3.6. The MySQL client

To talk to any database server, you will need to use a client of some kind. MySQL comes with a text-based client by default, but there are graphical clients available, as well as ODBC drivers to allow you to interact with a MySQL database from Windows applications such as Microsoft Access.

The command line client can be invoked from the command line with the mysql command. The mysql command takes a database name as a required argument, as well as other optional arguments such as -p, which causes the client to ask for a password for access to the database if access controls have been set up.

You can see all the options available on the command line by typing mysql --help.

Advanced: You can set up access controls on a database by editing the data in the mysql database (i.e. type mysql mysql on the command line) or by using the mysqlaccess command. Type mysqlaccess --help for more information about this command.

% mysql -p databasename
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 2 to server version: 3.21.33b

Type 'help' for help.

mysql>

The MySQL client allows you to type in commands on one or many lines. When you finish a statement, type ; to end, same as for Perl.

To quit the client, type quit or \q.

For a full outline of commands available in the client, type help or \h. It will give you this message:

mysql> \h

MySQL commands:
help    (\h)    Display this text
?       (\h)    Synonym for `help'
clear   (\c)    Clear command
connect (\r)    Reconnect to the server. Optional arguments are db and host
edit    (\e)    Edit command with $EDITOR
exit    (\)     Exit mysql. Same as quit
go      (\g)    Send command to mysql server
print   (\p)    print current command
quit    (\q)    Quit mysql
rehash  (\#)    Rebuild completion hash
status  (\s)    Get status information from the server
use     (\u)    Use another database. Takes database name as argument

Connection id: 1  (Can be used with mysqladmin kill)