Table of Contents
This chapter provides a brief overview of the programs provided by MySQL AB and discusses how to specify options when you run these programs. Most programs have options that are specific to their own operation, but the syntax for specifying options is similar for all of them. Later chapters provide more detailed descriptions of individual programs, including which options they recognize.
MySQL AB provides several types of programs:
mysqld is the MySQL server
mysqld_safe, mysql.server, and mysqld_multi are server startup scripts
mysql_install_db initializes the data directory and the initial databases
These programs are discussed further in Chapter 5, Database Administration.
mysql is a command-line client for executing SQL statements interactively or in batch mode
mysqlcc (MySQL Control Center) is an interactive graphical tool for executing SQL statements and administration
mysqladmin is an administrative client
mysqlcheck performs table maintenance operations
mysqldump and mysqlhotcopy make database backups
mysqlimport imports data files
mysqlshow displays information about databases and tables
These programs are discussed further in Chapter 8, MySQL Client and Utility Programs.
myisamchk performs table maintenance operations
myisampack produces compressed, read-only tables
mysqlbinlog is a tool for processing binary log files
perror displays error code meanings
myisamchk is discussed further in Chapter 5, Database Administration. The other programs are further in Chapter 8, MySQL Client and Utility Programs.
Most MySQL distributions include all of these programs, except for those programs that are platform-specific. (For example, the server startup scripts are not used on Windows.) The exception is that RPM distributions are more specialized. There is one RPM for the server, another for the client programs, and so forth. If you appear to be missing one or more programs, see Chapter 2, Installing MySQL for information on types of distributions and what they contain. It may be that you need to install something else.