is no default database. It outputs the three INSERT statements following USE test, but not the three INSERT statements following USE db2.

  mysqlbinlog --database=db2 does not output the first two INSERT statements because there is no default database. It does not output the three INSERT statements following USE test, but does output the three INSERT statements following USE db2.

  Row-based logging.  mysqlbinlog outputs only entries that change tables belonging to db_name. The default database has no effect on this. Suppose that the binary log just described was created using row-based logging rather than statement-based logging. mysqlbinlog --database=test outputs only those entries that modify t1 in the test database, regardless of whether USE was issued or what the default database is.

  If a server is running with binlog_format set to MIXED and you want it to be possible to use mysqlbinlog with the --database option, you must ensure that tables that are modified are in the database selected by USE. (In particular, no cross-database updates should be used.)

  When used together with the --rewrite-db option, the --rewrite-db option is applied first; then the --database option is applied, using the rewritten database name. The order in which the options are provided makes no difference in this regard.

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

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

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

• --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, mysqlbinlog normally reads the [client] and [mysqlbinlog] groups. If this option is given as --defaults-group-suffix=_other, mysqlbinlog also reads the [client_other] and [mysqlbinlog_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”.

• --disable-log-bin, -D

  Command-Line Format	--disable-log-bin

  Disable binary logging. This is useful for avoiding an endless loop if you use the --to-last-log option and are sending the output to the same MySQL server. This option also is useful when restoring after an unexpected exit to avoid duplication of the statements you have logged.

  This option causes mysqlbinlog to include a SET sql_log_bin = 0 statement in its output to disable binary logging of the remaining output. Manipulating the session value of the sql_log_bin system variable is a restricted operation, so this option requires that you have privileges sufficient to set restricted session variables. See Section 7.1.9.1, “System Variable Privileges”.

• --exclude-gtids=gtid_set

  Command-Line Format	--exclude-gtids=gtid_set
  Type	String
  Default Value

  Do not display any of the groups listed in the gtid_set.

• --force-if-open, -F

  Command-Line Format	--force-if-open

  Read binary log files even if they are open or were not closed properly (IN_USE flag is set); do not fail if the file ends with a truncated event.

  The IN_USE flag is set only for the binary log that is currently written by the server; if the server has crashed, the flag remains set until the server is started up again and recovers the binary log. Without this option, mysqlbinlog refuses to process a file with this flag set. Since the server may be in the process of writing the file, truncation of the last event is considered normal.

• --force-read, -f

  Command-Line Format	--force-read

  With this option, if mysqlbinlog reads a binary log event that it does not recognize, it prints a warning, ignores the event, and continues. Without this option, mysqlbinlog stops if it reads such an event.

• --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”.

• --hexdump, -H

  Command-Line Format	--hexdump

  Display a hex dump of the log in comments, as described in Section 6.6.9.1, “mysqlbinlog Hex Dump Format”. The hex output can be helpful for replication debugging.

• --host=host_name, -h host_name

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

  Get the binary log from the MySQL server on the given host.

• --idempotent

  Command-Line Format	--idempotent
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	true

  Tell the MySQL Server to use idempotent mode while processing updates; this causes suppression of any duplicate-key or key-not-found errors that the server encounters in the current session while processing updates. This option may prove useful whenever it is desirable or necessary to replay one or more binary logs to a MySQL Server which may not contain all of the data to which the logs refer.

  The scope of effect for this option includes the current mysqlbinlog client and session only.

• --include-gtids=gtid_set

  Command-Line Format	--include-gtids=gtid_set
  Type	String
  Default Value

  Display only the groups listed in the gtid_set.

• --local-load=dir_name, -l dir_name

  Command-Line Format	--local-load=dir_name
  Type	Directory name

  For data loading operations corresponding to LOAD DATA statements, mysqlbinlog extracts the files from the binary log events, writes them as temporary files to the local file system, and writes LOAD DATA LOCAL statements to cause the files to be loaded. By default, mysqlbinlog writes these temporary files to an operating system-specific directory. The --local-load option can be used to explicitly specify the directory where mysqlbinlog should prepare local temporary files.

  Because other processes can write files to the default system-specific directory, it is advisable to specify the --local-load option to mysqlbinlog to designate a different directory for data files, and then designate that same directory by specifying the --load-data-local-dir option to mysql when processing the output from mysqlbinlog. For example:

  mysqlbinlog --local-load=/my/local/data ...
      | mysql --load-data-local-dir=/my/local/data ...

  Important

  These temporary files are not automatically removed by mysqlbinlog or any other MySQL program.

• --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-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”.

• --offset=N, -o N

  Command-Line Format	--offset=#
  Type	Numeric

  Skip the first N entries in the log.

• --open-files-limit=N

  Command-Line Format	--open-files-limit=#
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	8
  Minimum Value	1
  Maximum Value	[platform dependent]

  Specify the number of open file descriptors to reserve.

• --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, mysqlbinlog 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 mysqlbinlog should not prompt for one, use the --skip-password option.

• --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 mysqlbinlog 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

  The TCP/IP port number to use for connecting to a remote server.

• --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”.

• --print-table-metadata

  Command-Line Format	--print-table-metadata

  Print table related metadata from the binary log. Configure the amount of table related metadata binary logged using binlog-row-metadata.

• --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”.

• --raw

  Command-Line Format	--raw
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE

  By default, mysqlbinlog reads binary log files and writes events in text format. The --raw option tells mysqlbinlog to write them in their original binary format. Its use requires that --read-from-remote-server also be used because the files are requested from a server. mysqlbinlog writes one output file for each file read from the server. The --raw option can be used to make a backup of a server's binary log. With the --stop-never option, the backup is “live” because mysqlbinlog stays connected to the server. By default, output files are written in the current directory with the same names as the original log files. Output file names can be modified using the --result-file option. For more information, see Section 6.6.9.3, “Using mysqlbinlog to Back Up Binary Log Files”.

• --read-from-remote-source=type

  Command-Line Format	--read-from-remote-source=type

  This option reads binary logs from a MySQL server with the COM_BINLOG_DUMP or COM_BINLOG_DUMP_GTID commands by setting the option value to either BINLOG-DUMP-NON-GTIDS or BINLOG-DUMP-GTIDS, respectively. If --read-from-remote-source=BINLOG-DUMP-GTIDS is combined with --exclude-gtids, transactions can be filtered out on the source, avoiding unnecessary network traffic.

  The connection parameter options are used with these options or the --read-from-remote-server option. These options are --host, --password, --port, --protocol, --socket, and --user. If none of the remote options is specified, the connection parameter options are ignored.

  The REPLICATION SLAVE privilege is required to use these options.

• --read-from-remote-master=type

  Command-Line Format	--read-from-remote-master=type
  Deprecated	Yes

  Deprecated synonym for --read-from-remote-source.

• --read-from-remote-server=file_name, -R

  Command-Line Format	--read-from-remote-server=file_name

  Read the binary log from a MySQL server rather than reading a local log file. This option requires that the remote server be running. It works only for binary log files on the remote server and not relay log files. This accepts the binary log file name (including the numeric suffix) without the file path.

  The connection parameter options are used with this option or the --read-from-remote-source option. These options are --host, --password, --port, --protocol, --socket, and --user. If neither of the remote options is specified, the connection parameter options are ignored.

  The REPLICATION SLAVE privilege is required to use this option.

  This option is like --read-from-remote-source=BINLOG-DUMP-NON-GTIDS.

• --result-file=name, -r name

  Command-Line Format	--result-file=name

  Without the --raw option, this option indicates the file to which mysqlbinlog writes text output. With --raw, mysqlbinlog writes one binary output file for each log file transferred from the server, writing them by default in the current directory using the same names as the original log file. In this case, the --result-file option value is treated as a prefix that modifies output file names.

• --require-row-format

  Command-Line Format	--require-row-format
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	false

  Require row-based binary logging format for events. This option enforces row-based replication events for mysqlbinlog output. The stream of events produced with this option would be accepted by a replication channel that is secured using the REQUIRE_ROW_FORMAT option of the CHANGE REPLICATION SOURCE TO statement. binlog_format=ROW must be set on the server where the binary log was written. When you specify this option, mysqlbinlog stops with an error message if it encounters any events that are disallowed under the REQUIRE_ROW_FORMAT restrictions, including LOAD DATA INFILE instructions, creating or dropping temporary tables, INTVAR, RAND, or USER_VAR events, and non-row-based events within a DML transaction. mysqlbinlog also prints a SET @@session.require_row_format statement at the start of its output to apply the restrictions when the output is executed, and does not print the SET @@session.pseudo_thread_id statement.

• --rewrite-db='from_name->to_name'

  Command-Line Format	--rewrite-db='oldname->newname'
  Type	String
  Default Value	[none]

  When reading from a row-based or statement-based log, rewrite all occurrences of from_name to to_name. Rewriting is done on the rows, for row-based logs, as well as on the USE clauses, for statement-based logs.

  Warning

  Statements in which table names are qualified with database names are not rewritten to use the new name when using this option.

  The rewrite rule employed as a value for this option is a string having the form 'from_name->to_name', as shown previously, and for this reason must be enclosed by quotation marks.

  To employ multiple rewrite rules, specify the option multiple times, as shown here:

  mysqlbinlog --rewrite-db='dbcurrent->dbold' --rewrite-db='dbtest->dbcurrent' \
      binlog.00001 > /tmp/statements.sql

  When used together with the --database option, the --rewrite-db option is applied first; then --database option is applied, using the rewritten database name. The order in which the options are provided makes no difference in this regard.

  This means that, for example, if mysqlbinlog is started with --rewrite-db='mydb->yourdb' --database=yourdb, then all updates to any tables in databases mydb and yourdb are included in the output. On the other hand, if it is started with --rewrite-db='mydb->yourdb' --database=mydb, then mysqlbinlog outputs no statements at all: since all updates to mydb are first rewritten as updates to yourdb before applying the --database option, there remain no updates that match --database=mydb.

• --server-id=id

  Command-Line Format	--server-id=id
  Type	Numeric

  Display only those events created by the server having the given server ID.

• --server-id-bits=N

  Command-Line Format	--server-id-bits=#
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	32
  Minimum Value	7
  Maximum Value	32

  Use only the first N bits of the server_id to identify the server. If the binary log was written by a mysqld with server-id-bits set to less than 32 and user data stored in the most significant bit, running mysqlbinlog with --server-id-bits set to 32 enables this data to be seen.

  This option is supported only by the version of mysqlbinlog supplied with the NDB Cluster distribution, or built with NDB Cluster support.

• --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”.

• --set-charset=charset_name

  Command-Line Format	--set-charset=charset_name
  Type	String

  Add a SET NAMES charset_name statement to the output to specify the character set to be used for processing log files.

• --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.

• --short-form, -s

  Command-Line Format	--short-form

  Display only the statements contained in the log, without any extra information or row-based events. This is for testing only, and should not be used in production systems. It is deprecated, and you should expect it to be removed in a future release.

• --skip-gtids[=(true|false)]

  Command-Line Format	--skip-gtids[=true|false]
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	false

  Do not include the GTIDs from the binary log files in the output dump file. For example:

  mysqlbinlog --skip-gtids binlog.000001 >  /tmp/dump.sql
  mysql -u root -p -e "source /tmp/dump.sql"

  You should not normally use this option in production or in recovery, except in the specific, and rare, scenarios where the GTIDs are actively unwanted. For example, an administrator might want to duplicate selected transactions (such as table definitions) from a deployment to another, unrelated, deployment that will not replicate to or from the original. In that scenario, --skip-gtids can be used to enable the administrator to apply the transactions as if they were new, and ensure that the deployments remain unrelated. However, you should only use this option if the inclusion of the GTIDs causes a known issue for your use case.

• --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.

• --start-datetime=datetime

  Command-Line Format	--start-datetime=datetime
  Type	Datetime

  Start reading the binary log at the first event having a timestamp equal to or later than the datetime argument. The datetime value is relative to the local time zone on the machine where you run mysqlbinlog. The value should be in a format accepted for the DATETIME or TIMESTAMP data types. For example:

  mysqlbinlog --start-datetime="2005-12-25 11:25:56" binlog.000003

  This option is useful for point-in-time recovery. See Section 9.5, “Point-in-Time (Incremental) Recovery”.

• --start-position=N, -j N

  Command-Line Format	--start-position=#
  Type	Numeric

  Start decoding the binary log at the log position N, including in the output any events that begin at position N or after. The position is a byte point in the log file, not an event counter; it needs to point to the starting position of an event to generate useful output. This option applies to the first log file named on the command line.

  The maximum value supported for this option is 18446744073709551616 (2⁶⁴-1), unless --read-from-remote-server or --read-from-remote-source is also used, in which case the maximum is 4294967295.

  This option is useful for point-in-time recovery. See Section 9.5, “Point-in-Time (Incremental) Recovery”.

• --stop-datetime=datetime

  Command-Line Format	--stop-datetime=datetime

  Stop reading the binary log at the first event having a timestamp equal to or later than the datetime argument. See the description of the --start-datetime option for information about the datetime value.

  This option is useful for point-in-time recovery. See Section 9.5, “Point-in-Time (Incremental) Recovery”.

• --stop-never

  Command-Line Format	--stop-never
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE

  This option is used with --read-from-remote-server. It tells mysqlbinlog to remain connected to the server. Otherwise mysqlbinlog exits when the last log file has been transferred from the server. --stop-never implies --to-last-log, so only the first log file to transfer need be named on the command line.

  --stop-never is commonly used with --raw to make a live binary log backup, but also can be used without --raw to maintain a continuous text display of log events as the server generates them.

  With --stop-never, by default, mysqlbinlog reports a server ID of 1 when it connects to the server. Use --connection-server-id to explicitly specify an alternative ID to report. It can be used to avoid a conflict with the ID of a replica server or another mysqlbinlog process. See Section 6.6.9.4, “Specifying the mysqlbinlog Server ID”.

• --stop-never-slave-server-id=id

  Command-Line Format	--stop-never-slave-server-id=#
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	65535
  Minimum Value	1

  This option is deprecated; expect it to be removed in a future release. Use the --connection-server-id option instead to specify a server ID for mysqlbinlog to report.

• --stop-position=N

  Command-Line Format	--stop-position=#
  Type	Numeric

  Stop decoding the binary log at the log position N, excluding from the output any events that begin at position N or after. The position is a byte point in the log file, not an event counter; it needs to point to a spot after the starting position of the last event you want to include in the output. The event starting before position N and finishing at or after the position is the last event to be processed. This option applies to the last log file named on the command line.

  This option is useful for point-in-time recovery. See Section 9.5, “Point-in-Time (Incremental) Recovery”.

• --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”.

• --to-last-log, -t

  Command-Line Format	--to-last-log

  Do not stop at the end of the requested binary log from a MySQL server, but rather continue printing until the end of the last binary log. If you send the output to the same MySQL server, this may lead to an endless loop. This option requires --read-from-remote-server.

• --user=user_name, -u user_name

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

  The user name of the MySQL account to use when connecting to a remote server.

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

• --verbose, -v

  Command-Line Format	--verbose

  Reconstruct row events and display them as commented SQL statements, with table partition information where applicable. If this option is given twice (by passing in either "-vv" or "--verbose --verbose"), the output includes comments to indicate column data types and some metadata, and informational log events such as row query log events if the binlog_rows_query_log_events system variable is set to TRUE.

  For examples that show the effect of --base64-output and --verbose on row event output, see Section 6.6.9.2, “mysqlbinlog Row Event Display”.

• --verify-binlog-checksum, -c

  Command-Line Format	--verify-binlog-checksum

  Verify checksums in binary log files.

• --version, -V

  Command-Line Format	--version

  Display version information and exit.

• --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”.

You can pipe the output of mysqlbinlog into the mysql client to execute the events contained in the binary log. This technique is used to recover from an unexpected exit when you have an old backup (see Section 9.5, “Point-in-Time (Incremental) Recovery”). For example:

mysqlbinlog binlog.000001 | mysql -u root -p

Or:

mysqlbinlog binlog.[0-9]* | mysql -u root -p

If the statements produced by mysqlbinlog may contain BLOB values, these may cause problems when mysql processes them. In this case, invoke mysql with the --binary-mode option.

You can also redirect the output of mysqlbinlog to a text file instead, if you need to modify the statement log first (for example, to remove statements that you do not want to execute for some reason). After editing the file, execute the statements that it contains by using it as input to the mysql program:

mysqlbinlog binlog.000001 > tmpfile
... edit tmpfile ...
mysql -u root -p < tmpfile

When mysqlbinlog is invoked with the --start-position option, it displays only those events with an offset in the binary log greater than or equal to a given position (the given position must match the start of one event). It also has options to stop and start when it sees an event with a given date and time. This enables you to perform point-in-time recovery using the --stop-datetime option (to be able to say, for example, “roll forward my databases to how they were today at 10:30 a.m.”).

Processing multiple files.  If you have more than one binary log to execute on the MySQL server, the safe method is to process them all using a single connection to the server. Here is an example that demonstrates what may be unsafe:

mysqlbinlog binlog.000001 | mysql -u root -p # DANGER!!
mysqlbinlog binlog.000002 | mysql -u root -p # DANGER!!

Processing binary logs this way using multiple connections to the server causes problems if the first log file contains a CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE statement and the second log contains a statement that uses the temporary table. When the first mysql process terminates, the server drops the temporary table. When the second mysql process attempts to use the table, the server reports “unknown table.”

To avoid problems like this, use a single mysql process to execute the contents of all binary logs that you want to process. Here is one way to do so:

mysqlbinlog binlog.000001 binlog.000002 | mysql -u root -p

Another approach is to write all the logs to a single file and then process the file:

mysqlbinlog binlog.000001 >  /tmp/statements.sql
mysqlbinlog binlog.000002 >> /tmp/statements.sql
mysql -u root -p -e "source /tmp/statements.sql"

You can also supply multiple binary log files to mysqlbinlog as streamed input using a shell pipe. An archive of compressed binary log files can be decompressed and provided directly to mysqlbinlog. In this example, binlog-files_1.gz contains multiple binary log files for processing. The pipeline extracts the contents of binlog-files_1.gz, pipes the binary log files to mysqlbinlog as standard input, and pipes the output of mysqlbinlog into the mysql client for execution:

gzip -cd binlog-files_1.gz | ./mysqlbinlog - | ./mysql -uroot  -p

You can specify more than one archive file, for example:

gzip -cd binlog-files_1.gz binlog-files_2.gz | ./mysqlbinlog - | ./mysql -uroot  -p

For streamed input, do not use --stop-position, because mysqlbinlog cannot identify the last log file to apply this option.

LOAD DATA operations.  mysqlbinlog can produce output that reproduces a LOAD DATA operation without the original data file. mysqlbinlog copies the data to a temporary file and writes a LOAD DATA LOCAL statement that refers to the file. The default location of the directory where these files are written is system-specific. To specify a directory explicitly, use the --local-load option.

Because mysqlbinlog converts LOAD DATA statements to LOAD DATA LOCAL statements (that is, it adds LOCAL), both the client and the server that you use to process the statements must be configured with the LOCAL capability enabled. See Section 8.1.6, “Security Considerations for LOAD DATA LOCAL”.

Warning

The temporary files created for LOAD DATA LOCAL statements are not automatically deleted because they are needed until you actually execute those statements. You should delete the temporary files yourself after you no longer need the statement log. The files can be found in the temporary file directory and have names like original_file_name-#-#.