MYSQLD(8)

NAME
mysqld - the MySQL server

SYNOPSIS

mysqld [options]

DESCRIPTION

mysqld is the MySQL server. The following discussion covers these MySQL server configuration topics:

•   Startup options that the server supports

•   Server system variables

•   Server status variables

•   How to set the server SQL mode

•   The server shutdown process

Note

Not all storage engines are supported by all MySQL server binaries and configurations. To find out how to determine which storage engines are supported by your MySQL server installation, see Section 5.4.10, “SHOW ENGINES Syntax”.

COMMAND OPTIONS

When you start the mysqld server, you can specify program options using any of the methods described in Section 3, “Specifying Program Options”. The most common methods are to provide options in an option file or on the command line. However, in most cases it is desirable to make sure that the server uses the same options each time it runs. The best way to ensure this is to list them in an option file. See Section 3.2, “Using Option Files”.

mysqld reads options from the [mysqld] and [server] groups. mysqld_safe reads options from the [mysqld], [server], [mysqld_safe], and [safe_mysqld] groups. mysql.server reads options from the [mysqld] and [mysql.server] groups.

An embedded MySQL server usually reads options from the [server], [embedded], and [xxxxx_SERVER] groups, where xxxxx is the name of the application into which the server is embedded.

mysqld accepts many command options. For a brief summary, execute mysqld --help. To see the full list, use mysqld --verbose --help.

The following list shows some of the most common server options. Additional options are described in other sections:

•   Options that affect security: See Section 4.3, “Security-Related mysqld Options”.

•   SSL-related options: See Section 6.7.3, “SSL Command Options”.

•   Binary log control options: See Section 8.3, “The Binary Log”.

•   Replication-related options: See Section 1.2, “Replication Startup Options and Variables”.

•   Options specific to particular storage engines: See Section 1.1, “MyISAM Startup Options”, Section 5.3, “BDB Startup Options”, Section 2.4, “InnoDB Startup Options and System Variables”, and Section 5.2.1, “MySQL Cluster-Related Command Options for mysqld”.

You can also set the values of server system variables by using variable names as options, as described later in this section.

•   --help, -?

    Display a short help message and exit. Use both the --verbose and --help options to see the full message.

•   --abort-slave-event-count

    This option is used internally by the MySQL test suite for replication testing and debugging.

•   --allow-suspicious-udfs

    This option controls whether user-defined functions that have only an xxx symbol for the main function can be loaded. By default, the option is off and only UDFs that have at least one auxiliary symbol can be loaded; this prevents attempts at loading functions from shared object files other than those containing legitimate UDFs. This option was added in version 5.0.3. See Section 2.4.6, “User-Defined Function Security Precautions”.

•   --ansi

    Use standard (ANSI) SQL syntax instead of MySQL syntax. For more precise control over the server SQL mode, use the --sql-mode option instead. See Section 8.3, “Running MySQL in ANSI Mode”, and the section called “SQL MODES”.

•   --basedir=path, -b path

    The path to the MySQL installation directory. All paths are usually resolved relative to this directory.

•   big-tables

    Allow large result sets by saving all temporary sets in files. This option prevents most “table full” errors, but also slows down queries for which in-memory tables would suffice. Since MySQL 3.23.2, the server is able to handle large result sets automatically by using memory for small temporary tables and switching to disk tables where necessary.

•   --bind-address=IP

    The IP address to bind to.

•   --bootstrap

    This option is used by the mysql_install_db script to create the MySQL privilege tables without having to start a full MySQL server.

    This option is unavailable if MySQL was configured with the --disable-grant-options option. See Section 4.15.2, “Typical configure Options”.

•   --character-sets-dir=path

    The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 2, “The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting”.

•   --character-set-client-handshake

    Don't ignore character set information sent by the client. To ignore client information and use the default server character set, use --skip-character-set-client-handshake; this makes MySQL behave like MySQL 4.0.

•   --character-set-filesystem=charset_name

    The filesystem character set. This option sets the character_set_filesystem system variable. It was added in MySQL 5.0.19.

•   --character-set-server=charset_name, -C charset_name

    Use charset_name as the default server character set. See Section 2, “The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting”. If you use this option to specify a non-default character set, you should also use --collation-server to specify the collation.

•   --chroot=path

    Put the mysqld server in a closed environment during startup by using the chroot() system call. This is a recommended security measure. Note that use of this option somewhat limits LOAD DATA INFILE and SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE.

•   --collation-server=collation_name

    Use collation_name as the default server collation. See Section 2, “The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting”.

•   --console

    (Windows only.) Write error log messages to stderr and stdout even if --log-error is specified. mysqld does not close the console window if this option is used.

•   --core-file

    Write a core file if mysqld dies. For some systems, you must also specify the --core-file-size option to mysqld_safe. See mysqld_safe(1). Note that on some systems, such as Solaris, you do not get a core file if you are also using the --user option.

•   --datadir=path, -h path

    The path to the data directory.

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

    If MySQL is configured with --with-debug, you can use this option to get a trace file of what mysqld is doing. The debug_options string often is 'd:t:o,file_name'. The default is 'd:t:i:o,mysqld.trace'. See [1]MySQL Internals: Porting.

    As of MySQL 5.0.25, using --with-debug to configure MySQL with debugging support enables you to use the --debug="d,parser_debug" option when you start the server. This causes the Bison parser that is used to process SQL statements to dump a parser trace to the server's standard error output. Typically, this output is written to the error log.

•   --default-character-set=charset_name (DEPRECATED)

    Use charset_name as the default character set. This option is deprecated in favor of --character-set-server. See Section 2, “The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting”.

•   --default-collation=collation_name

    Use collation_name as the default collation. This option is deprecated in favor of --collation-server. See Section 2, “The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting”.

•   --default-storage-engine=type

    Set the default storage engine (table type) for tables. See Chapter 13, Storage Engines.

•   --default-table-type=type

    This option is a synonym for --default-storage-engine.

•   --default-time-zone=timezone

    Set the default server time zone. This option sets the global time_zone system variable. If this option is not given, the default time zone is the same as the system time zone (given by the value of the system_time_zone system variable.

•   --delay-key-write[={OFF|ON|ALL}]

    Specify how to use delayed key writes. Delayed key writing causes key buffers not to be flushed between writes for MyISAM tables. OFF disables delayed key writes. ON enables delayed key writes for those tables that were created with the DELAY_KEY_WRITE option. ALL delays key writes for all MyISAM tables. See Section 5.2, “Tuning Server Parameters”, and Section 1.1, “MyISAM Startup Options”.

    Note If you set this variable to ALL, you should not use MyISAM tables from within another program (such as another MySQL server or myisamchk) when the tables are in use. Doing so leads to index corruption.

•   --des-key-file=file_name

    Read the default DES keys from this file. These keys are used by the DES_ENCRYPT() and DES_DECRYPT() functions.

•   --disconnect-slave-event-count

    This option is used internally by the MySQL test suite for replication testing and debugging.

•   --enable-named-pipe

    Enable support for named pipes. This option can be used only with the mysqld-nt and mysqld-debug servers that support named-pipe connections.

•   --exit-info[=flags], -T [flags]

    This is a bit mask of different flags that you can use for debugging the mysqld server. Do not use this option unless you know exactly what it does!

•   --external-locking

    Enable external locking (system locking), which is disabled by default as of MySQL 4.0. Note that if you use this option on a system on which lockd does not fully work (such as Linux), it is easy for mysqld to deadlock. This option previously was named --enable-locking.

    For more information about external locking, including conditions under which it can and cannot be used, see Section 3.4, “External Locking”.

•   --flush

    Flush (synchronize) all changes to disk after each SQL statement. Normally, MySQL does a write of all changes to disk only after each SQL statement and lets the operating system handle the synchronizing to disk. See Section 1.4.2, “What to Do If MySQL Keeps Crashing”.

•   --enable-pstack

    Print a symbolic stack trace on failure.

•   --gdb

    Install an interrupt handler for SIGINT (needed to stop mysqld with ^C to set breakpoints) and disable stack tracing and core file handling. See [1]MySQL Internals: Porting.

•   --init-file=file_name

    Read SQL statements from this file at startup. Each statement must be on a single line and should not include comments.

    This option is unavailable if MySQL was configured with the --disable-grant-options option. See Section 4.15.2, “Typical configure Options”.

•   --innodb-safe-binlog

    Adds consistency guarantees between the content of InnoDB tables and the binary log. See Section 8.3, “The Binary Log”. This option was removed in MySQL 5.0.3, having been made obsolete by the introduction of XA transaction support.

•   --innodb-xxx

    The InnoDB options are listed in Section 2.4, “InnoDB Startup Options and System Variables”.

•   --language=lang_name, -L lang_name

    Return client error messages in the given language. lang_name can be given as the language name or as the full pathname to the directory where the language files are installed. See Section 3, “Setting the Error Message Language”.

•   --large-pages

    Some hardware/operating system architectures support memory pages greater than the default (usually 4KB). The actual implementation of this support depends on the underlying hardware and OS. Applications that perform a lot of memory accesses may obtain performance improvements by using large pages due to reduced Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) misses.

    Currently, MySQL supports only the Linux implementation of large pages support (which is called HugeTLB in Linux). We have plans to extend this support to FreeBSD, Solaris and possibly other platforms.

    Before large pages can be used on Linux, it is necessary to configure the HugeTLB memory pool. For reference, consult the hugetlbpage.txt file in the Linux kernel source.

    This option is disabled by default. It was added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   --log[=file_name], -l [file_name]

    Log connections and SQL statements received from clients to this file. See Section 8.2, “The General Query Log”. If you omit the filename, MySQL uses host_name.log as the filename.

•   --log-bin[=base_name]

    Enable binary logging. The server logs all statements that change data to the binary log, which is used for backup and replication. See Section 8.3, “The Binary Log”.

    The option value, if given, is the basename for the log sequence. The server creates binary log files in sequence by adding a numeric suffix to the basename. It is recommended that you specify a basename (see Section 1.8.1, “Open Issues in MySQL”, for the reason). Otherwise, MySQL uses host_name-bin as the basename.

•   --log-bin-index[=file_name]

    The index file for binary log filenames. See Section 8.3, “The Binary Log”. If you omit the filename, and if you didn't specify one with --log-bin, MySQL uses host_name-bin.index as the filename.

•   --log-bin-trust-function-creators[={0|1}]

    With no argument or an argument of 1, this option sets the log_bin_trust_function_creators system variable to 1. With an argument of 0, this option sets the system variable to 0. log_bin_trust_function_creators affects how MySQL enforces restrictions on stored function creation. See Section 4, “Binary Logging of Stored Routines and Triggers”.

    This option was added in MySQL 5.0.16.

•   --log-bin-trust-routine-creators[={0|1}]

    This is the old name for --log-bin-trust-function-creators. Before MySQL 5.0.16, it also applies to stored procedures, not just stored functions and sets the log_bin_trust_routine_creators system variable. As of 5.0.16, this option is deprecated. It is recognized for backward compatibility but its use results in a warning.

    This option was added in MySQL 5.0.6.

•   --log-error[=file_name]

    Log errors and startup messages to this file. See Section 8.1, “The Error Log”. If you omit the filename, MySQL uses host_name.err. If the filename has no extension, the server adds an extension of .err.

•   --log-isam[=file_name]

    Log all MyISAM changes to this file (used only when debugging MyISAM).

•   --log-long-format (DEPRECATED)

    Log extra information to the update log, binary update log, and slow query log, if they have been activated. For example, the username and timestamp are logged for all queries. This option is deprecated, as it now represents the default logging behavior. (See the description for --log-short-format.) The --log-queries-not-using-indexes option is available for the purpose of logging queries that do not use indexes to the slow query log.

•   --log-queries-not-using-indexes

    If you are using this option with --log-slow-queries, queries that do not use indexes are logged to the slow query log. See Section 8.4, “The Slow Query Log”.

•   --log-short-format

    Log less information to the update log, binary update log, and slow query log, if they have been activated. For example, the username and timestamp are not logged for queries.

•   --log-slow-admin-statements

    Log slow administrative statements such as OPTIMIZE TABLE, ANALYZE TABLE, and ALTER TABLE to the slow query log.

•   --log-slow-queries[=file_name]

    Log all queries that have taken more than long_query_time seconds to execute to this file. See Section 8.4, “The Slow Query Log”. See the descriptions of the --log-long-format and --log-short-format options for details.

•   --log-tc=file_name

    The name of the memory-mapped transaction coordinator log file (for XA transactions that affect multiple storage engines when the binary log is disabled). The default name is tc.log. The file is created under the data directory if not given as a full pathname. Currently, this option is unused. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   --log-tc-size=size

    The size in bytes of the memory-mapped transaction coordinator log. The default size is 24KB. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   --log-warnings[=level], -W [level]

    Print out warnings such as Aborted connection... to the error log. Enabling this option is recommended, for example, if you use replication (you get more information about what is happening, such as messages about network failures and reconnections). This option is enabled (1) by default, and the default level value if omitted is 1. To disable this option, use --log-warnings=0. If the value is greater than 1, aborted connections are written to the error log. See Section 1.2.11, “Communication Errors and Aborted Connections”.

•   --low-priority-updates

    Give table-modifying operations (INSERT, REPLACE, DELETE, UPDATE) lower priority than selects. This can also be done via {INSERT | REPLACE | DELETE | UPDATE} LOW_PRIORITY ... to lower the priority of only one query, or by SET LOW_PRIORITY_UPDATES=1 to change the priority in one thread. This affects only storage engines that use only table-level locking (MyISAM, MEMORY, MERGE). See Section 3.2, “Table Locking Issues”.

•   --max-binlog-dump-events

    This option is used internally by the MySQL test suite for replication testing and debugging.

•   --memlock

    Lock the mysqld process in memory. This works on systems such as Solaris that support the mlockall() system call. This might help if you have a problem where the operating system is causing mysqld to swap on disk. Note that use of this option requires that you run the server as root, which is normally not a good idea for security reasons. See Section 4.5, “How to Run MySQL as a Normal User”.

•   --myisam-recover[=option[,option]...]]

    Set the MyISAM storage engine recovery mode. The option value is any combination of the values of DEFAULT, BACKUP, FORCE, or QUICK. If you specify multiple values, separate them by commas. You can also use a value of "" to disable this option. If this option is used, each time mysqld opens a MyISAM table, it checks whether the table is marked as crashed or wasn't closed properly. (The last option works only if you are running with external locking disabled.) If this is the case, mysqld runs a check on the table. If the table was corrupted, mysqld attempts to repair it.

    The following options affect how the repair works:
    Option | Description
    DEFAULT | The same as not giving any option to --myisam-recover.
    BACKUP | If the data file was changed during recovery, save a backup of the tbl_name.MYD file as tbl_name-datetime.BAK.
    FORCE | Run recovery even if we would lose more than one row from the .MYD file.
    QUICK | Don't check the rows in the table if there aren't any delete blocks.

    Before the server automatically repairs a table, it writes a note about the repair to the error log. If you want to be able to recover from most problems without user intervention, you should use the options BACKUP,FORCE. This forces a repair of a table even if some rows would be deleted, but it keeps the old data file as a backup so that you can later examine what happened.

    See Section 1.1, “MyISAM Startup Options”.

•   --ndb-connectstring=connect_string

    When using the NDB storage engine, it is possible to point out the management server that distributes the cluster configuration by setting the connect string option. See Section 3.4.2, “The Cluster Connectstring”, for syntax.

•   --ndbcluster

    If the binary includes support for the NDB Cluster storage engine, this option enables the engine, which is disabled by default. See Chapter 16, MySQL Cluster.

•   --old-passwords

    Force the server to generate short (pre-4.1) password hashes for new passwords. This is useful for compatibility when the server must support older client programs. See Section 5.9, “Password Hashing as of MySQL 4.1”.

•   --one-thread

    Only use one thread (for debugging under Linux). This option is available only if the server is built with debugging enabled. See [1]MySQL Internals: Porting.

•   --open-files-limit=count

    Change the number of file descriptors available to mysqld. If this option is not set or is set to 0, mysqld uses the value to reserve file descriptors with setrlimit(). If the value is 0, mysqld reserves max_connections×5 or max_connections + table_open_cache×2 files (whichever is larger). You should try increasing this value if mysqld gives you the error Too many open files.

•   --pid-file=path

    The pathname of the process ID file. This file is used by other programs such as mysqld_safe to determine the server's process ID.

•   --port=port_num, -P port_num

    The port number to use when listening for TCP/IP connections. The port number must be 1024 or higher unless the server is started by the root system user.

•   --port-open-timeout=num

    On some systems, when the server is stopped, the TCP/IP port might not become available immediately. If the server is restarted quickly afterward, its attempt to reopen the port can fail. This option indicates how many seconds the server should wait for the TCP/IP port to become free if it cannot be opened. The default is not to wait. This option was added in MySQL 5.0.19.

•   --safe-mode

    Skip some optimization stages.

•   --safe-show-database (DEPRECATED)

    See Section 5.3, “Privileges Provided by MySQL”.

•   --safe-user-create

    If this option is enabled, a user cannot create new MySQL users by using the GRANT statement unless the user has the INSERT privilege for the mysql.user table or any column in the table. If you want a user to have the ability to create new users that have those privileges that the user has the right to grant, you should grant the user the following privilege:

    GRANT INSERT(user) ON mysql.user TO 'user_name'@'host_name';
This ensures that the user cannot change any privilege columns directly, but has to use the GRANT statement to give privileges to other users.

•   --secure-auth

    Disallow authentication by clients that attempt to use accounts that have old (pre-4.1) passwords.

•   --secure-file-priv=path

    This option limits the effect of the LOAD_FILE() function and the LOAD DATA and SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE statements to work only with files in the specified directory.

    This option was added in MySQL 5.0.38.

•   --shared-memory

    Enable shared-memory connections by local clients. This option is available only on Windows.

•   --shared-memory-base-name=name

    The name of shared memory to use for shared-memory connections. This option is available only on Windows. The default name is MYSQL. The name is case sensitive.

•   --skip-bdb

    Disable the BDB storage engine. This saves memory and might speed up some operations. Do not use this option if you require BDB tables.

•   --skip-concurrent-insert

    Turn off the ability to select and insert at the same time on MyISAM tables. (This is to be used only if you think you have found a bug in this feature.) See Section 3.3, “Concurrent Inserts”.

•   --skip-external-locking

    Do not use external locking (system locking). For more information about external locking, including conditions under which it can and cannot be used, see Section 3.4, “External Locking”.

    External locking has been disabled by default since MySQL 4.0.

•   --skip-grant-tables

    This option causes the server not to use the privilege system at all, which gives anyone with access to the server unrestricted access to all databases. You can cause a running server to start using the grant tables again by executing mysqladmin flush-privileges or mysqladmin reload command from a system shell, or by issuing a MySQL FLUSH PRIVILEGES statement after connecting to the server. This option also suppresses loading of user-defined functions (UDFs).

    This option is unavailable if MySQL was configured with the --disable-grant-options option. See Section 4.15.2, “Typical configure Options”.

•   --skip-host-cache

    Do not use the internal hostname cache for faster name-to-IP resolution. Instead, query the DNS server every time a client connects. See Section 5.9, “How MySQL Uses DNS”.

•   --skip-innodb

    Disable the InnoDB storage engine. This saves memory and disk space and might speed up some operations. Do not use this option if you require InnoDB tables.

•   --skip-merge

    Disable the MERGE storage engine. This option was added in MySQL 5.0.24. It can be used if the following behavior is undesirable: If a user has access to MyISAM table t, that user can create a MERGE table m that accesses t. However, if the user's privileges on t are subsequently revoked, the user can continue to access t by doing so through m.

•   --skip-name-resolve

    Do not resolve hostnames when checking client connections. Use only IP numbers. If you use this option, all Host column values in the grant tables must be IP numbers or localhost. See Section 5.9, “How MySQL Uses DNS”.

•   --skip-ndbcluster

    Disable the NDB Cluster storage engine. This is the default for binaries that were built with NDB Cluster storage engine support; the server allocates memory and other resources for this storage engine only if the --ndbcluster option is given explicitly. See Section 3.3, “Quick Test Setup of MySQL Cluster”, for an example of usage.

•   --skip-networking

    Don't listen for TCP/IP connections at all. All interaction with mysqld must be made via named pipes or shared memory (on Windows) or Unix socket files (on Unix). This option is highly recommended for systems where only local clients are allowed. See Section 5.9, “How MySQL Uses DNS”.

•   --sporadic-binlog-dump-fail

    This option is used internally by the MySQL test suite for replication testing and debugging.

•   --ssl*

    Options that begin with --ssl specify whether to allow clients to connect via SSL and indicate where to find SSL keys and certificates. See Section 6.7.3, “SSL Command Options”.

•   --standalone

    Instructs the MySQL server not to run as a service.

•   --symbolic-links, --skip-symbolic-links

    Enable or disable symbolic link support. This option has different effects on Windows and Unix:

    •   On Windows, enabling symbolic links allows you to establish a symbolic link to a database directory by creating a db_name.sym file that contains the path to the real directory. See Section 6.1.3, “Using Symbolic Links for Databases on Windows”.

    •   On Unix, enabling symbolic links means that you can link a MyISAM index file or data file to another directory with the INDEX DIRECTORY or DATA DIRECTORY options of the CREATE TABLE statement. If you delete or rename the table, the files that its symbolic links point to also are deleted or renamed. See Section 6.1.2, “Using Symbolic Links for Tables on Unix”.

•   --skip-safemalloc

    If MySQL is configured with --with-debug=full, all MySQL programs check for memory overruns during each memory allocation and memory freeing operation. This checking is very slow, so for the server you can avoid it when you don't need it by using the --skip-safemalloc option.

•   --skip-show-database

    With this option, the SHOW DATABASES statement is allowed only to users who have the SHOW DATABASES privilege, and the statement displays all database names. Without this option, SHOW DATABASES is allowed to all users, but displays each database name only if the user has the SHOW DATABASES privilege or some privilege for the database. Note that any global privilege is considered a privilege for the database.

•   --skip-stack-trace

    Don't write stack traces. This option is useful when you are running mysqld under a debugger. On some systems, you also must use this option to get a core file. See [1]MySQL Internals: Porting.

•   --skip-thread-priority

    Disable using thread priorities for faster response time.

•   --socket=path

    On Unix, this option specifies the Unix socket file to use when listening for local connections. The default value is /tmp/mysql.sock. On Windows, the option specifies the pipe name to use when listening for local connections that use a named pipe. The default value is MySQL (not case sensitive).

•   --sql-mode=value[,value[,value...]]

    Set the SQL mode. See the section called “SQL MODES”.

•   --sysdate-is-now

    As of MySQL 5.0.13, SYSDATE() by default returns the time at which it executes, not the time at which the statement in which it occurs begins executing. This differs from the behavior of NOW(). This option causes SYSDATE() to be an alias for NOW(). For information about the implications for binary logging and replication, see the description for SYSDATE() in Section 6, “Date and Time Functions” and for SET TIMESTAMP in Section 5.3, “SET Syntax”.

    This option was added in MySQL 5.0.20.

•   --tc-heuristic-recover={COMMIT|ROLLBACK}

    The type of decision to use in the heuristic recovery process. Currently, this option is unused. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   --temp-pool

    This option causes most temporary files created by the server to use a small set of names, rather than a unique name for each new file. This works around a problem in the Linux kernel dealing with creating many new files with different names. With the old behavior, Linux seems to “leak” memory, because it is being allocated to the directory entry cache rather than to the disk cache.

•   --transaction-isolation=level

    Sets the default transaction isolation level. The level value can be READ-UNCOMMITTED, READ-COMMITTED, REPEATABLE-READ, or SERIALIZABLE. See Section 4.6, “SET TRANSACTION Syntax”.

•   --tmpdir=path, -t path

    The path of the directory to use for creating temporary files. It might be useful if your default /tmp directory resides on a partition that is too small to hold temporary tables. This option accepts several paths that are used in round-robin fashion. Paths should be separated by colon characters (“:”) on Unix and semicolon characters (“;”) on Windows, NetWare, and OS/2. If the MySQL server is acting as a replication slave, you should not set --tmpdir to point to a directory on a memory-based filesystem or to a directory that is cleared when the server host restarts. For more information about the storage location of temporary files, see Section 1.4.4, “Where MySQL Stores Temporary Files”. A replication slave needs some of its temporary files to survive a machine restart so that it can replicate temporary tables or LOAD DATA INFILE operations. If files in the temporary file directory are lost when the server restarts, replication fails.

•   --user={user_name|user_id}, -u {user_name|user_id}

    Run the mysqld server as the user having the name user_name or the numeric user ID user_id. (“User” in this context refers to a system login account, not a MySQL user listed in the grant tables.)

    This option is mandatory when starting mysqld as root. The server changes its user ID during its startup sequence, causing it to run as that particular user rather than as root. See Section 4.1, “General Security Guidelines”.

    To avoid a possible security hole where a user adds a --user=root option to a my.cnf file (thus causing the server to run as root), mysqld uses only the first --user option specified and produces a warning if there are multiple --user options. Options in /etc/my.cnf and $MYSQL_HOME/my.cnf are processed before command-line options, so it is recommended that you put a --user option in /etc/my.cnf and specify a value other than root. The option in /etc/my.cnf is found before any other --user options, which ensures that the server runs as a user other than root, and that a warning results if any other --user option is found.

•   --version, -V

    Display version information and exit.

You can assign a value to a server system variable by using an option of the form --var_name=value. For example, --key_buffer_size=32M sets the key_buffer_size variable to a value of 32MB.

Note that when you assign a value to a variable, MySQL might automatically correct the value to stay within a given range, or adjust the value to the closest allowable value if only certain values are allowed.

If you want to restrict the maximum value to which a variable can be set at runtime with SET, you can define this by using the --maximum-var_name=value command-line option.

It is also possible to set variables by using --set-variable=var_name=value or -O var_name=value syntax. This syntax is deprecated.

You can change the values of most system variables for a running server with the SET statement. See Section 5.3, “SET Syntax”.

the section called “SYSTEM VARIABLES”, provides a full description for all variables, and additional information for setting them at server startup and runtime. Section 5.2, “Tuning Server Parameters”, includes information on optimizing the server by tuning system variables.

SYSTEM VARIABLES

The MySQL server maintains many system variables that indicate how it is configured. Each system variable has a default value. System variables can be set at server startup using options on the command line or in an option file. Most of them can be changed dynamically while the server is running by means of the SET statement, which enables you to modify operation of the server without having to stop and restart it. You can refer to system variable values in expressions.

There are several ways to see the names and values of system variables:

•   To see the values that a server will use based on its compiled-in defaults and any option files that it reads, use this command:

    mysqld --verbose --help

•   To see the values that a server will use based on its compiled-in defaults, ignoring the settings in any option files, use this command:

    mysqld --no-defaults --verbose --help

•   To see the current values used by a running server, use the SHOW VARIABLES statement.

This section provides a description of each system variable. Variables with no version indicated are present in all MySQL 5.0 releases. For historical information concerning their implementation, please see http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/.

The following table lists all available system variables:
Variable Name | Variable Scope | Dynamic?
auto_increment_increment | GLOBAL | SESSION | no
bdb_shared_data | GLOBAL | no
innodb_log_files_in_group | GLOBAL | no
innodb_log_group_home_dir | GLOBAL | no
innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct | GLOBAL | yes
innodb_max_purge_lag | GLOBAL | yes
innodb_mirrored_log_groups | GLOBAL | no
innodb_open_files | GLOBAL | no
innodb_rollback_on_timeout | GLOBAL | no
innodb_status_file | GLOBAL | no
innodb_support_xa | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
innodb_sync_spin_loops | GLOBAL | yes
bdb_tmpdir | GLOBAL | no
innodb_table_locks | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
innodb_thread_concurrency | GLOBAL | yes
innodb_thread_sleep_delay | GLOBAL | yes
insert_id | SESSION | yes
interactive_timeout | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
join_buffer_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
keep_files_on_create | GLOBAL | yes
key_buffer_size | GLOBAL | yes
key_cache_age_threshold | GLOBAL | yes
key_cache_block_size | GLOBAL | yes
bdb_cache_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | no
key_cache_division_limit | GLOBAL | yes
language | GLOBAL | no
large_pages | GLOBAL | no
large_files_support | GLOBAL | no
last_insert_id | SESSION | yes
lc_time_names | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
license | GLOBAL | no
local_infile | GLOBAL | yes
log | GLOBAL | no
log_bin | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
bdb_log_buffer_size | GLOBAL | no
log-bin-index | GLOBAL | no
log_bin_trust_function_creators | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
log_bin_trust_routine_creators | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
log_error | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
log-isam | GLOBAL | no
log_queries_not_using_indexes | GLOBAL | yes
log_slave_updates | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
log_slow_queries | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
log_warnings | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
long_query_time | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
bdb_max_lock | GLOBAL | no
low_priority_updates | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
lower_case_file_system | GLOBAL | no
lower_case_table_names | GLOBAL | no
master-connect-retry |  | no
max_allowed_packet | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
max_binlog_cache_size | GLOBAL | yes
max_binlog_size | GLOBAL | yes
max_connect_errors | GLOBAL | yes
max_connections | GLOBAL | yes
max_delayed_threads | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
big_tables | GLOBAL | yes
max_error_count | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
max_heap_table_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
max_insert_delayed_threads | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
max_join_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
max_length_for_sort_data | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
max_prepared_stmt_count | GLOBAL | yes
max_relay_log_size | GLOBAL | yes
max_seeks_for_key | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
max_sort_length | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
max_sp_recursion_depth | GLOBAL | yes
binlog_cache_size | GLOBAL | yes
max_tmp_tables | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
max_user_connections | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
max_write_lock_count | GLOBAL | yes
locked_in_memory | GLOBAL | no
merge | GLOBAL | no
multi_range_count | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
multi_read_range | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
myisam-recover | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
myisam_block_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
myisam_data_pointer_size | GLOBAL | yes
bulk_insert_buffer_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
myisam_max_extra_sort_file_size | GLOBAL | no
myisam_max_sort_file_size | GLOBAL | yes
myisam_repair_threads | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
myisam_sort_buffer_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
myisam_stats_method | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
ndb_autoincrement_prefetch_sz | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
ndb_cache_check_time | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
ndb_force_send | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
ndb_use_exact_count | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
ndbcluster | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
character_set_filesystem | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
net_buffer_length | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
net_read_timeout | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
net_retry_count | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
net_write_timeout | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
new | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
old_passwords | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
open_files_limit | GLOBAL | yes
optimizer_prune_level | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
optimizer_search_depth | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
pid-file | GLOBAL | no
character_set_server | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
port | GLOBAL | no
preload_buffer_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
prepared_stmt_count | GLOBAL | SESSION | no
profiling | SESSION | no
profiling_history_size | SESSION | yes
protocol_version | GLOBAL | no
query_alloc_block_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
query_cache_limit | GLOBAL | yes
query_cache_min_res_unit | GLOBAL | yes
query_cache_size | GLOBAL | yes
auto_increment_offset | GLOBAL | SESSION | no
character_sets_dir | GLOBAL | no
query_cache_type | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
query_cache_wlock_invalidate | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
query_prealloc_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
range_alloc_block_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
read_buffer_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
read_only | GLOBAL | yes
read_rnd_buffer_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
relay-log | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
relay_log_purge | GLOBAL | yes
relay_log_space_limit | GLOBAL | yes
character_set_client | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
report-password | GLOBAL | no
rpl_recovery_rank | GLOBAL | yes
secure_auth | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
secure_file_priv | GLOBAL | no
server_id | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
skip_external_locking | GLOBAL | no
skip-log-warnings | GLOBAL | SESSION | no
skip-merge | GLOBAL | no
skip_networking | GLOBAL | yes
skip-new | GLOBAL | yes
character_set_connection | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
skip_show_database | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
skip-sync-bdb-logs | GLOBAL | no
slave_load_tmpdir | GLOBAL | no
slave_net_timeout | GLOBAL | yes
slave_skip_errors | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
slave_compressed_protocol | GLOBAL | yes
slave_transaction_retries | GLOBAL | yes
slow_launch_time | GLOBAL | yes
socket | GLOBAL | no
sort_buffer_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
character_set_database | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
sql_mode | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
sql_auto_is_null | SESSION | no
sql_big_selects | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
sql_big_tables | SESSION | yes
sql_buffer_result | SESSION | yes
sql_log_bin | SESSION | yes
sql_log_off | SESSION | yes
sql_log_update | SESSION | yes
sql_low_priority_updates | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
sql_max_join_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
character_set_results | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
sql_notes | SESSION | yes
sql_quote_show_create | SESSION | yes
sql_safe_updates | SESSION | yes
sql_select_limit | SESSION | yes
sql_slave_skip_counter | GLOBAL | yes
sql_warnings | SESSION | yes
ssl | GLOBAL | no
ssl_ca | GLOBAL | no
ssl_capath | GLOBAL | no
ssl_cert | GLOBAL | no
character_set_system | GLOBAL | yes
ssl_cipher | GLOBAL | no
ssl_key | GLOBAL | no
storage_engine | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
sync-bdb-logs | GLOBAL | no
sync_binlog | GLOBAL | yes
sync_frm | GLOBAL | yes
system_time_zone | GLOBAL | yes
table_cache | GLOBAL | yes
table_lock_wait_timeout | GLOBAL | yes
table_open_cache | GLOBAL | yes
collation_connection | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
table_type | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
thread_cache_size | GLOBAL | yes
thread_concurrency | GLOBAL | no
thread_stack | GLOBAL | no
time_format | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
time_zone | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
timed_mutexes | GLOBAL | yes
timestamp | SESSION | yes
tmp_table_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
tmpdir | GLOBAL | no
collation_database | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
transaction_alloc_block_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
transaction_prealloc_size | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
tx_isolation | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
unique_checks | SESSION | yes
updatable_views_with_limit | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
version | GLOBAL | SESSION | no
version_comment | GLOBAL | no
version_compile_machine | GLOBAL | no
version_compile_os | GLOBAL | yes
wait_timeout | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
collation_server | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
warning_count | SESSION | no
completion_type | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
autocommit | SESSION | yes
concurrent_insert | GLOBAL | yes
connect_timeout | GLOBAL | yes
datadir | GLOBAL | no
date_format | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
datetime_format | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
default_week_format | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
delay_key_write | GLOBAL | yes
delayed_insert_limit | GLOBAL | yes
delayed_insert_timeout | GLOBAL | yes
delayed_queue_size | GLOBAL | yes
automatic_sp_privileges | GLOBAL | yes
des-key-file | GLOBAL | no
div_precision_increment | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
engine_condition_pushdown | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
error_count | SESSION | no
expire_logs_days | GLOBAL | yes
flush | GLOBAL | yes
flush_time | GLOBAL | yes
foreign_key_checks | SESSION | yes
ft_boolean_syntax | GLOBAL | yes
ft_max_word_len | GLOBAL | yes
back_log | GLOBAL | no
ft_min_word_len | GLOBAL | yes
ft_query_expansion_limit | GLOBAL | yes
ft_stopword_file | GLOBAL | yes
group_concat_max_len | GLOBAL | SESSION | yes
have_archive | GLOBAL | no
have_bdb | GLOBAL | no
have_blackhole_engine | GLOBAL | no
have_compress | GLOBAL | no
have_crypt | GLOBAL | no
have_csv | GLOBAL | no
basedir | GLOBAL | no
have_example_engine | GLOBAL | no
have_federated_engine | GLOBAL | no
have_geometry | GLOBAL | no
have_innodb | GLOBAL | no
have_isam | GLOBAL | no
have_merge_engine | GLOBAL | no
have_ndbcluster | GLOBAL | no
have_openssl | GLOBAL | no
have_query_cache | GLOBAL | no
have_raid | GLOBAL | no
bdb_home | GLOBAL | no
have_rtree_keys | GLOBAL | no
have_ssl | GLOBAL | no
have_symlink | GLOBAL | no
hostname | GLOBAL | no
identity | SESSION | yes
init_file | GLOBAL | no
init_connect | GLOBAL | yes
init_slave | GLOBAL | yes
innodb_additional_mem_pool_size | GLOBAL | no
innodb_autoextend_increment | GLOBAL | yes
bdb-lock-detect | GLOBAL | no
innodb_buffer_pool_awe_mem_mb | GLOBAL | no
innodb_buffer_pool_size | GLOBAL | no
innodb_checksums | GLOBAL | yes
innodb_commit_concurrency | GLOBAL | yes
innodb_concurrency_tickets | GLOBAL | yes
innodb_data_file_path | GLOBAL | no
innodb_data_home_dir | GLOBAL | no
innodb_doublewrite | GLOBAL | no
innodb_fast_shutdown | GLOBAL | yes
innodb_file_io_threads | GLOBAL | no
bdb_logdir | GLOBAL | no
innodb_file_per_table | GLOBAL | no
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit | GLOBAL | yes
innodb_flush_method | GLOBAL | no
innodb_force_recovery | GLOBAL | no
innodb_lock_wait_timeout | GLOBAL | no
innodb_locks_unsafe_for_binlog | GLOBAL | no
innodb_log_arch_dir | GLOBAL | no
innodb_log_archive | GLOBAL | no
innodb_log_buffer_size | GLOBAL | no
innodb_log_file_size | GLOBAL | no

For additional system variable information, see these sections:

•   the section called “USING SYSTEM VARIABLES”, discusses the syntax for setting and displaying system variable values.

•   the section called “Dynamic System Variables”, lists the variables that can be set at runtime.

•   Information on tuning system variables can be found in Section 5.2, “Tuning Server Parameters”.

•   Section 2.4, “InnoDB Startup Options and System Variables”, lists InnoDB system variables.

Note

Some of the following variable descriptions refer to “enabling” or “disabling” a variable. These variables can be enabled with the SET statement by setting them to ON or 1, or disabled by setting them to OFF or 0. However, to set such a variable on the command line or in an option file, you must set it to 1 or 0; setting it to ON or OFF will not work. For example, on the command line, --delay_key_write=1 works but --delay_key_write=ON does not.

Values for buffer sizes, lengths, and stack sizes are given in bytes unless otherwise specified.

•   auto_increment_increment

    auto_increment_increment and auto_increment_offset are intended for use with master-to-master replication, and can be used to control the operation of AUTO_INCREMENT columns. Both variables can be set globally or locally, and each can assume an integer value between 1 and 65,535 inclusive. Setting the value of either of these two variables to 0 causes its value to be set to 1 instead. Attempting to set the value of either of these two variables to an integer greater than 65,535 or less than 0 causes its value to be set to 65,535 instead. Attempting to set the value of auto_increment_increment or auto_increment_offset to a non-integer value gives rise to an error, and the actual value of the variable remains unchanged.

    These two variables affect AUTO_INCREMENT column behavior as follows:

    •   auto_increment_increment controls the interval between successive column values. For example:

        mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'auto_inc%';
        +--------------------------+-------+
        | Variable_name            | Value |
        +--------------------------+-------+
        | auto_increment_increment | 1     |
        | auto_increment_offset    | 1     |
        +--------------------------+-------+
        2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
        mysql> CREATE TABLE autoinc1
            -> (col INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY);
          Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.04 sec)
        mysql> SET @@auto_increment_increment=10;
        Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
        mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'auto_inc%';
        +--------------------------+-------+
        | Variable_name            | Value |
        +--------------------------+-------+
        | auto_increment_increment | 10    |
        | auto_increment_offset    | 1     |
        +--------------------------+-------+
        2 rows in set (0.01 sec)
        mysql> INSERT INTO autoinc1 VALUES (NULL), (NULL), (NULL), (NULL);
        Query OK, 4 rows affected (0.00 sec)
        Records: 4  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0
        mysql> SELECT col FROM autoinc1;
        +-----+
        | col |
        +-----+
        |   1 |
        |  11 |
        |  21 |
        |  31 |
        +-----+
        4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
    (Note how SHOW VARIABLES is used here to obtain the current values for these variables.)

    •   auto_increment_offset determines the starting point for the AUTO_INCREMENT column value. Consider the following, assuming that these statements are executed during the same session as the example given in the description for auto_increment_increment:

        mysql> SET @@auto_increment_offset=5;
        Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
        mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'auto_inc%';
        +--------------------------+-------+
        | Variable_name            | Value |
        +--------------------------+-------+
        | auto_increment_increment | 10    |
        | auto_increment_offset    | 5     |
        +--------------------------+-------+
        2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
        mysql> CREATE TABLE autoinc2
            -> (col INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY);
        Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.06 sec)
        mysql> INSERT INTO autoinc2 VALUES (NULL), (NULL), (NULL), (NULL);
        Query OK, 4 rows affected (0.00 sec)
        Records: 4  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0
        mysql> SELECT col FROM autoinc2;
        +-----+
        | col |
        +-----+
        |   5 |
        |  15 |
        |  25 |
        |  35 |
        +-----+
        4 rows in set (0.02 sec)
    If the value of auto_increment_offset is greater than that of auto_increment_increment, the value of auto_increment_offset is ignored.

    Should one or both of these variables be changed and then new rows inserted into a table containing an AUTO_INCREMENT column, the results may seem counterintuitive because the series of AUTO_INCREMENT values is calculated without regard to any values already present in the column, and the next value inserted is the least value in the series that is greater than the maximum existing value in the AUTO_INCREMENT column. In other words, the series is calculated like so:

    auto_increment_offset + N × auto_increment_increment

    where N is a positive integer value in the series [1, 2, 3, ...]. For example:

    mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'auto_inc%';
    +--------------------------+-------+
    | Variable_name            | Value |
    +--------------------------+-------+
    | auto_increment_increment | 10    |
    | auto_increment_offset    | 5     |
    +--------------------------+-------+
    2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
    mysql> SELECT col FROM autoinc1;
    +-----+
    | col |
    +-----+
    |   1 |
    |  11 |
    |  21 |
    |  31 |
    +-----+
    4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
    mysql> INSERT INTO autoinc1 VALUES (NULL), (NULL), (NULL), (NULL);
    Query OK, 4 rows affected (0.00 sec)
    Records: 4  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0
    mysql> SELECT col FROM autoinc1;
    +-----+
    | col |
    +-----+
    |   1 |
    |  11 |
    |  21 |
    |  31 |
    |  35 |
    |  45 |
    |  55 |
    |  65 |
    +-----+
    8 rows in set (0.00 sec)
The values shown for auto_increment_increment and auto_increment_offset generate the series 5 + N × 10, that is, [5, 15, 25, 35, 45, ...]. The greatest value present in the col column prior to the INSERT is 31, and the next available value in the AUTO_INCREMENT series is 35, so the inserted values for col begin at that point and the results are as shown for the SELECT query.

It is important to remember that it is not possible to confine the effects of these two variables to a single table, and thus they do not take the place of the sequences offered by some other database management systems; these variables control the behavior of all AUTO_INCREMENT columns in all tables on the MySQL server. If one of these variables is set globally, its effects persist until the global value is changed or overridden by setting them locally, or until mysqld is restarted. If set locally, the new value affects AUTO_INCREMENT columns for all tables into which new rows are inserted by the current user for the duration of the session, unless the values are changed during that session.

The auto_increment_increment variable was added in MySQL 5.0.2. Its default value is 1. See [2]Auto-Increment in Multiple-Master Replication.

auto_increment_increment is supported for use with NDB tables beginning with MySQL 5.0.46. Previously, setting it when using MySQL Cluster tables produced unpredictable results.

•   auto_increment_offset

    This variable was introduced in MySQL 5.0.2. Its default value is 1. For particulars, see the description for auto_increment_increment.

    auto_increment_offset is supported for use with NDB tables beginning with MySQL 5.0.46. Previously, setting it when using MySQL Cluster tables produced unpredictable results.

•   automatic_sp_privileges

    When this variable has a value of 1 (the default), the server automatically grants the EXECUTE and ALTER ROUTINE privileges to the creator of a stored routine, if the user cannot already execute and alter or drop the routine. (The ALTER ROUTINE privileges is required to drop the routine.) The server also automatically drops those privileges when the creator drops the routine. If automatic_sp_privileges is 0, the server does not automatically add and drop these privileges. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   back_log

    The number of outstanding connection requests MySQL can have. This comes into play when the main MySQL thread gets very many connection requests in a very short time. It then takes some time (although very little) for the main thread to check the connection and start a new thread. The back_log value indicates how many requests can be stacked during this short time before MySQL momentarily stops answering new requests. You need to increase this only if you expect a large number of connections in a short period of time.

    In other words, this value is the size of the listen queue for incoming TCP/IP connections. Your operating system has its own limit on the size of this queue. The manual page for the Unix listen() system call should have more details. Check your OS documentation for the maximum value for this variable. back_log cannot be set higher than your operating system limit.

•   basedir

    The MySQL installation base directory. This variable can be set with the --basedir option.

•   bdb_cache_size

    The size of the buffer that is allocated for caching indexes and rows for BDB tables. If you don't use BDB tables, you should start mysqld with --skip-bdb to not allocate memory for this cache.

•   bdb_home

    The base directory for BDB tables. This should be assigned the same value as the datadir variable.

•   bdb_log_buffer_size

    The size of the buffer that is allocated for caching indexes and rows for BDB tables. If you don't use BDB tables, you should set this to 0 or start mysqld with --skip-bdb to not allocate memory for this cache.

•   bdb_logdir

    The directory where the BDB storage engine writes its log files. This variable can be set with the --bdb-logdir option.

•   bdb_max_lock

    The maximum number of locks that can be active for a BDB table (10,000 by default). You should increase this value if errors such as the following occur when you perform long transactions or when mysqld has to examine many rows to calculate a query:

    bdb: Lock table is out of available locks
    Got error 12 from ...

•   bdb_shared_data

    This is ON if you are using --bdb-shared-data to start Berkeley DB in multi-process mode. (Do not use DB_PRIVATE when initializing Berkeley DB.)

•   bdb_tmpdir

    The BDB temporary file directory.

•   binlog_cache_size

    The size of the cache to hold the SQL statements for the binary log during a transaction. A binary log cache is allocated for each client if the server supports any transactional storage engines and if the server has the binary log enabled (--log-bin option). If you often use large, multiple-statement transactions, you can increase this cache size to get more performance. The Binlog_cache_use and Binlog_cache_disk_use status variables can be useful for tuning the size of this variable. See Section 8.3, “The Binary Log”.

•   bulk_insert_buffer_size

    MyISAM uses a special tree-like cache to make bulk inserts faster for INSERT ... SELECT, INSERT ... VALUES (...), (...), ..., and LOAD DATA INFILE when adding data to non-empty tables. This variable limits the size of the cache tree in bytes per thread. Setting it to 0 disables this optimization. The default value is 8MB.

•   character_set_client

    The character set for statements that arrive from the client.

•   character_set_connection

    The character set used for literals that do not have a character set introducer and for number-to-string conversion.

•   character_set_database

    The character set used by the default database. The server sets this variable whenever the default database changes. If there is no default database, the variable has the same value as character_set_server.

•   character_set_filesystem

    The filesystem character set. This variable is used to interpret string literals that refer to filenames, such as in the LOAD DATA INFILE and SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE statements and the LOAD_FILE() function. Such filenames are converted from character_set_client to character_set_filesystem before the file opening attempt occurs. The default value is binary, which means that no conversion occurs. For systems on which multi-byte filenames are allowed, a different value may be more appropriate. For example, if the system represents filenames using UTF-8, set character_set_filesystem to 'utf8'. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.19.

•   character_set_results

    The character set used for returning query results to the client.

•   character_set_server

    The server's default character set.

•   character_set_system

    The character set used by the server for storing identifiers. The value is always utf8.

•   character_sets_dir

    The directory where character sets are installed.

•   collation_connection

    The collation of the connection character set.

•   collation_database

    The collation used by the default database. The server sets this variable whenever the default database changes. If there is no default database, the variable has the same value as collation_server.

•   collation_server

    The server's default collation.

•   completion_type

    The transaction completion type:

    •   If the value is 0 (the default), COMMIT and ROLLBACK are unaffected.

    •   If the value is 1, COMMIT and ROLLBACK are equivalent to COMMIT AND CHAIN and ROLLBACK AND CHAIN, respectively. (A new transaction starts immediately with the same isolation level as the just-terminated transaction.)

    •   If the value is 2, COMMIT and ROLLBACK are equivalent to COMMIT RELEASE and ROLLBACK RELEASE, respectively. (The server disconnects after terminating the transaction.)

    This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.3

•   concurrent_insert

    If 1 (the default), MySQL allows INSERT and SELECT statements to run concurrently for MyISAM tables that have no free blocks in the middle of the data file. You can turn this option off by starting mysqld with --safe or --skip-new.

    In MySQL 5.0.6, this variable was changed to take three integer values:
    Value | Description
    0 | Off
    1 | (Default) Enables concurrent insert for MyISAM tables that don't have holes
    2 | Enables concurrent inserts for all MyISAM tables, even those that have holes. For a table with a hole, new rows are inserted at the end of the table if it is in use by another thread. Otherwise, MySQL acquires a normal write lock and inserts the row into the hole.

    See also Section 3.3, “Concurrent Inserts”.

•   connect_timeout

    The number of seconds that the mysqld server waits for a connect packet before responding with Bad handshake. The default value is 10 seconds as of MySQL 5.0.52 and 5 seconds before that.

    Increasing the connect_timeout value might help if clients frequently encounter errors of the form Lost connection to MySQL server at 'XXX', system error: errno.

•   datadir

    The MySQL data directory. This variable can be set with the --datadir option.

•   date_format

    This variable is not implemented.

•   datetime_format

    This variable is not implemented.

•   default_week_format

    The default mode value to use for the WEEK() function. See Section 6, “Date and Time Functions”.

•   delay_key_write

    This option applies only to MyISAM tables. It can have one of the following values to affect handling of the DELAY_KEY_WRITE table option that can be used in CREATE TABLE statements.
    Option | Description
    OFF | DELAY_KEY_WRITE is ignored.
    ON | MySQL honors any DELAY_KEY_WRITE option specified in CREATE TABLE statements. This is the default value.
    ALL | All new opened tables are treated as if they were created with the DELAY_KEY_WRITE option enabled.

    If DELAY_KEY_WRITE is enabled for a table, the key buffer is not flushed for the table on every index update, but only when the table is closed. This speeds up writes on keys a lot, but if you use this feature, you should add automatic checking of all MyISAM tables by starting the server with the --myisam-recover option (for example, --myisam-recover=BACKUP,FORCE). See the section called “COMMAND OPTIONS”, and Section 1.1, “MyISAM Startup Options”.

    Note that if you enable external locking with --external-locking, there is no protection against index corruption for tables that use delayed key writes.

•   delayed_insert_limit

    After inserting delayed_insert_limit delayed rows, the INSERT DELAYED handler thread checks whether there are any SELECT statements pending. If so, it allows them to execute before continuing to insert delayed rows.

•   delayed_insert_timeout

    How many seconds an INSERT DELAYED handler thread should wait for INSERT statements before terminating.

•   delayed_queue_size

    This is a per-table limit on the number of rows to queue when handling INSERT DELAYED statements. If the queue becomes full, any client that issues an INSERT DELAYED statement waits until there is room in the queue again.

•   div_precision_increment

    This variable indicates the number of digits by which to increase the scale of the result of division operations performed with the / operator. The default value is 4. The minimum and maximum values are 0 and 30, respectively. The following example illustrates the effect of increasing the default value.

    mysql> SELECT 1/7;
    +--------+
    | 1/7    |
    +--------+
    | 0.1429 |
    +--------+
    mysql> SET div_precision_increment = 12;
    mysql> SELECT 1/7;
    +----------------+
    | 1/7            |
    +----------------+
    | 0.142857142857 |
    +----------------+
This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.6.

•   engine_condition_pushdown

    This variable applies to NDB. By default it is 0 (OFF): If you execute a query such as SELECT * FROM t WHERE mycol = 42, where mycol is a non-indexed column, the query is executed as a full table scan on every NDB node. Each node sends every row to the MySQL server, which applies the WHERE condition. If engine_condition_pushdown is set to 1 (ON), the condition is “pushed down” to the storage engine and sent to the NDB nodes. Each node uses the condition to perform the scan, and only sends back to the MySQL server the rows that match the condition.

    This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.3. Before that, the default NDB behavior is the same as for a value of OFF.

•   expire_logs_days

    The number of days for automatic binary log removal. The default is 0, which means “no automatic removal.” Possible removals happen at startup and at binary log rotation.

•   flush

    If ON, the server flushes (synchronizes) all changes to disk after each SQL statement. Normally, MySQL does a write of all changes to disk only after each SQL statement and lets the operating system handle the synchronizing to disk. See Section 1.4.2, “What to Do If MySQL Keeps Crashing”. This variable is set to ON if you start mysqld with the --flush option.

•   flush_time

    If this is set to a non-zero value, all tables are closed every flush_time seconds to free up resources and synchronize unflushed data to disk. We recommend that this option be used only on systems with minimal resources.

•   ft_boolean_syntax

    The list of operators supported by boolean full-text searches performed using IN BOOLEAN MODE. See Section 8.2, “Boolean Full-Text Searches”.

    The default variable value is '+ -><()~*:""&|'. The rules for changing the value are as follows:

    •   Operator function is determined by position within the string.

    •   The replacement value must be 14 characters.

    •   Each character must be an ASCII non-alphanumeric character.

    •   Either the first or second character must be a space.

    •   No duplicates are allowed except the phrase quoting operators in positions 11 and 12. These two characters are not required to be the same, but they are the only two that may be.

    •   Positions 10, 13, and 14 (which by default are set to “:”, “&”, and “|”) are reserved for future extensions.

•   ft_max_word_len

    The maximum length of the word to be included in a FULLTEXT index.

    Note FULLTEXT indexes must be rebuilt after changing this variable. Use REPAIR TABLE tbl_name QUICK.

•   ft_min_word_len

    The minimum length of the word to be included in a FULLTEXT index.

    Note FULLTEXT indexes must be rebuilt after changing this variable. Use REPAIR TABLE tbl_name QUICK.

•   ft_query_expansion_limit

    The number of top matches to use for full-text searches performed using WITH QUERY EXPANSION.

•   ft_stopword_file

    The file from which to read the list of stopwords for full-text searches. All the words from the file are used; comments are not honored. By default, a built-in list of stopwords is used (as defined in the myisam/ft_static.c file). Setting this variable to the empty string ('') disables stopword filtering.

    Note FULLTEXT indexes must be rebuilt after changing this variable or the contents of the stopword file. Use REPAIR TABLE tbl_name QUICK.

•   group_concat_max_len

    The maximum allowed result length for the GROUP_CONCAT() function. The default is 1024.

•   have_archive

    YES if mysqld supports ARCHIVE tables, NO if not.

•   have_bdb

    YES if mysqld supports BDB tables. DISABLED if --skip-bdb is used.

•   have_blackhole_engine

    YES if mysqld supports BLACKHOLE tables, NO if not.

•   have_compress

    YES if the zlib compression library is available to the server, NO if not. If not, the COMPRESS() and UNCOMPRESS() functions cannot be used.

•   have_crypt

    YES if the crypt() system call is available to the server, NO if not. If not, the ENCRYPT() function cannot be used.

•   have_csv

    YES if mysqld supports CSV tables, NO if not.

•   have_example_engine

    YES if mysqld supports EXAMPLE tables, NO if not.

    have_federated_engine

    YES if mysqld supports FEDERATED tables, NO if not. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   have_geometry

    YES if the server supports spatial data types, NO if not.

•   have_innodb

    YES if mysqld supports InnoDB tables. DISABLED if --skip-innodb is used.

•   have_isam

    In MySQL 5.0, this variable appears only for reasons of backward compatibility. It is always NO because ISAM tables are no longer supported.

•   have_merge_engine

    YES if mysqld supports MERGE tables. DISABLED if --skip-merge is used. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.24.

•   have_ndbcluster

    YES if mysqld supports NDB Cluster tables. DISABLED if --skip-ndbcluster is used.

•   have_openssl

    YES if mysqld supports SSL connections, NO if not. As of MySQL 5.0.38, this variable is an alias for have_ssl.

•   have_query_cache

    YES if mysqld supports the query cache, NO if not.

•   have_raid

    In MySQL 5.0, this variable appears only for reasons of backward compatibility. It is always NO because RAID tables are no longer supported.

•   have_rtree_keys

    YES if RTREE indexes are available, NO if not. (These are used for spatial indexes in MyISAM tables.)

•   have_ssl

    YES if mysqld supports SSL connections, NO if not. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.38. Before that, use have_openssl.

•   have_symlink

    YES if symbolic link support is enabled, NO if not. This is required on Unix for support of the DATA DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY table options, and on Windows for support of data directory symlinks.

•   hostname

    The server sets this variable to the server hostname at startup. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.38.

•   init_connect

    A string to be executed by the server for each client that connects. The string consists of one or more SQL statements. To specify multiple statements, separate them by semicolon characters. For example, each client begins by default with autocommit mode enabled. There is no global system variable to specify that autocommit should be disabled by default, but init_connect can be used to achieve the same effect:

    SET GLOBAL init_connect='SET AUTOCOMMIT=0';
This variable can also be set on the command line or in an option file. To set the variable as just shown using an option file, include these lines:

    [mysqld]
    init_connect='SET AUTOCOMMIT=0'
Note that the content of init_connect is not executed for users that have the SUPER privilege. This is done so that an erroneous value for init_connect does not prevent all clients from connecting. For example, the value might contain a statement that has a syntax error, thus causing client connections to fail. Not executing init_connect for users that have the SUPER privilege enables them to open a connection and fix the init_connect value.

•   init_file

    The name of the file specified with the --init-file option when you start the server. This should be a file containing SQL statements that you want the server to execute when it starts. Each statement must be on a single line and should not include comments.

    Note that the --init-file option is unavailable if MySQL was configured with the --disable-grant-options option. See Section 4.15.2, “Typical configure Options”.

•   init_slave

    This variable is similar to init_connect, but is a string to be executed by a slave server each time the SQL thread starts. The format of the string is the same as for the init_connect variable.

•   innodb_xxx

    InnoDB system variables are listed in Section 2.4, “InnoDB Startup Options and System Variables”.

•   interactive_timeout

    The number of seconds the server waits for activity on an interactive connection before closing it. An interactive client is defined as a client that uses the CLIENT_INTERACTIVE option to mysql_real_connect(). See also wait_timeout.

•   join_buffer_size

    The size of the buffer that is used for joins that do not use indexes and thus perform full table scans. Normally, the best way to get fast joins is to add indexes. Increase the value of join_buffer_size to get a faster full join when adding indexes is not possible. One join buffer is allocated for each full join between two tables. For a complex join between several tables for which indexes are not used, multiple join buffers might be necessary.

    The maximum allowable setting for join_buffer_size is 4GB.

•   keep_files_on_create

    If a MyISAM table is created with no DATA DIRECTORY option, the .MYD file is created in the database directory. By default, if MyISAM finds an existing .MYD file in this case, it overwrites it. The same applies to .MYI files for tables created with no INDEX DIRECTORY option. To suppress this behavior, set the keep_files_on_create variable to ON (1), in which case MyISAM will not overwrite existing files and returns an error instead. The default value is OFF (0).

    If a MyISAM table is created with a DATA DIRECTORY or INDEX DIRECTORY option and an existing .MYD or .MYI file is found, MyISAM always returns an error. It will not overwrite a file in the specified directory.

    This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.48.

•   key_buffer_size

    Index blocks for MyISAM tables are buffered and are shared by all threads. key_buffer_size is the size of the buffer used for index blocks. The key buffer is also known as the key cache.

    The maximum allowable setting for key_buffer_size is 4GB on 32-bit platforms. As of MySQL 5.0.52, values larger than 4GB are allowed for 64-bit platforms (except 64-bit Windows, for which large values are truncated to 4GB with a warning). The effective maximum size might be less, depending on your available physical RAM and per-process RAM limits imposed by your operating system or hardware platform.

    Increase the value to get better index handling (for all reads and multiple writes) to as much as you can afford. Using a value that is 25% of total memory on a machine that mainly runs MySQL is quite common. However, if you make the value too large (for example, more than 50% of your total memory) your system might start to page and become extremely slow. MySQL relies on the operating system to perform filesystem caching for data reads, so you must leave some room for the filesystem cache. Consider also the memory requirements of other storage engines.

    For even more speed when writing many rows at the same time, use LOCK TABLES. See Section 2.17, “Speed of INSERT Statements”.

    You can check the performance of the key buffer by issuing a SHOW STATUS statement and examining the Key_read_requests, Key_reads, Key_write_requests, and Key_writes status variables. (See Section 5.4, “SHOW Syntax”.) The Key_reads/Key_read_requests ratio should normally be less than 0.01. The Key_writes/Key_write_requests ratio is usually near 1 if you are using mostly updates and deletes, but might be much smaller if you tend to do updates that affect many rows at the same time or if you are using the DELAY_KEY_WRITE table option.

    The fraction of the key buffer in use can be determined using key_buffer_size in conjunction with the Key_blocks_unused status variable and the buffer block size, which is available from the key_cache_block_size system variable:

    1 - ((Key_blocks_unused × key_cache_block_size) / key_buffer_size)
This value is an approximation because some space in the key buffer may be allocated internally for administrative structures.

It is possible to create multiple MyISAM key caches. The size limit of 4GB applies to each cache individually, not as a group. See Section 4.6, “The MyISAM Key Cache”.

•   key_cache_age_threshold

    This value controls the demotion of buffers from the hot sub-chain of a key cache to the warm sub-chain. Lower values cause demotion to happen more quickly. The minimum value is 100. The default value is 300. See Section 4.6, “The MyISAM Key Cache”.

•   key_cache_block_size

    The size in bytes of blocks in the key cache. The default value is 1024. See Section 4.6, “The MyISAM Key Cache”.

•   key_cache_division_limit

    The division point between the hot and warm sub-chains of the key cache buffer chain. The value is the percentage of the buffer chain to use for the warm sub-chain. Allowable values range from 1 to 100. The default value is 100. See Section 4.6, “The MyISAM Key Cache”.

•   language

    The language used for error messages.

•   large_file_support

    Whether mysqld was compiled with options for large file support.

•   large_pages

    Whether large page support is enabled. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   lc_time_names

    This variable specifies the locale that controls the language used to display day and month names and abbreviations. This variable affects the output from the DATE_FORMAT(), DAYNAME() and MONTHNAME() functions. Locale names are POSIX-style values such as 'ja_JP' or 'pt_BR'. The default value is 'en_US' regardless of your system's locale setting. For further information, see Section 10, “MySQL Server Locale Support”. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.25.

•   license

    The type of license the server has.

•   local_infile

    Whether LOCAL is supported for LOAD DATA INFILE statements. See Section 4.4, “Security Issues with LOAD DATA LOCAL”.

•   locked_in_memory

    Whether mysqld was locked in memory with --memlock.

•   log

    Whether logging of all statements to the general query log is enabled. See Section 8.2, “The General Query Log”.

•   log_bin

    Whether the binary log is enabled. See Section 8.3, “The Binary Log”.

•   log_bin_trust_function_creators

    This variable applies when binary logging is enabled. It controls whether stored function creators can be trusted not to create stored functions that will cause unsafe events to be written to the binary log. If set to 0 (the default), users are not allowed to create or alter stored functions unless they have the SUPER privilege in addition to the CREATE ROUTINE or ALTER ROUTINE privilege. A setting of 0 also enforces the restriction that a function must be declared with the DETERMINISTIC characteristic, or with the READS SQL DATA or NO SQL characteristic. If the variable is set to 1, MySQL does not enforce these restrictions on stored function creation. See Section 4, “Binary Logging of Stored Routines and Triggers”.

    This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.16.

•   log_bin_trust_routine_creators

    This is the old name for log_bin_trust_function_creators. Before MySQL 5.0.16, it also applies to stored procedures, not just stored functions. As of 5.0.16, this variable is deprecated. It is recognized for backward compatibility but its use results in a warning.

    This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.6.

•   log_error

    The location of the error log.

•   log_queries_not_using_indexes

    Whether queries that do not use indexes are logged to the slow query log. See Section 8.4, “The Slow Query Log”. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.23.

•   log_slave_updates

    Whether updates received by a slave server from a master server should be logged to the slave's own binary log. Binary logging must be enabled on the slave for this variable to have any effect. See Section 1.2, “Replication Startup Options and Variables”.

•   log_slow_queries

    Whether slow queries should be logged. “Slow” is determined by the value of the long_query_time variable. See Section 8.4, “The Slow Query Log”.

•   log_warnings

    Whether to produce additional warning messages. It is enabled (1) by default and can be disabled by setting it to 0. Aborted connections are not logged to the error log unless the value is greater than 1.

•   long_query_time

    If a query takes longer than this many seconds, the server increments the Slow_queries status variable. If you are using the --log-slow-queries option, the query is logged to the slow query log file. This value is measured in real time, not CPU time, so a query that is under the threshold on a lightly loaded system might be above the threshold on a heavily loaded one. The minimum value is 1. The default is 10. See Section 8.4, “The Slow Query Log”.

•   low_priority_updates

    If set to 1, all INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and LOCK TABLE WRITE statements wait until there is no pending SELECT or LOCK TABLE READ on the affected table. This affects only storage engines that use only table-level locking (MyISAM, MEMORY, MERGE). This variable previously was named sql_low_priority_updates.

•   lower_case_file_system

    This variable describes the case sensitivity of filenames on the filesystem where the data directory is located. OFF means filenames are case sensitive, ON means they are not case sensitive.

•   lower_case_table_names

    If set to 1, table names are stored in lowercase on disk and table name comparisons are not case sensitive. If set to 2 table names are stored as given but compared in lowercase. This option also applies to database names and table aliases. See Section 2.2, “Identifier Case Sensitivity”.

    If you are using InnoDB tables, you should set this variable to 1 on all platforms to force names to be converted to lowercase.

    You should not set this variable to 0 if you are running MySQL on a system that does not have case-sensitive filenames (such as Windows or Mac OS X). If this variable is not set at startup and the filesystem on which the data directory is located does not have case-sensitive filenames, MySQL automatically sets lower_case_table_names to 2.

•   max_allowed_packet

    The maximum size of one packet or any generated/intermediate string.

    The packet message buffer is initialized to net_buffer_length bytes, but can grow up to max_allowed_packet bytes when needed. This value by default is small, to catch large (possibly incorrect) packets.

    You must increase this value if you are using large BLOB columns or long strings. It should be as big as the largest BLOB you want to use. The protocol limit for max_allowed_packet is 1GB.

•   max_binlog_cache_size

    If a multiple-statement transaction requires more than this many bytes of memory, the server generates a Multi-statement transaction required more than 'max_binlog_cache_size' bytes of storage error. The minimum value is 4096, the maximum and default values are 4GB.

•   max_binlog_size

    If a write to the binary log causes the current log file size to exceed the value of this variable, the server rotates the binary logs (closes the current file and opens the next one). You cannot set this variable to more than 1GB or to less than 4096 bytes. The default value is 1GB.

    A transaction is written in one chunk to the binary log, so it is never split between several binary logs. Therefore, if you have big transactions, you might see binary logs larger than max_binlog_size.

    If max_relay_log_size is 0, the value of max_binlog_size applies to relay logs as well.

•   max_connect_errors

    If there are more than this number of interrupted connections from a host, that host is blocked from further connections. You can unblock blocked hosts with the FLUSH HOSTS statement.

•   max_connections

    The number of simultaneous client connections allowed. By default, this is 100. See Section 1.2.7, “Too many connections”, for more information.

    Increasing this value increases the number of file descriptors that mysqld requires. See Section 4.8, “How MySQL Opens and Closes Tables”, for comments on file descriptor limits.

•   max_delayed_threads

    Do not start more than this number of threads to handle INSERT DELAYED statements. If you try to insert data into a new table after all INSERT DELAYED threads are in use, the row is inserted as if the DELAYED attribute wasn't specified. If you set this to 0, MySQL never creates a thread to handle DELAYED rows; in effect, this disables DELAYED entirely.

•   max_error_count

    The maximum number of error, warning, and note messages to be stored for display by the SHOW ERRORS and SHOW WARNINGS statements.

•   max_heap_table_size

    This variable sets the maximum size to which MEMORY tables are allowed to grow. The value of the variable is used to calculate MEMORY table MAX_ROWS values. Setting this variable has no effect on any existing MEMORY table, unless the table is re-created with a statement such as CREATE TABLE or altered with ALTER TABLE or TRUNCATE TABLE.

•   max_insert_delayed_threads

    This variable is a synonym for max_delayed_threads.

•   max_join_size

    Do not allow SELECT statements that probably need to examine more than max_join_size rows (for single-table statements) or row combinations (for multiple-table statements) or that are likely to do more than max_join_size disk seeks. By setting this value, you can catch SELECT statements where keys are not used properly and that would probably take a long time. Set it if your users tend to perform joins that lack a WHERE clause, that take a long time, or that return millions of rows.

    Setting this variable to a value other than DEFAULT resets the value of SQL_BIG_SELECTS to 0. If you set the SQL_BIG_SELECTS value again, the max_join_size variable is ignored.

    If a query result is in the query cache, no result size check is performed, because the result has previously been computed and it does not burden the server to send it to the client.

    This variable previously was named sql_max_join_size.

•   max_length_for_sort_data

    The cutoff on the size of index values that determines which filesort algorithm to use. See Section 2.11, “ORDER BY Optimization”.

•   max_prepared_stmt_count

    This variable limits the total number of prepared statements in the server. It can be used in environments where there is the potential for denial-of-service attacks based on running the server out of memory by preparing huge numbers of statements. The default value is 16,382. The allowable range of values is from 0 to 1 million. If the value is set lower than the current number of prepared statements, existing statements are not affected and can be used, but no new statements can be prepared until the current number drops below the limit. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.21.

•   max_relay_log_size

    If a write by a replication slave to its relay log causes the current log file size to exceed the value of this variable, the slave rotates the relay logs (closes the current file and opens the next one). If max_relay_log_size is 0, the server uses max_binlog_size for both the binary log and the relay log. If max_relay_log_size is greater than 0, it constrains the size of the relay log, which enables you to have different sizes for the two logs. You must set max_relay_log_size to between 4096 bytes and 1GB (inclusive), or to 0. The default value is 0. See Section 4.1, “Replication Implementation Details”.

•   max_seeks_for_key

    Limit the assumed maximum number of seeks when looking up rows based on a key. The MySQL optimizer assumes that no more than this number of key seeks are required when searching for matching rows in a table by scanning an index, regardless of the actual cardinality of the index (see Section 5.4.13, “SHOW INDEX Syntax”). By setting this to a low value (say, 100), you can force MySQL to prefer indexes instead of table scans.

•   max_sort_length

    The number of bytes to use when sorting BLOB or TEXT values. Only the first max_sort_length bytes of each value are used; the rest are ignored.

•   max_sp_recursion_depth

    The number of times that a stored procedure may call itself. The default value for this option is 0, which completely disallows recursion in stored procedures. The maximum value is 255.

    This variable can be set globally and per session.

•   max_tmp_tables

    The maximum number of temporary tables a client can keep open at the same time. (This option does not yet do anything.)

•   max_user_connections

    The maximum number of simultaneous connections allowed to any given MySQL account. A value of 0 means “no limit.”

    Before MySQL 5.0.3, this variable has only global scope. Beginning with MySQL 5.0.3, it also has a read-only session scope. The session variable has the same value as the global variable unless the current account has a non-zero MAX_USER_CONNECTIONS resource limit. In that case, the session value reflects the account limit.

•   max_write_lock_count

    After this many write locks, allow some pending read lock requests to be processed in between.

•   multi_range_count

    The maximum number of ranges to send to a table handler at once during range selects. The default value is 256. Sending multiple ranges to a handler at once can improve the performance of certain selects dramatically. This especially true for the NDB Cluster table handler, which needs to send the range requests to all nodes. Sending a batch of those requests at once reduces the communication costs significantly. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   myisam_block_size

    The block size to be used for MyISAM index pages.

•   myisam_data_pointer_size

    The default pointer size in bytes, to be used by CREATE TABLE for MyISAM tables when no MAX_ROWS option is specified. This variable cannot be less than 2 or larger than 7. The default value is 6 (4 before MySQL 5.0.6). This variable was added in MySQL 4.1.2. See Section 1.2.12, “The table is full”.

•   myisam_max_extra_sort_file_size (DEPRECATED)

    If the temporary file used for fast MyISAM index creation would be larger than using the key cache by the amount specified here, prefer the key cache method. This is mainly used to force long character keys in large tables to use the slower key cache method to create the index. The value is given in bytes.

    Note This variable was removed in MySQL 5.0.6.

•   myisam_max_sort_file_size

    The maximum size of the temporary file that MySQL is allowed to use while re-creating a MyISAM index (during REPAIR TABLE, ALTER TABLE, or LOAD DATA INFILE). If the file size would be larger than this value, the index is created using the key cache instead, which is slower. The value is given in bytes.

    The default value is 2GB. If MyISAM index files exceed this size and disk space is available, increasing the value may help performance.

•   myisam_recover_options

    The value of the --myisam-recover option. See the section called “COMMAND OPTIONS”.

•   myisam_repair_threads

    If this value is greater than 1, MyISAM table indexes are created in parallel (each index in its own thread) during the Repair by sorting process. The default value is 1.

    Note Multi-threaded repair is still beta-quality code.

•   myisam_sort_buffer_size

    The size of the buffer that is allocated when sorting MyISAM indexes during a REPAIR TABLE or when creating indexes with CREATE INDEX or ALTER TABLE.

    The maximum allowable setting for myisam_sort_buffer_size is 4GB.

•   myisam_stats_method

    How the server treats NULL values when collecting statistics about the distribution of index values for MyISAM tables. This variable has two possible values, nulls_equal and nulls_unequal. For nulls_equal, all NULL index values are considered equal and form a single value group that has a size equal to the number of NULL values. For nulls_unequal, NULL values are considered unequal, and each NULL forms a distinct value group of size 1.

    The method that is used for generating table statistics influences how the optimizer chooses indexes for query execution, as described in Section 4.7, “MyISAM Index Statistics Collection”.

    This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.14. For older versions, the statistics collection method is equivalent to nulls_equal.

•   multi_read_range

    Specifies the maximum number of ranges to send to a storage engine during range selects. The default value is 256. Sending multiple ranges to an engine is a feature that can improve the performance of certain selects dramatically, particularly for NDBCLUSTER. This engine needs to send the range requests to all nodes, and sending many of those requests at once reduces the communication costs significantly. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   named_pipe

    (Windows only.) Indicates whether the server supports connections over named pipes.

•   ndb_autoincrement_prefetch_sz

    Determines the probability of gaps in an autoincremented column. Set to 1 to minimize this. Set to a high value for optimization — makes inserts faster, but decreases the likelihood that consecutive autoincrement numbers will be used in a batch of inserts. Default value: 32. Mimimum value: 1.

•   ndb_cache_check_time

    The number of milliseconds to wait before checking the NDB query cache. Setting this to 0 (the default and minimum value) means that the NDB query cache will be checked for validation on every query.

    The recommended maximum value for this variable is 1000, which means that the query cache is checked once per second. A larger value means the NDB query cache is less often checked and invalidated due to updates on a different mysqld. It is generally not desirable to set this to a value greater than 2000.

•   ndb_force_send

    Forces sending of buffers to NDB immediately, without waiting for other threads. Defaults to ON.

•   ndb_index_stat_cache_entries

    Sets the granularity of the statistics by determining the number of starting and ending keys to store in the statistics memory cache. Zero means no caching takes place; in this case, the data nodes are always queried directly. Default value: 32.

•   ndb_index_stat_enable

    Use NDB index statistics in query optimization. Defaults to ON.

•   ndb_index_stat_update_freq

    How often to query data nodes instead of the statistics cache. For example, a value of 20 (the default) means to direct every 20th query to the data nodes.

•   ndb_optimized_node_selection

    Causes an SQL node to use a data node on the same host machine as transaction coordinator. Enabled by default. Set to 0 or OFF to disable, in which case the SQL node uses each data node in the cluster in succession. When this option is disabled, or if there is no data node process running on the same host as the SQL node, the SQL node attempts to use a given data node 8 times before proceeding to the next one.

•   ndb_report_thresh_binlog_epoch_slip

    This is a threshold on the number of epochs to be behind before reporting binlog status. For example, a value of 3 (the default) means that if the difference between which epoch has been received from the storage nodes and which epoch has been applied to the binlog is 3 or more, a status message will be sent to the cluster log.

•   ndb_report_thresh_binlog_mem_usage

    This is a threshold on the percentage of free memory remaining before reporting binlog status. For example, a value of 10 (the default) means that if the amount of available memory for receiving binlog data from the data nodes falls below 10%, a status message will be sent to the cluster log.

•   ndb_use_exact_count

    Forces NDB to use a count of records during SELECT COUNT(*) query planning to speed up this type of query. The default value is ON. For faster queries overall, disable this feature by setting the value of ndb_use_exact_count to OFF.

•   ndb_use_transactions

    You can disable NDB transaction support by setting this variable's values to OFF (not recommended). The default is ON.

•   net_buffer_length

    Each client thread is associated with a connection buffer and result buffer. Both begin with a size given by net_buffer_length but are dynamically enlarged up to max_allowed_packet bytes as needed. The result buffer shrinks to net_buffer_length after each SQL statement.

    This variable should not normally be changed, but if you have very little memory, you can set it to the expected length of statements sent by clients. If statements exceed this length, the connection buffer is automatically enlarged. The maximum value to which net_buffer_length can be set is 1MB.

•   net_read_timeout

    The number of seconds to wait for more data from a connection before aborting the read. This timeout applies only to TCP/IP connections, not to connections made via Unix socket files, named pipes, or shared memory. When the server is reading from the client, net_read_timeout is the timeout value controlling when to abort. When the server is writing to the client, net_write_timeout is the timeout value controlling when to abort. See also slave_net_timeout.

•   net_retry_count

    If a read on a communication port is interrupted, retry this many times before giving up. This value should be set quite high on FreeBSD because internal interrupts are sent to all threads.

•   net_write_timeout

    The number of seconds to wait for a block to be written to a connection before aborting the write. This timeout applies only to TCP/IP connections, not to connections made via Unix socket files, named pipes, or shared memory. See also net_read_timeout.

•   new

    This variable was used in MySQL 4.0 to turn on some 4.1 behaviors, and is retained for backward compatibility. In MySQL 5.0, its value is always OFF.

•   old_passwords

    Whether the server should use pre-4.1-style passwords for MySQL user accounts. See Section 1.2.4, “Client does not support authentication protocol”.

•   one_shot

    This is not a variable, but it can be used when setting some variables. It is described in Section 5.3, “SET Syntax”.

•   open_files_limit

    The number of files that the operating system allows mysqld to open. This is the real value allowed by the system and might be different from the value you gave using the --open-files-limit option to mysqld or mysqld_safe. The value is 0 on systems where MySQL can't change the number of open files.

•   optimizer_prune_level

    Controls the heuristics applied during query optimization to prune less-promising partial plans from the optimizer search space. A value of 0 disables heuristics so that the optimizer performs an exhaustive search. A value of 1 causes the optimizer to prune plans based on the number of rows retrieved by intermediate plans. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.1.

•   optimizer_search_depth

    The maximum depth of search performed by the query optimizer. Values larger than the number of relations in a query result in better query plans, but take longer to generate an execution plan for a query. Values smaller than the number of relations in a query return an execution plan quicker, but the resulting plan may be far from being optimal. If set to 0, the system automatically picks a reasonable value. If set to the maximum number of tables used in a query plus 2, the optimizer switches to the algorithm used in MySQL 5.0.0 (and previous versions) for performing searches. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.1.

•   pid_file

    The pathname of the process ID (PID) file. This variable can be set with the --pid-file option.

•   port

    The number of the port on which the server listens for TCP/IP connections. This variable can be set with the --port option.

•   preload_buffer_size

    The size of the buffer that is allocated when preloading indexes.

•   prepared_stmt_count

    The current number of prepared statements. (The maximum number of statements is given by the max_prepared_stmt_count system variable.) This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.21. In MySQL 5.0.32, it was converted to the global Prepared_stmt_count status variable.

•   protocol_version

    The version of the client/server protocol used by the MySQL server.

•   query_alloc_block_size

    The allocation size of memory blocks that are allocated for objects created during statement parsing and execution. If you have problems with memory fragmentation, it might help to increase this a bit.

•   query_cache_limit

    Don't cache results that are larger than this number of bytes. The default value is 1MB.

•   query_cache_min_res_unit

    The minimum size (in bytes) for blocks allocated by the query cache. The default value is 4096 (4KB). Tuning information for this variable is given in Section 5.4.3, “Query Cache Configuration”.

•   query_cache_size

    The amount of memory allocated for caching query results. The default value is 0, which disables the query cache. The allowable values are multiples of 1024; other values are rounded down to the nearest multiple. Note that query_cache_size bytes of memory are allocated even if query_cache_type is set to 0. See Section 5.4.3, “Query Cache Configuration”, for more information.

•   query_cache_type

    Set the query cache type. Setting the GLOBAL value sets the type for all clients that connect thereafter. Individual clients can set the SESSION value to affect their own use of the query cache. Possible values are shown in the following table:
    Option | Description
    0 or OFF | Don't cache results in or retrieve results from the query cache. Note that this does not deallocate the query cache buffer. To do that, you should set query_cache_size to 0.
    1 or ON | Cache all query results except for those that begin with SELECT SQL_NO_CACHE.
    2 or DEMAND | Cache results only for queries that begin with SELECT SQL_CACHE.

    This variable defaults to ON.

•   query_cache_wlock_invalidate

    Normally, when one client acquires a WRITE lock on a MyISAM table, other clients are not blocked from issuing statements that read from the table if the query results are present in the query cache. Setting this variable to 1 causes acquisition of a WRITE lock for a table to invalidate any queries in the query cache that refer to the table. This forces other clients that attempt to access the table to wait while the lock is in effect.

•   query_prealloc_size

    The size of the persistent buffer used for statement parsing and execution. This buffer is not freed between statements. If you are running complex queries, a larger query_prealloc_size value might be helpful in improving performance, because it can reduce the need for the server to perform memory allocation during query execution operations.

•   range_alloc_block_size

    The size of blocks that are allocated when doing range optimization.

•   read_buffer_size

    Each thread that does a sequential scan allocates a buffer of this size (in bytes) for each table it scans. If you do many sequential scans, you might want to increase this value, which defaults to 131072.

    The maximum allowable setting for read_buffer_size is 2GB.

    read_buffer_size and read_rnd_buffer_size are not specific to any storage engine and apply in a general manner for optimization. See Section 5.7, “How MySQL Uses Memory”, for example.

•   read_only

    When this variable is set to ON, the server allows no updates except from users that have the SUPER privilege or (on a slave server) from updates performed by slave threads. On a slave server, this can be useful to ensure that the slave accepts updates only from its master server and not from clients. As of MySQL 5.0.16, this variable does not apply to TEMPORARY tables.

    read_only exists only as a GLOBAL variable, so changes to its value require the SUPER privilege. Changes to read_only on a master server are not replicated to slave servers. The value can be set on a slave server independent of the setting on the master.

•   read_rnd_buffer_size

    When reading rows in sorted order following a key-sorting operation, the rows are read through this buffer to avoid disk seeks. See Section 2.11, “ORDER BY Optimization”. Setting the variable to a large value can improve ORDER BY performance by a lot. However, this is a buffer allocated for each client, so you should not set the global variable to a large value. Instead, change the session variable only from within those clients that need to run large queries.

    The maximum allowable setting for read_rnd_buffer_size is 2GB.

    read_buffer_size and read_rnd_buffer_size are not specific to any storage engine and apply in a general manner for optimization. See Section 5.7, “How MySQL Uses Memory”, for example.

•   relay_log_purge

    Disables or enables automatic purging of relay log files as soon as they are not needed any more. The default value is 1 (ON).

•   rpl_recovery_rank

    This variable is unused.

•   secure_auth

    If the MySQL server has been started with the --secure-auth option, it blocks connections from all accounts that have passwords stored in the old (pre-4.1) format. In that case, the value of this variable is ON, otherwise it is OFF.

    You should enable this option if you want to prevent all use of passwords employing the old format (and hence insecure communication over the network).

    Server startup fails with an error if this option is enabled and the privilege tables are in pre-4.1 format. See Section 1.2.4, “Client does not support authentication protocol”.

•   secure_file_priv

    By default, this variable is empty. If set to the name of a directory, it limits the effect of the LOAD_FILE() function and the LOAD DATA and SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE statements to work only with files in that directory.

    This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.38.

•   server_id

    The server ID. This value is set by the --server-id option. It is used for replication to enable master and slave servers to identify themselves uniquely.

•   shared_memory

    (Windows only.) Whether the server allows shared-memory connections.

•   shared_memory_base_name

    (Windows only.) The name of shared memory to use for shared-memory connections. This is useful when running multiple MySQL instances on a single physical machine. The default name is MYSQL. The name is case sensitive.

•   skip_external_locking

    This is OFF if mysqld uses external locking, ON if external locking is disabled.

•   skip_networking

    This is ON if the server allows only local (non-TCP/IP) connections. On Unix, local connections use a Unix socket file. On Windows, local connections use a named pipe or shared memory. On NetWare, only TCP/IP connections are supported, so do not set this variable to ON. This variable can be set to ON with the --skip-networking option.

•   skip_show_database

    This prevents people from using the SHOW DATABASES statement if they do not have the SHOW DATABASES privilege. This can improve security if you have concerns about users being able to see databases belonging to other users. Its effect depends on the SHOW DATABASES privilege: If the variable value is ON, the SHOW DATABASES statement is allowed only to users who have the SHOW DATABASES privilege, and the statement displays all database names. If the value is OFF, SHOW DATABASES is allowed to all users, but displays the names of only those databases for which the user has the SHOW DATABASES or other privilege.

•   slave_compressed_protocol

    Whether to use compression of the slave/master protocol if both the slave and the master support it.

•   slave_load_tmpdir

    The name of the directory where the slave creates temporary files for replicating LOAD DATA INFILE statements.

•   slave_net_timeout

    The number of seconds to wait for more data from a master/slave connection before aborting the read. This timeout applies only to TCP/IP connections, not to connections made via Unix socket files, named pipes, or shared memory.

•   slave_skip_errors

    Normally, replication stops when an error occurs on the slave. This gives you the opportunity to resolve the inconsistency in the data manually. This variable tells the slave SQL thread to continue replication when a statement returns any of the errors listed in the variable value.

•   slave_transaction_retries

    If a replication slave SQL thread fails to execute a transaction because of an InnoDB deadlock or exceeded InnoDB's innodb_lock_wait_timeout or NDBCluster's TransactionDeadlockDetectionTimeout or TransactionInactiveTimeout, it automatically retries slave_transaction_retries times before stopping with an error. The default priot to MySQL 4.0.3 is 0. You must explicitly set the value greater than 0 to enable the “retry” behavior, which is probably a good idea. In MySQL 5.0.3 or newer, the default is 10.

•   slow_launch_time

    If creating a thread takes longer than this many seconds, the server increments the Slow_launch_threads status variable.

•   socket

    On Unix platforms, this variable is the name of the socket file that is used for local client connections. The default is /tmp/mysql.sock. (For some distribution formats, the directory might be different, such as /var/lib/mysql for RPMs.)

    On Windows, this variable is the name of the named pipe that is used for local client connections. The default value is MySQL (not case sensitive).

•   sort_buffer_size

    Each thread that needs to do a sort allocates a buffer of this size. Increase this value for faster ORDER BY or GROUP BY operations. See Section 1.4.4, “Where MySQL Stores Temporary Files”.

    The maximum allowable setting for sort_buffer_size is 4GB.

•   sql_mode

    The current server SQL mode, which can be set dynamically. See the section called “SQL MODES”.

•   sql_slave_skip_counter

    The number of events from the master that a slave server should skip. See Section 6.2.6, “SET GLOBAL SQL_SLAVE_SKIP_COUNTER Syntax”.

•   ssl_ca

    The path to a file with a list of trusted SSL CAs. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.23.

•   ssl_capath

    The path to a directory that contains trusted SSL CA certificates in PEM format. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.23.

•   ssl_cert

    The name of the SSL certificate file to use for establishing a secure connection. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.23.

•   ssl_cipher

    A list of allowable ciphers to use for SSL encryption. The cipher list has the same format as the openssl ciphers command. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.23.

•   ssl_key

    The name of the SSL key file to use for establishing a secure connection. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.23.

•   storage_engine

    The default storage engine (table type). To set the storage engine at server startup, use the --default-storage-engine option. See the section called “COMMAND OPTIONS”.

•   sync_binlog

    If the value of this variable is positive, the MySQL server synchronizes its binary log to disk (using fdatasync()) after every sync_binlog writes to the binary log. Note that there is one write to the binary log per statement if autocommit is enabled, and one write per transaction otherwise. The default value is 0, which does no synchronizing to disk. A value of 1 is the safest choice, because in the event of a crash you lose at most one statement or transaction from the binary log. However, it is also the slowest choice (unless the disk has a battery-backed cache, which makes synchronization very fast).

    If the value of sync_binlog is 0 (the default), no extra flushing is done. The server relies on the operating system to flush the file contents occasionaly as for any other file.

•   sync_frm

    If this variable is set to 1, when any non-temporary table is created its .frm file is synchronized to disk (using fdatasync()). This is slower but safer in case of a crash. The default is 1.

•   system_time_zone

    The server system time zone. When the server begins executing, it inherits a time zone setting from the machine defaults, possibly modified by the environment of the account used for running the server or the startup script. The value is used to set system_time_zone. Typically the time zone is specified by the TZ environment variable. It also can be specified using the --timezone option of the mysqld_safe script.

    The system_time_zone variable differs from time_zone. Although they might have the same value, the latter variable is used to initialize the time zone for each client that connects. See Section 9, “MySQL Server Time Zone Support”.

•   table_cache

    The number of open tables for all threads. Increasing this value increases the number of file descriptors that mysqld requires. You can check whether you need to increase the table cache by checking the Opened_tables status variable. See the section called “STATUS VARIABLES”. If the value of Opened_tables is large and you don't do FLUSH TABLES often (which just forces all tables to be closed and reopened), then you should increase the value of the table_cache variable. For more information about the table cache, see Section 4.8, “How MySQL Opens and Closes Tables”.

•   table_lock_wait_timeout

    Specifies a wait timeout for table-level locks, in seconds. The default timeout is 50 seconds. The timeout is active only if the connection has open cursors. This variable can also be set globally at runtime (you need the SUPER privilege to do this). It's available as of MySQL 5.0.10.

•   table_type

    This variable is a synonym for storage_engine. In MySQL 5.0, storage_engine is the preferred name.

•   thread_cache_size

    How many threads the server should cache for reuse. When a client disconnects, the client's threads are put in the cache if there are fewer than thread_cache_size threads there. Requests for threads are satisfied by reusing threads taken from the cache if possible, and only when the cache is empty is a new thread created. This variable can be increased to improve performance if you have a lot of new connections. (Normally, this doesn't provide a notable performance improvement if you have a good thread implementation.) By examining the difference between the Connections and Threads_created status variables, you can see how efficient the thread cache is. For details, see the section called “STATUS VARIABLES”.

•   thread_concurrency

    On Solaris, mysqld calls thr_setconcurrency() with this value. This function enables applications to give the threads system a hint about the desired number of threads that should be run at the same time.

•   thread_stack

    The stack size for each thread. Many of the limits detected by the crash-me test are dependent on this value. The default is large enough for normal operation. See Section 1.4, “The MySQL Benchmark Suite”. The default is 192KB.

•   time_format

    This variable is not implemented.

•   time_zone

    The current time zone. This variable is used to initialize the time zone for each client that connects. By default, the initial value of this is 'SYSTEM' (which means, “use the value of system_time_zone”). The value can be specified explicitly at server startup with the --default-time-zone option. See Section 9, “MySQL Server Time Zone Support”.

•   timed_mutexes

    This variable controls whether InnoDB mutexes are timed. If this variable is set to 0 or OFF (the default), mutex timing is disabled. If the variable is set to 1 or ON, mutex timing is enabled. With timing enabled, the os_wait_times value in the output from SHOW ENGINE INNODB MUTEX indicates the amount of time (in ms) spent in operating system waits. Otherwise, the value is 0. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   tmp_table_size

    The maximum size of internal in-memory temporary tables. (The actual limit is determined as the smaller of max_heap_table_size and tmp_table_size.) If an in-memory temporary table exceeds the limit, MySQL automatically converts it to an on-disk MyISAM table. Increase the value of tmp_table_size (and max_heap_table_size if necessary) if you do many advanced GROUP BY queries and you have lots of memory. This variable does not apply to user-created MEMORY tables.

•   tmpdir

    The directory used for temporary files and temporary tables. This variable can be set to a list of several paths that are used in round-robin fashion. Paths should be separated by colon characters (“:”) on Unix and semicolon characters (“;”) on Windows, NetWare, and OS/2.

    The multiple-directory feature can be used to spread the load between several physical disks. If the MySQL server is acting as a replication slave, you should not set tmpdir to point to a directory on a memory-based filesystem or to a directory that is cleared when the server host restarts. A replication slave needs some of its temporary files to survive a machine restart so that it can replicate temporary tables or LOAD DATA INFILE operations. If files in the temporary file directory are lost when the server restarts, replication fails. However, if you are using MySQL 4.0.0 or later, you can set the slave's temporary directory using the slave_load_tmpdir variable. In that case, the slave won't use the general tmpdir value and you can set tmpdir to a non-permanent location.

•   transaction_alloc_block_size

    The amount in bytes by which to increase a per-transaction memory pool which needs memory. See the description of transaction_prealloc_size.

•   transaction_prealloc_size

    There is a per-transaction memory pool from which various transaction-related allocations take memory. The initial size of the pool in bytes is transaction_prealloc_size. For every allocation that cannot be satisfied from the pool because it has insufficient memory available, the pool is increased by transaction_alloc_block_size bytes. When the transaction ends, the pool is truncated to transaction_prealloc_size bytes.

    By making transaction_prealloc_size sufficiently large to contain all statements within a single transaction, you can avoid many malloc() calls.

•   tx_isolation

    The default transaction isolation level. Defaults to REPEATABLE-READ.

    This variable is set by the SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL statement. See Section 4.6, “SET TRANSACTION Syntax”. If you set tx_isolation directly to an isolation level name that contains a space, the name should be enclosed within quotes, with the space replaced by a dash. For example:

    SET tx_isolation = 'READ-COMMITTED';

•   updatable_views_with_limit

    This variable controls whether updates to a view can be made when the view does not contain all columns of the primary key defined in the underlying table, if the update statement contains a LIMIT clause. (Such updates often are generated by GUI tools.) An update is an UPDATE or DELETE statement. Primary key here means a PRIMARY KEY, or a UNIQUE index in which no column can contain NULL.

    The variable can have two values:

    •   1 or YES: Issue a warning only (not an error message). This is the default value.

    •   0 or NO: Prohibit the update.

    This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   version

    The version number for the server.

    Starting with MySQL 5.0.24, the version number will also indicate whether the server is a standard release (Community) or Enterprise release (for example, 5.0.28-enterprise-gpl-nt).

•   version_bdb

    The BDB storage engine version.

•   version_comment

    The configure script has a --with-comment option that allows a comment to be specified when building MySQL. This variable contains the value of that comment.

    For precompiled binaries, this variable will hold the server version and license information. Starting with MySQL 5.0.24, version_comment will include the full server type and license. For community users this will appear as MySQL Community Edition - Standard (GPL). For Enterprise users, the version might be displayed as MySQL Enterprise Server (GPL). The corresponding license for your MySQL binary is shown in parentheses. For server compiled from source, the default value will be the same as that for Community releases.

•   version_compile_machine

    The type of machine or architecture on which MySQL was built.

•   version_compile_os

    The type of operating system on which MySQL was built.

•   wait_timeout

    The number of seconds the server waits for activity on a non-interactive connection before closing it. This timeout applies only to TCP/IP and Unix socket file connections, not to connections made via named pipes, or shared memory.

    On thread startup, the session wait_timeout value is initialized from the global wait_timeout value or from the global interactive_timeout value, depending on the type of client (as defined by the CLIENT_INTERACTIVE connect option to mysql_real_connect()). See also interactive_timeout.

USING SYSTEM VARIABLES

The MySQL server maintains many system variables that indicate how it is configured. the section called “SYSTEM VARIABLES”, describes the meaning of these variables. Each system variable has a default value. System variables can be set at server startup using options on the command line or in an option file. Most of them can be changed dynamically while the server is running by means of the SET statement, which enables you to modify operation of the server without having to stop and restart it. You can refer to system variable values in expressions.

The server maintains two kinds of system variables. Global variables affect the overall operation of the server. Session variables affect its operation for individual client connections. A given system variable can have both a global and a session value. Global and session system variables are related as follows:

•   When the server starts, it initializes all global variables to their default values. These defaults can be changed by options specified on the command line or in an option file. (See Section 3, “Specifying Program Options”.)

•   The server also maintains a set of session variables for each client that connects. The client's session variables are initialized at connect time using the current values of the corresponding global variables. For example, the client's SQL mode is controlled by the session sql_mode value, which is initialized when the client connects to the value of the global sql_mode value.

System variable values can be set globally at server startup by using options on the command line or in an option file. When you use a startup option to set a variable that takes a numeric value, the value can be given with a suffix of K, M, or G (either uppercase or lowercase) to indicate a multiplier of 1024, 10242 or 10243; that is, units of kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes, respectively. Thus, the following command starts the server with a query cache size of 16 megabytes and a maximum packet size of one gigabyte:

    mysqld --query_cache_size=16M --max_allowed_packet=1G

Within an option file, those variables are set like this:

    [mysqld]
    query_cache_size=16M
    max_allowed_packet=1G

The lettercase of suffix letters does not matter; 16M and 16m are equivalent, as are 1G and 1g.

If you want to restrict the maximum value to which a system variable can be set at runtime with the SET statement, you can specify this maximum by using an option of the form --maximum-var_name=value at server startup. For example, to prevent the value of query_cache_size from being increased to more than 32MB at runtime, use the option --maximum-query_cache_size=32M.

Many system variables are dynamic and can be changed while the server runs by using the SET statement. For a list, see the section called “Dynamic System Variables”. To change a system variable with SET, refer to it as var_name, optionally preceded by a modifier:

•   To indicate explicitly that a variable is a global variable, precede its name by GLOBAL or @@global.. The SUPER privilege is required to set global variables.

•   To indicate explicitly that a variable is a session variable, precede its name by SESSION, @@session., or @@. Setting a session variable requires no special privilege, but a client can change only its own session variables, not those of any other client.

•   LOCAL and @@local. are synonyms for SESSION and @@session..

•   If no modifier is present, SET changes the session variable.

A SET statement can contain multiple variable assignments, separated by commas. If you set several system variables, the most recent GLOBAL or SESSION modifier in the statement is used for following variables that have no modifier specified.

Examples:

    SET sort_buffer_size=10000;
    SET @@local.sort_buffer_size=10000;
    SET GLOBAL sort_buffer_size=1000000, SESSION sort_buffer_size=1000000;
    SET @@sort_buffer_size=1000000;
    SET @@global.sort_buffer_size=1000000, @@local.sort_buffer_size=1000000;

When you assign a value to a system variable with SET, you cannot use suffix letters in the value (as can be done with startup options). However, the value can take the form of an expression:

    SET sort_buffer_size = 10 * 1024 * 1024;

The @@var_name syntax for system variables is supported for compatibility with some other database systems.

If you change a session system variable, the value remains in effect until your session ends or until you change the variable to a different value. The change is not visible to other clients.

If you change a global system variable, the value is remembered and used for new connections until the server restarts. (To make a global system variable setting permanent, you should set it in an option file.) The change is visible to any client that accesses that global variable. However, the change affects the corresponding session variable only for clients that connect after the change. The global variable change does not affect the session variable for any client that is currently connected (not even that of the client that issues the SET GLOBAL statement).

To prevent incorrect usage, MySQL produces an error if you use SET GLOBAL with a variable that can only be used with SET SESSION or if you do not specify GLOBAL (or @@global.) when setting a global variable.

To set a SESSION variable to the GLOBAL value or a GLOBAL value to the compiled-in MySQL default value, use the DEFAULT keyword. For example, the following two statements are identical in setting the session value of max_join_size to the global value:

    SET max_join_size=DEFAULT;
    SET @@session.max_join_size=@@global.max_join_size;

Not all system variables can be set to DEFAULT. In such cases, use of DEFAULT results in an error.

You can refer to the values of specific global or sesson system variables in expressions by using one of the @@-modifiers. For example, you can retrieve values in a SELECT statement like this:

    SELECT @@global.sql_mode, @@session.sql_mode, @@sql_mode;

When you refer to a system variable in an expression as @@var_name (that is, when you do not specify @@global. or @@session.), MySQL returns the session value if it exists and the global value otherwise. (This differs from SET @@var_name = value, which always refers to the session value.)

Note

Some system variables can be enabled with the SET statement by setting them to ON or 1, or disabled by setting them to OFF or 0. However, to set such a variable on the command line or in an option file, you must set it to 1 or 0; setting it to ON or OFF will not work. For example, on the command line, --delay_key_write=1 works but --delay_key_write=ON does not.

To display system variable names and values, use the SHOW VARIABLES statement:

    mysql> SHOW VARIABLES;
    +--------+--------------------------------------------------------------+
    | Variable_name                   | Value                               |
    +--------+--------------------------------------------------------------+
    | auto_increment_increment        | 1                                   |
    | auto_increment_offset           | 1                                   |
    | automatic_sp_privileges         | ON                                  |
    | back_log                        | 50                                  |
    | basedir                         | /                                   |
    | bdb_cache_size                  | 8388600                             |
    | bdb_home                        | /var/lib/mysql/                     |
    | bdb_log_buffer_size             | 32768                               |
    | bdb_logdir                      |                                     |
    | bdb_max_lock                    | 10000                               |
    | bdb_shared_data                 | OFF                                 |
    | bdb_tmpdir                      | /tmp/                               |
    | binlog_cache_size               | 32768                               |
    | bulk_insert_buffer_size         | 8388608                             |
    | character_set_client            | latin1                              |
    | character_set_connection        | latin1                              |
    | character_set_database          | latin1                              |
    | character_set_results           | latin1                              |
    | character_set_server            | latin1                              |
    | character_set_system            | utf8                                |
    | character_sets_dir              | /usr/share/mysql/charsets/          |
    | collation_connection            | latin1_swedish_ci                   |
    | collation_database              | latin1_swedish_ci                   |
    | collation_server                | latin1_swedish_ci                   |
    | innodb_additional_mem_pool_size | 1048576                             |
    | innodb_autoextend_increment     | 8                                   |
    | innodb_buffer_pool_awe_mem_mb   | 0                                   |
    | innodb_buffer_pool_size         | 8388608                             |
    | innodb_checksums                | ON                                  |
    | innodb_commit_concurrency       | 0                                   |
    | innodb_concurrency_tickets      | 500                                 |
    | innodb_data_file_path           | ibdata1:10M:autoextend              |
    | innodb_data_home_dir            |                                     |
    | version                         | 5.0.19                              |
    | version_comment                 | MySQL Community Edition - (GPL)     |
    | version_compile_machine         | i686                                |
    | version_compile_os              | pc-linux-gnu                        |
    | wait_timeout                    | 28800                               |
    +--------+--------------------------------------------------------------+

With a LIKE clause, the statement displays only those variables that match the pattern. To obtain a specific variable name, use a LIKE clause as shown:

    SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'max_join_size';
    SHOW SESSION VARIABLES LIKE 'max_join_size';

To get a list of variables whose name match a pattern, use the “%” wildcard character in a LIKE clause:

    SHOW VARIABLES LIKE '%size%';
    SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES LIKE '%size%';

Wildcard characters can be used in any position within the pattern to be matched. Strictly speaking, because “_” is a wildcard that matches any single character, you should escape it as “\_” to match it literally. In practice, this is rarely necessary.

For SHOW VARIABLES, if you specify neither GLOBAL nor SESSION, MySQL returns SESSION values.

The reason for requiring the GLOBAL keyword when setting GLOBAL-only variables but not when retrieving them is to prevent problems in the future. If we were to remove a SESSION variable that has the same name as a GLOBAL variable, a client with the SUPER privilege might accidentally change the GLOBAL variable rather than just the SESSION variable for its own connection. If we add a SESSION variable with the same name as a GLOBAL variable, a client that intends to change the GLOBAL variable might find only its own SESSION variable changed.

  Structured System Variables

A structured variable differs from a regular system variable in two respects:

•   Its value is a structure with components that specify server parameters considered to be closely related.

•   There might be several instances of a given type of structured variable. Each one has a different name and refers to a different resource maintained by the server.

MySQL 5.0 supports one structured variable type, which specifies parameters governing the operation of key caches. A key cache structured variable has these components:

•   key_buffer_size

•   key_cache_block_size

•   key_cache_division_limit

•   key_cache_age_threshold

This section describes the syntax for referring to structured variables. Key cache variables are used for syntax examples, but specific details about how key caches operate are found elsewhere, in Section 4.6, “The MyISAM Key Cache”.

To refer to a component of a structured variable instance, you can use a compound name in instance_name.component_name format. Examples:

    hot_cache.key_buffer_size
    hot_cache.key_cache_block_size
    cold_cache.key_cache_block_size

For each structured system variable, an instance with the name of default is always predefined. If you refer to a component of a structured variable without any instance name, the default instance is used. Thus, default.key_buffer_size and key_buffer_size both refer to the same system variable.

Structured variable instances and components follow these naming rules:

•   For a given type of structured variable, each instance must have a name that is unique within variables of that type. However, instance names need not be unique across structured variable types. For example, each structured variable has an instance named default, so default is not unique across variable types.

•   The names of the components of each structured variable type must be unique across all system variable names. If this were not true (that is, if two different types of structured variables could share component member names), it would not be clear which default structured variable to use for references to member names that are not qualified by an instance name.

•   If a structured variable instance name is not legal as an unquoted identifier, refer to it as a quoted identifier using backticks. For example, hot-cache is not legal, but `hot-cache` is.

•   global, session, and local are not legal instance names. This avoids a conflict with notation such as @@global.var_name for referring to non-structured system variables.

Currently, the first two rules have no possibility of being violated because the only structured variable type is the one for key caches. These rules will assume greater significance if some other type of structured variable is created in the future.

With one exception, you can refer to structured variable components using compound names in any context where simple variable names can occur. For example, you can assign a value to a structured variable using a command-line option:

    shell> mysqld --hot_cache.key_buffer_size=64K

In an option file, use this syntax:

    [mysqld]
    hot_cache.key_buffer_size=64K

If you start the server with this option, it creates a key cache named hot_cache with a size of 64KB in addition to the default key cache that has a default size of 8MB.

Suppose that you start the server as follows:

    shell> mysqld --key_buffer_size=256K \
             --extra_cache.key_buffer_size=128K \
             --extra_cache.key_cache_block_size=2048

In this case, the server sets the size of the default key cache to 256KB. (You could also have written --default.key_buffer_size=256K.) In addition, the server creates a second key cache named extra_cache that has a size of 128KB, with the size of block buffers for caching table index blocks set to 2048 bytes.

The following example starts the server with three different key caches having sizes in a 3:1:1 ratio:

    shell> mysqld --key_buffer_size=6M \
             --hot_cache.key_buffer_size=2M \
             --cold_cache.key_buffer_size=2M

Structured variable values may be set and retrieved at runtime as well. For example, to set a key cache named hot_cache to a size of 10MB, use either of these statements:

    mysql> SET GLOBAL hot_cache.key_buffer_size = 10*1024*1024;
    mysql> SET @@global.hot_cache.key_buffer_size = 10*1024*1024;

To retrieve the cache size, do this:

    mysql> SELECT @@global.hot_cache.key_buffer_size;

However, the following statement does not work. The variable is not interpreted as a compound name, but as a simple string for a LIKE pattern-matching operation:

    mysql> SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES LIKE 'hot_cache.key_buffer_size';

This is the exception to being able to use structured variable names anywhere a simple variable name may occur.

  Dynamic System Variables

Many server system variables are dynamic and can be set at runtime using SET GLOBAL or SET SESSION. You can also obtain their values using SELECT. See the section called “USING SYSTEM VARIABLES”.

The following table shows the full list of all dynamic system variables. The last column indicates for each variable whether GLOBAL or SESSION (or both) apply. The table also lists session options that can be set with the SET statement. Section 5.3, “SET Syntax”, discusses these options.

Variables that have a type of “string” take a string value. Variables that have a type of “numeric” take a numeric value. Variables that have a type of “boolean” can be set to 0, 1, ON or OFF. (If you set them on the command line or in an option file, use the numeric values.) Variables that are marked as “enumeration” normally should be set to one of the available values for the variable, but can also be set to the number that corresponds to the desired enumeration value. For enumerated system variables, the first enumeration value corresponds to 0. This differs from ENUM columns, for which the first enumeration value corresponds to 1.
Variable Name | Variable Type | Variable Scope
autocommit | boolean | SESSION
character_set_database | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
myisam_repair_threads | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
myisam_sort_buffer_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
myisam_stats_method | enumeration | GLOBAL | SESSION
ndb_autoincrement_prefetch_sz | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
ndb_cache_check_time | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
ndb_force_send | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
ndb_use_exact_count | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
ndbcluster | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
net_buffer_length | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
net_read_timeout | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
character_set_results | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
net_retry_count | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
net_write_timeout | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
new | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
old_passwords | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
open_files_limit | numeric | GLOBAL
optimizer_prune_level | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
optimizer_search_depth | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
preload_buffer_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
profiling_history_size | numeric | SESSION
query_alloc_block_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
character_set_system | string | GLOBAL
query_cache_limit | numeric | GLOBAL
query_cache_min_res_unit | numeric | GLOBAL
query_cache_size | numeric | GLOBAL
query_cache_type | enumeration | GLOBAL | SESSION
query_cache_wlock_invalidate | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
query_prealloc_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
range_alloc_block_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
read_buffer_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
read_only | numeric | GLOBAL
read_rnd_buffer_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
collation_connection | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
relay-log | filename | GLOBAL | SESSION
relay_log_purge | boolean | GLOBAL
relay_log_space_limit | numeric | GLOBAL
rpl_recovery_rank | numeric | GLOBAL
secure_auth | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
server_id | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
skip_networking |  | GLOBAL
skip-new |  | GLOBAL
skip_show_database |  | GLOBAL | SESSION
slave_net_timeout | numeric | GLOBAL
collation_database | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
slave_skip_errors |  | GLOBAL | SESSION
slave_compressed_protocol | boolean | GLOBAL
slave_transaction_retries | numeric | GLOBAL
slow_launch_time | numeric | GLOBAL
sort_buffer_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
sql_mode | enumeration | GLOBAL | SESSION
sql_big_selects | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
sql_big_tables | boolean | SESSION
sql_buffer_result | boolean | SESSION
sql_log_bin | boolean | SESSION
collation_server | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
sql_log_off | boolean | SESSION
sql_log_update | boolean | SESSION
sql_low_priority_updates | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
sql_max_join_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
sql_notes | boolean | SESSION
sql_quote_show_create | boolean | SESSION
sql_safe_updates | boolean | SESSION
sql_select_limit | numeric | SESSION
sql_slave_skip_counter | numeric | GLOBAL
sql_warnings | boolean | SESSION
completion_type | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
storage_engine | enumeration | GLOBAL | SESSION
sync_binlog | numeric | GLOBAL
sync_frm | boolean | GLOBAL
system_time_zone | string | GLOBAL
table_cache | numeric | GLOBAL
table_lock_wait_timeout | numeric | GLOBAL
table_open_cache | numeric | GLOBAL
table_type | enumeration | GLOBAL | SESSION
thread_cache_size | numeric | GLOBAL
time_format | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
concurrent_insert | boolean | GLOBAL
time_zone | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
timed_mutexes | boolean | GLOBAL
timestamp | string | SESSION
tmp_table_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
transaction_alloc_block_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
transaction_prealloc_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
tx_isolation | enumeration | GLOBAL | SESSION
unique_checks | boolean | SESSION
updatable_views_with_limit | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
version_compile_os | string | GLOBAL
connect_timeout | numeric | GLOBAL
wait_timeout | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
date_format | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
automatic_sp_privileges | boolean | GLOBAL
datetime_format | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
default_week_format | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
delay_key_write | enumeration | GLOBAL
delayed_insert_limit | numeric | GLOBAL
delayed_insert_timeout | numeric | GLOBAL
delayed_queue_size | numeric | GLOBAL
div_precision_increment | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
engine_condition_pushdown | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
expire_logs_days | numeric | GLOBAL
flush | boolean | GLOBAL
big_tables | boolean | GLOBAL
flush_time | numeric | GLOBAL
foreign_key_checks | boolean | SESSION
ft_boolean_syntax | string | GLOBAL
ft_max_word_len | numeric | GLOBAL
ft_min_word_len | numeric | GLOBAL
ft_query_expansion_limit | numeric | GLOBAL
ft_stopword_file | filename | GLOBAL
group_concat_max_len | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
identity | numeric | SESSION
init_connect | string | GLOBAL
binlog_cache_size | numeric | GLOBAL
init_slave | string | GLOBAL
innodb_autoextend_increment | numeric | GLOBAL
innodb_checksums | boolean | GLOBAL
innodb_commit_concurrency | numeric | GLOBAL
innodb_concurrency_tickets | numeric | GLOBAL
innodb_fast_shutdown | numeric | GLOBAL
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit | numeric | GLOBAL
innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct | numeric | GLOBAL
innodb_max_purge_lag | numeric | GLOBAL
innodb_support_xa | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
bulk_insert_buffer_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
innodb_sync_spin_loops | numeric | GLOBAL
innodb_table_locks | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
innodb_thread_concurrency | numeric | GLOBAL
innodb_thread_sleep_delay | numeric | GLOBAL
insert_id | numeric | SESSION
interactive_timeout | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
join_buffer_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
keep_files_on_create | boolean | GLOBAL
key_buffer_size | numeric | GLOBAL
key_cache_age_threshold | numeric | GLOBAL
character_set_filesystem | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
key_cache_block_size | numeric | GLOBAL
key_cache_division_limit | numeric | GLOBAL
last_insert_id | numeric | SESSION
lc_time_names | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
local_infile | boolean | GLOBAL
log_bin | filename | GLOBAL | SESSION
log_bin_trust_function_creators | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
log_bin_trust_routine_creators | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
log_error | filename | GLOBAL | SESSION
log_queries_not_using_indexes | boolean | GLOBAL
character_set_server | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
log_slave_updates | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
log_slow_queries | filename | GLOBAL | SESSION
log_warnings | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
long_query_time | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
low_priority_updates | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_allowed_packet | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_binlog_cache_size | numeric | GLOBAL
max_binlog_size | numeric | GLOBAL
max_connect_errors | numeric | GLOBAL
max_connections | numeric | GLOBAL
character_set_client | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_delayed_threads | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_error_count | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_heap_table_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_insert_delayed_threads | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_join_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_length_for_sort_data | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_prepared_stmt_count | numeric | GLOBAL
max_relay_log_size | numeric | GLOBAL
max_seeks_for_key | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_sort_length | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
character_set_connection | string | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_sp_recursion_depth | numeric | GLOBAL
max_tmp_tables | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_user_connections | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
max_write_lock_count | numeric | GLOBAL
multi_range_count | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
multi_read_range | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
myisam-recover | enumeration | GLOBAL | SESSION
myisam_block_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
myisam_data_pointer_size | numeric | GLOBAL
myisam_max_sort_file_size | numeric | GLOBAL

STATUS VARIABLES

The server maintains many status variables that provide information about its operation. You can view these variables and their values by using the SHOW [GLOBAL] STATUS statement. The optional GLOBAL keyword aggregates the values over all connections.

    mysql> SHOW GLOBAL STATUS;
    +-----------------------------------+------------+
    | Variable_name                     | Value      |
    +-----------------------------------+------------+
    | Aborted_clients                   | 0          |
    | Aborted_connects                  | 0          |
    | Bytes_received                    | 155372598  |
    | Bytes_sent                        | 1176560426 |
    | Connections                       | 30023      |
    | Created_tmp_disk_tables           | 0          |
    | Created_tmp_files                 | 3          |
    | Created_tmp_tables                | 2          |
    | Threads_created                   | 217        |
    | Threads_running                   | 88         |
    | Uptime                            | 1389872    |
    +-----------------------------------+------------+

The following table lists all available server status variables:
Variable Name | Variable Type | Variable Scope
Aborted_clients | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_alter_table | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_slave_stop | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_stmt_close | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_stmt_execute | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_stmt_fetch | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_stmt_prepare | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_stmt_reset | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_stmt_send_long_data | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_truncate | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_unlock_tables | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_update | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_analyze | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_update_multi | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_xa_commit | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_xa_end | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_xa_prepare | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_xa_recover | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_xa_rollback | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_xa_start | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Compression | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Connections | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Created_tmp_disk_tables | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_backup_table | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Created_tmp_files | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Created_tmp_tables | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Delayed_errors | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Delayed_insert_threads | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Delayed_writes | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Flush_commands | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_commit | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_delete | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_discover | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_prepare | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_begin | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_read_first | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_read_key | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_read_next | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_read_prev | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_read_rnd | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_read_rnd_next | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_rollback | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_savepoint | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_savepoint_rollback | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_update | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_call_procedure | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Handler_write | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_data | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_dirty | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_flushed | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_free | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_latched | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_misc | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_total | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_read_ahead_rnd | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_read_ahead_seq | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_change_db | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_read_requests | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_reads | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_wait_free | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_buffer_pool_write_requests | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_data_fsyncs | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_data_pending_fsyncs | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_data_pending_reads | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_data_pending_writes | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_data_read | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_data_reads | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_change_master | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_data_writes | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_data_written | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_dblwr_pages_written | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_dblwr_writes | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_log_waits | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_log_write_requests | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_log_writes | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_os_log_fsyncs | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_os_log_pending_fsyncs | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_os_log_pending_writes | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_check | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_os_log_written | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_page_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_pages_created | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_pages_read | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_pages_written | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_row_lock_current_waits | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_row_lock_time | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_row_lock_time_avg | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_row_lock_time_max | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_row_lock_waits | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_checksum | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_rows_deleted | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_rows_inserted | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_rows_read | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Innodb_rows_updated | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Key_blocks_not_flushed | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Key_blocks_unused | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Key_blocks_used | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Key_read_requests | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Key_reads | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Key_write_requests | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_commit | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Key_writes | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Last_query_cost | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Max_used_connections | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Ndb_cluster_node_id | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Ndb_config_from_host | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Ndb_config_from_port | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Not_flushed_delayed_rows | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Open_files | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Open_streams | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Open_tables | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Aborted_connects | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_create_db | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Opened_tables | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
prepared_stmt_count | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Qcache_free_blocks | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Qcache_free_memory | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Qcache_hits | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Qcache_inserts | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Qcache_lowmem_prunes | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Qcache_not_cached | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Qcache_queries_in_cache | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Qcache_total_blocks | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_create_event | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Questions | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Relay_Log_Space | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Rpl_status |  | GLOBAL | SESSION
Select_full_join | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Select_full_range_join | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Select_range | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Select_range_check | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Select_scan | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Slave_open_temp_tables | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Slave_retried_transactions | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_create_function | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Slave_running | boolean | GLOBAL | SESSION
Slow_launch_threads | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Slow_queries | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Sort_merge_passes | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Sort_range | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Sort_rows | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Sort_scan | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Table_locks_immediate | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Table_locks_waited | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Tc_log_max_pages_used | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_create_index | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Tc_log_page_size | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Tc_log_page_waits | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Threads_cached | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Threads_connected | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Threads_created | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Threads_running | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Uptime | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Uptime_since_flush_status | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_create_table | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_create_user | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_dealloc_sql | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_delete | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_delete_multi | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_do | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Binlog_cache_disk_use | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_drop_db | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_drop_event | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_drop_function | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_drop_index | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_drop_table | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_drop_user | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_execute_sql | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_flush | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_grant | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_ha_close | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Binlog_cache_use | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_ha_open | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_ha_read | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_help | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_insert | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_insert_select | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_kill | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_load | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_lock_tables | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_optimize | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_preload_keys | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Bytes_received | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_prepare_sql | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_purge | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_purge_before_date | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_rename_table | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_repair | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_replace | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_replace_select | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_reset | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_restore_table | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_revoke | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Bytes_sent | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_revoke_all | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_rollback | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_savepoint | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_select | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_set_option | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_binlog_events | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_binlogs | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_charsets | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_collations | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_column_types | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_admin_commands | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_create_db | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_create_event | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_create_table | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_databases | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_engine_logs | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_engine_mutex | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_engine_status | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_errors | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_events | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_fields | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_alter_db | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_grants | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_innodb_status | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_keys | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_logs | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_master_status | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_ndb_status | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_new_master | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_open_tables | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_plugins | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_privileges | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_alter_event | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_processlist | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_slave_hosts | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_slave_status | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_status | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_storage_engines | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_tables | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_triggers | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_variables | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_show_warnings | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION
Com_slave_start | numeric | GLOBAL | SESSION

Note

Before MySQL 5.0.2, SHOW STATUS returned global status values. Because the default as of 5.0.2 is to return session values, this is incompatible with previous versions. To issue a SHOW STATUS statement that will retrieve global status values for all versions of MySQL, write it like this:

    SHOW /*!50002 GLOBAL */ STATUS;

Many status variables are reset to 0 by the FLUSH STATUS statement.

The status variables have the following meanings. Variables with no version indicated were already present prior to MySQL 5.0. For information regarding their implementation history, see MySQL 3.23, 4.0, 4.1 Reference Manual.

•   Aborted_clients

    The number of connections that were aborted because the client died without closing the connection properly. See Section 1.2.11, “Communication Errors and Aborted Connections”.

•   Aborted_connects

    The number of failed attempts to connect to the MySQL server. See Section 1.2.11, “Communication Errors and Aborted Connections”.

•   Binlog_cache_disk_use

    The number of transactions that used the temporary binary log cache but that exceeded the value of binlog_cache_size and used a temporary file to store statements from the transaction.

•   Binlog_cache_use

    The number of transactions that used the temporary binary log cache.

•   Bytes_received

    The number of bytes received from all clients.

•   Bytes_sent

    The number of bytes sent to all clients.

•   Com_xxx

    The Com_xxx statement counter variables indicate the number of times each xxx statement has been executed. There is one status variable for each type of statement. For example, Com_delete and Com_insert count DELETE and INSERT statements, respectively. However, if a query result is returned from query cache, the server increments the Qcache_hits status variable, not Com_select. See Section 5.4.4, “Query Cache Status and Maintenance”.

    All of the Com_stmt_xxx variables are increased even if a prepared statement argument is unknown or an error occurred during execution. In other words, their values correspond to the number of requests issued, not to the number of requests successfully completed.

    The Com_stmt_xxx status variables were added in 5.0.8:

    •   Com_stmt_prepare

    •   Com_stmt_execute

    •   Com_stmt_fetch

    •   Com_stmt_send_long_data

    •   Com_stmt_reset

    •   Com_stmt_close

    Those variables stand for prepared statement commands. Their names refer to the COM_xxx command set used in the network layer. In other words, their values increase whenever prepared statement API calls such as mysql_stmt_prepare(), mysql_stmt_execute(), and so forth are executed. However, Com_stmt_prepare, Com_stmt_execute and Com_stmt_close also increase for PREPARE, EXECUTE, or DEALLOCATE PREPARE, respectively. Additionally, the values of the older (available since MySQL 4.1.3) statement counter variables Com_prepare_sql, Com_execute_sql, and Com_dealloc_sql increase for the PREPARE, EXECUTE, and DEALLOCATE PREPARE statements. Com_stmt_fetch stands for the total number of network round-trips issued when fetching from cursors.

•   Compression

    Whether the client connection uses compression in the client/server protocol. Added in MySQL 5.0.16.

•   Connections

    The number of connection attempts (successful or not) to the MySQL server.

•   Created_tmp_disk_tables

    The number of temporary tables on disk created automatically by the server while executing statements.

•   Created_tmp_files

    How many temporary files mysqld has created.

•   Created_tmp_tables

    The number of in-memory temporary tables created automatically by the server while executing statements. If Created_tmp_disk_tables is large, you may want to increase the tmp_table_size value to cause temporary tables to be memory-based instead of disk-based.

•   Delayed_errors

    The number of rows written with INSERT DELAYED for which some error occurred (probably duplicate key).

•   Delayed_insert_threads

    The number of INSERT DELAYED handler threads in use.

•   Delayed_writes

    The number of INSERT DELAYED rows written.

•   Flush_commands

    The number of executed FLUSH statements.

•   Handler_commit

    The number of internal COMMIT statements.

•   Handler_delete

    The number of times that rows have been deleted from tables.

•   Handler_discover

    The MySQL server can ask the NDB Cluster storage engine if it knows about a table with a given name. This is called discovery. Handler_discover indicates the number of times that tables have been discovered via this mechanism.

•   Handler_prepare

    A counter for the prepare phase of two-phase commit operations. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   Handler_read_first

    The number of times the first entry was read from an index. If this value is high, it suggests that the server is doing a lot of full index scans; for example, SELECT col1 FROM foo, assuming that col1 is indexed.

•   Handler_read_key

    The number of requests to read a row based on a key. If this value is high, it is a good indication that your tables are properly indexed for your queries.

•   Handler_read_next

    The number of requests to read the next row in key order. This value is incremented if you are querying an index column with a range constraint or if you are doing an index scan.

•   Handler_read_prev

    The number of requests to read the previous row in key order. This read method is mainly used to optimize ORDER BY ... DESC.

•   Handler_read_rnd

    The number of requests to read a row based on a fixed position. This value is high if you are doing a lot of queries that require sorting of the result. You probably have a lot of queries that require MySQL to scan entire tables or you have joins that don't use keys properly.

•   Handler_read_rnd_next

    The number of requests to read the next row in the data file. This value is high if you are doing a lot of table scans. Generally this suggests that your tables are not properly indexed or that your queries are not written to take advantage of the indexes you have.

•   Handler_rollback

    The number of requests for a storage engine to perform a rollback operation.

•   Handler_savepoint

    The number of requests for a storage engine to place a savepoint. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   Handler_savepoint_rollback

    The number of requests for a storage engine to roll back to a savepoint. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   Handler_update

    The number of requests to update a row in a table.

•   Handler_write

    The number of requests to insert a row in a table.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_data

    The number of pages containing data (dirty or clean). Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_dirty

    The number of pages currently dirty. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_flushed

    The number of buffer pool page-flush requests. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_free

    The number of free pages. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_latched

    The number of latched pages in InnoDB buffer pool. These are pages currently being read or written or that cannot be flushed or removed for some other reason. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_misc

    The number of pages that are busy because they have been allocated for administrative overhead such as row locks or the adaptive hash index. This value can also be calculated as Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_total – Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_free – Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_data. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_total

    The total size of buffer pool, in pages. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_read_ahead_rnd

    The number of “random” read-aheads initiated by InnoDB. This happens when a query scans a large portion of a table but in random order. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_read_ahead_seq

    The number of sequential read-aheads initiated by InnoDB. This happens when InnoDB does a sequential full table scan. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_read_requests

    The number of logical read requests InnoDB has done. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_reads

    The number of logical reads that InnoDB could not satisfy from the buffer pool and had to do a single-page read. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_wait_free

    Normally, writes to the InnoDB buffer pool happen in the background. However, if it is necessary to read or create a page and no clean pages are available, it is also necessary to wait for pages to be flushed first. This counter counts instances of these waits. If the buffer pool size has been set properly, this value should be small. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_buffer_pool_write_requests

    The number writes done to the InnoDB buffer pool. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_data_fsyncs

    The number of fsync() operations so far. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_data_pending_fsyncs

    The current number of pending fsync() operations. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_data_pending_reads

    The current number of pending reads. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_data_pending_writes

    The current number of pending writes. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_data_read

    The amount of data read so far, in bytes. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_data_reads

    The total number of data reads. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_data_writes

    The total number of data writes. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_data_written

    The amount of data written so far, in bytes. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_dblwr_writes, Innodb_dblwr_pages_written

    The number of doublewrite operations that have been performed and the number of pages that have been written for this purpose. Added in MySQL 5.0.2. See Section 2.14.1, “InnoDB Disk I/O”.

•   Innodb_log_waits

    The number of times that the log buffer was too small and a wait was required for it to be flushed before continuing. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_log_write_requests

    The number of log write requests. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_log_writes

    The number of physical writes to the log file. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_os_log_fsyncs

    The number of fsync() writes done to the log file. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_os_log_pending_fsyncs

    The number of pending log file fsync() operations. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_os_log_pending_writes

    The number of pending log file writes. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_os_log_written

    The number of bytes written to the log file. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_page_size

    The compiled-in InnoDB page size (default 16KB). Many values are counted in pages; the page size allows them to be easily converted to bytes. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_pages_created

    The number of pages created. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_pages_read

    The number of pages read. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_pages_written

    The number of pages written. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_row_lock_current_waits

    The number of row locks currently being waited for. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   Innodb_row_lock_time

    The total time spent in acquiring row locks, in milliseconds. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   Innodb_row_lock_time_avg

    The average time to acquire a row lock, in milliseconds. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   Innodb_row_lock_time_max

    The maximum time to acquire a row lock, in milliseconds. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   Innodb_row_lock_waits

    The number of times a row lock had to be waited for. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   Innodb_rows_deleted

    The number of rows deleted from InnoDB tables. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_rows_inserted

    The number of rows inserted into InnoDB tables. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_rows_read

    The number of rows read from InnoDB tables. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Innodb_rows_updated

    The number of rows updated in InnoDB tables. Added in MySQL 5.0.2.

•   Key_blocks_not_flushed

    The number of key blocks in the key cache that have changed but have not yet been flushed to disk.

•   Key_blocks_unused

    The number of unused blocks in the key cache. You can use this value to determine how much of the key cache is in use; see the discussion of key_buffer_size in the section called “SYSTEM VARIABLES”.

•   Key_blocks_used

    The number of used blocks in the key cache. This value is a high-water mark that indicates the maximum number of blocks that have ever been in use at one time.

•   Key_read_requests

    The number of requests to read a key block from the cache.

•   Key_reads

    The number of physical reads of a key block from disk. If Key_reads is large, then your key_buffer_size value is probably too small. The cache miss rate can be calculated as Key_reads/Key_read_requests.

•   Key_write_requests

    The number of requests to write a key block to the cache.

•   Key_writes

    The number of physical writes of a key block to disk.

•   Last_query_cost

    The total cost of the last compiled query as computed by the query optimizer. This is useful for comparing the cost of different query plans for the same query. The default value of 0 means that no query has been compiled yet. This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.1, with a default value of -1. In MySQL 5.0.7, the default was changed to 0; also in version 5.0.7, the scope of Last_query_cost was changed to session rather than global.

    The Last_query_cost value can be computed accurately only for simple “flat” queries, not complex queries such as those with subqueries or UNION. For the latter, the value is set to 0.

    Prior to MySQL 5.0.16, this variable was not updated for queries served from the query cache.

•   Max_used_connections

    The maximum number of connections that have been in use simultaneously since the server started.

•   Ndb_cluster_node_id

    If the server is acting as a MySQL Cluster node, then the value of this variable its node ID in the cluster.

    If the server is not part of a MySQL Cluster, then the value of this variable is 0.

•   Ndb_config_from_host

    If the server is part of a MySQL Cluster, the value of this variable is the hostname or IP address of the Cluster management server from which it gets its configuration data.

    If the server is not part of a MySQL Cluster, then the value of this variable is an empty string.

    Prior to MySQL 5.0.23, this variable was named Ndb_connected_host.

•   Ndb_config_from_port

    If the server is part of a MySQL Cluster, the value of this variable is the number of the port through which it is connected to the Cluster management server from which it gets its configuration data.

    If the server is not part of a MySQL Cluster, then the value of this variable is 0.

    Prior to MySQL 5.0.23, this variable was named Ndb_connected_port.

•   Ndb_number_of_data_nodes

    If the server is part of a MySQL Cluster, the value of this variable is the number of data nodes in the cluster.

    If the server is not part of a MySQL Cluster, then the value of this variable is 0.

    Prior to MySQL 5.0.29, this variable was named Ndb_number_of_storage_nodes.

•   Not_flushed_delayed_rows

    The number of rows waiting to be written in INSERT DELAY queues.

•   Open_files

    The number of files that are open.

•   Open_streams

    The number of streams that are open (used mainly for logging).

•   Open_tables

    The number of tables that are open.

•   Opened_tables

    The number of tables that have been opened. If Opened_tables is big, your table_cache value is probably too small.

•   Prepared_stmt_count

    The current number of prepared statements. (The maximum number of statements is given by the max_prepared_stmt_count system variable.) This variable was added in MySQL 5.0.32.

•   Qcache_free_blocks

    The number of free memory blocks in the query cache.

•   Qcache_free_memory

    The amount of free memory for the query cache.

•   Qcache_hits

    The number of query cache hits.

•   Qcache_inserts

    The number of queries added to the query cache.

•   Qcache_lowmem_prunes

    The number of queries that were deleted from the query cache because of low memory.

•   Qcache_not_cached

    The number of non-cached queries (not cacheable, or not cached due to the query_cache_type setting).

•   Qcache_queries_in_cache

    The number of queries registered in the query cache.

•   Qcache_total_blocks

    The total number of blocks in the query cache.

•   Questions

    The number of statements that clients have sent to the server.

•   Rpl_status

    The status of fail-safe replication (not yet implemented).

•   Select_full_join

    The number of joins that perform table scans because they do not use indexes. If this value is not 0, you should carefully check the indexes of your tables.

•   Select_full_range_join

    The number of joins that used a range search on a reference table.

•   Select_range

    The number of joins that used ranges on the first table. This is normally not a critical issue even if the value is quite large.

•   Select_range_check

    The number of joins without keys that check for key usage after each row. If this is not 0, you should carefully check the indexes of your tables.

•   Select_scan

    The number of joins that did a full scan of the first table.

•   Slave_open_temp_tables

    The number of temporary tables that the slave SQL thread currently has open.

•   Slave_running

    This is ON if this server is a slave that is connected to a master.

•   Slave_retried_transactions

    The total number of times since startup that the replication slave SQL thread has retried transactions. This variable was added in version 5.0.4.

•   Slow_launch_threads

    The number of threads that have taken more than slow_launch_time seconds to create.

•   Slow_queries

    The number of queries that have taken more than long_query_time seconds. See Section 8.4, “The Slow Query Log”.

•   Sort_merge_passes

    The number of merge passes that the sort algorithm has had to do. If this value is large, you should consider increasing the value of the sort_buffer_size system variable.

•   Sort_range

    The number of sorts that were done using ranges.

•   Sort_rows

    The number of sorted rows.

•   Sort_scan

    The number of sorts that were done by scanning the table.

•   Ssl_xxx

    Variables used for SSL connections.

•   Table_locks_immediate

    The number of times that a table lock was acquired immediately.

•   Table_locks_waited

    The number of times that a table lock could not be acquired immediately and a wait was needed. If this is high and you have performance problems, you should first optimize your queries, and then either split your table or tables or use replication.

•   Tc_log_max_pages_used

    For the memory-mapped implementation of the log that is used by mysqld when it acts as the transaction coordinator for recovery of internal XA transactions, this variable indicates the largest number of pages used for the log since the server started. If the product of Tc_log_max_pages_used and Tc_log_page_size is always significantly less than the log size, the size is larger than necessary and can be reduced. (The size is set by the --log-tc-size option. Currently, this variable is unused: It is unneeded for binary log-based recovery, and the memory-mapped recovery log method is not used unless the number of storage engines capable of two-phase commit is greater than one. (InnoDB is the only applicable engine.) Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   Tc_log_page_size

    The page size used for the memory-mapped implementation of the XA recovery log. The default value is determined using getpagesize(). Currently, this variable is unused for the same reasons as described for Tc_log_max_pages_used. Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   Tc_log_page_waits

    For the memory-mapped implementation of the recovery log, this variable increments each time the server was not able to commit a transaction and had to wait for a free page in the log. If this value is large, you might want to increase the log size (with the --log-tc-size option). For binary log-based recovery, this variable increments each time the binary log cannot be closed because there are two-phase commits in progress. (The close operation waits until all such transactions are finished.) Added in MySQL 5.0.3.

•   Threads_cached

    The number of threads in the thread cache.

•   Threads_connected

    The number of currently open connections.

•   Threads_created

    The number of threads created to handle connections. If Threads_created is big, you may want to increase the thread_cache_size value. The cache miss rate can be calculated as Threads_created/Connections.

•   Threads_running

    The number of threads that are not sleeping.

•   Uptime

    The number of seconds that the server has been up.

SQL MODES

The MySQL server can operate in different SQL modes, and can apply these modes differently for different clients. This capability enables each application to tailor the server's operating mode to its own requirements.

For answers to some questions that are often asked about server SQL modes in MySQL, see Section 3, “MySQL 5.0 FAQ — Server SQL Mode”.

Modes define what SQL syntax MySQL should support and what kind of data validation checks it should perform. This makes it easier to use MySQL in different environments and to use MySQL together with other database servers.

You can set the default SQL mode by starting mysqld with the --sql-mode="modes" option, or by using sql-mode="modes" in my.cnf (Unix operating systems) or my.ini (Windows). modes is a list of different modes separated by comma (“,”) characters. The default value is empty (no modes set). The modes value also can be empty (--sql-mode="" on the command line, or sql-mode="" in my.cnf on Unix systems or in my.ini on Windows) if you want to clear it explicitly.

You can change the SQL mode at runtime by using a SET [GLOBAL|SESSION] sql_mode='modes' statement to set the sql_mode system value. Setting the GLOBAL variable requires the SUPER privilege and affects the operation of all clients that connect from that time on. Setting the SESSION variable affects only the current client. Any client can change its own session sql_mode value at any time.

You can retrieve the current global or session sql_mode value with the following statements:

    SELECT @@global.sql_mode;
    SELECT @@session.sql_mode;

The most important sql_mode values are probably these:

•   ANSI

    This mode changes syntax and behavior to conform more closely to standard SQL.

•   STRICT_TRANS_TABLES

    If a value could not be inserted as given into a transactional table, abort the statement. For a non-transactional table, abort the statement if the value occurs in a single-row statement or the first row of a multiple-row statement. More detail is given later in this section. (Implemented in MySQL 5.0.2)

•   TRADITIONAL

    Make MySQL behave like a “traditional” SQL database system. A simple description of this mode is “give an error instead of a warning” when inserting an incorrect value into a column.

    Note The INSERT/UPDATE aborts as soon as the error is noticed. This may not be what you want if you are using a non-transactional storage engine, because data changes made prior to the error may not be rolled back, resulting in a “partially done” update. (Added in MySQL 5.0.2)

When this manual refers to “strict mode,” it means a mode where at least one of STRICT_TRANS_TABLES or STRICT_ALL_TABLES is enabled.

The following list describes all supported modes:

•   ALLOW_INVALID_DATES

    Don't do full checking of dates. Check only that the month is in the range from 1 to 12 and the day is in the range from 1 to 31. This is very convenient for Web applications where you obtain year, month, and day in three different fields and you want to store exactly what the user inserted (without date validation). This mode applies to DATE and DATETIME columns. It does not apply TIMESTAMP columns, which always require a valid date.

    This mode is implemented in MySQL 5.0.2. Before 5.0.2, this was the default MySQL date-handling mode. As of 5.0.2, the server requires that month and day values be legal, and not merely in the range 1 to 12 and 1 to 31, respectively. With strict mode disabled, invalid dates such as '2004-04-31' are converted to '0000-00-00' and a warning is generated. With strict mode enabled, invalid dates generate an error. To allow such dates, enable ALLOW_INVALID_DATES.

•   ANSI_QUOTES

    Treat “"” as an identifier quote character (like the “`” quote character) and not as a string quote character. You can still use “`” to quote identifiers with this mode enabled. With ANSI_QUOTES enabled, you cannot use double quotes to quote literal strings, because it is interpreted as an identifier.

•   ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO

    Produce an error in strict mode (otherwise a warning) when a division by zero (or MOD(X,0)) occurs during an INSERT or UPDATE. If this mode is not enabled, MySQL instead returns NULL for divisions by zero. For INSERT IGNORE or UPDATE IGNORE, MySQL generates a warning for divisions by zero, but the result of the operation is NULL. (Implemented in MySQL 5.0.2)

•   HIGH_NOT_PRECEDENCE

    From MySQL 5.0.2 on, the precedence of the NOT operator is such that expressions such as NOT a BETWEEN b AND c are parsed as NOT (a BETWEEN b AND c). Before MySQL 5.0.2, the expression is parsed as (NOT a) BETWEEN b AND c. The old higher-precedence behavior can be obtained by enabling the HIGH_NOT_PRECEDENCE SQL mode. (Added in MySQL 5.0.2)

    mysql> SET sql_mode = '';
    mysql> SELECT NOT 1 BETWEEN -5 AND 5;
            -> 0
    mysql> SET sql_mode = 'HIGH_NOT_PRECEDENCE';
    mysql> SELECT NOT 1 BETWEEN -5 AND 5;
            -> 1

•   IGNORE_SPACE

    Allow spaces between a function name and the “(” character. This causes built-in function names to be treated as reserved words. As a result, identifiers that are the same as function names must be quoted as described in Section 2, “Schema Object Names”. For example, because there is a COUNT() function, the use of count as a table name in the following statement causes an error:

    mysql> CREATE TABLE count (i INT);
    ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax
The table name should be quoted:

    mysql> CREATE TABLE `count` (i INT);
    Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
The IGNORE_SPACE SQL mode applies to built-in functions, not to user-defined functions or stored functions. It is always allowable to have spaces after a UDF or stored function name, regardless of whether IGNORE_SPACE is enabled.

For further discussion of IGNORE_SPACE, see Section 2.3, “Function Name Parsing and Resolution”.

•   NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER

    Prevent the GRANT statement from automatically creating new users if it would otherwise do so, unless a non-empty password also is specified. (Added in MySQL 5.0.2)

•   NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO

    NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO affects handling of AUTO_INCREMENT columns. Normally, you generate the next sequence number for the column by inserting either NULL or 0 into it. NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO suppresses this behavior for 0 so that only NULL generates the next sequence number.

    This mode can be useful if 0 has been stored in a table's AUTO_INCREMENT column. (Storing 0 is not a recommended practice, by the way.) For example, if you dump the table with mysqldump and then reload it, MySQL normally generates new sequence numbers when it encounters the 0 values, resulting in a table with contents different from the one that was dumped. Enabling NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO before reloading the dump file solves this problem. mysqldump now automatically includes in its output a statement that enables NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO, to avoid this problem.

•   NO_BACKSLASH_ESCAPES

    Disable the use of the backslash character (“\”) as an escape character within strings. With this mode enabled, backslash becomes an ordinary character like any other. (Implemented in MySQL 5.0.1)

•   NO_DIR_IN_CREATE

    When creating a table, ignore all INDEX DIRECTORY and DATA DIRECTORY directives. This option is useful on slave replication servers.

•   NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

    Control automatic substitution of the default storage engine when a statement such as CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE specifies a storage engine that is disabled or not compiled in. (Implemented in MySQL 5.0.8)

    With NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION disabled, the default engine is used and a warning occurs if the desired engine is known but disabled or not compiled in. If the desired engine is invalid (not a known engine name), an error occurs and the table is not created or altered.

    With NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION enabled, an error occurs and the table is not created or altered if the desired engine is unavailable for any reason (whether disabled or invalid).

•   NO_FIELD_OPTIONS

    Do not print MySQL-specific column options in the output of SHOW CREATE TABLE. This mode is used by mysqldump in portability mode.

•   NO_KEY_OPTIONS

    Do not print MySQL-specific index options in the output of SHOW CREATE TABLE. This mode is used by mysqldump in portability mode.

•   NO_TABLE_OPTIONS

    Do not print MySQL-specific table options (such as ENGINE) in the output of SHOW CREATE TABLE. This mode is used by mysqldump in portability mode.

•   NO_UNSIGNED_SUBTRACTION

    In integer subtraction operations, do not mark the result as UNSIGNED if one of the operands is unsigned. In other words, the result of a subtraction is always signed whenever this mode is in effect, even if one of the operands is unsigned. For example, compare the type of column c2 in table t1 with that of column c2 in table t2:

    mysql> SET SQL_MODE='';
    mysql> CREATE TABLE test (c1 BIGINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL);
    mysql> CREATE TABLE t1 SELECT c1 - 1 AS c2 FROM test;
    mysql> DESCRIBE t1;
    +-------+---------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
    | Field | Type                | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
    +-------+---------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
    | c2    | bigint(21) unsigned |      |     | 0       |       |
    +-------+---------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
    mysql> SET SQL_MODE='NO_UNSIGNED_SUBTRACTION';
    mysql> CREATE TABLE t2 SELECT c1 - 1 AS c2 FROM test;
    mysql> DESCRIBE t2;
    +-------+------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
    | Field | Type       | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
    +-------+------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
    | c2    | bigint(21) |      |     | 0       |       |
    +-------+------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
Note that this means that BIGINT UNSIGNED is not 100% usable in all contexts. See Section 9, “Cast Functions and Operators”.

    mysql> SET SQL_MODE = '';
    mysql> SELECT CAST(0 AS UNSIGNED) - 1;
    +-------------------------+
    | CAST(0 AS UNSIGNED) - 1 |
    +-------------------------+
    |    18446744073709551615 |
    +-------------------------+
    mysql> SET SQL_MODE = 'NO_UNSIGNED_SUBTRACTION';
    mysql> SELECT CAST(0 AS UNSIGNED) - 1;
    +-------------------------+
    | CAST(0 AS UNSIGNED) - 1 |
    +-------------------------+
    |                      -1 |
    +-------------------------+

•   NO_ZERO_DATE

    In strict mode, don't allow '0000-00-00' as a valid date. You can still insert zero dates with the IGNORE option. When not in strict mode, the date is accepted but a warning is generated. (Added in MySQL 5.0.2)

•   NO_ZERO_IN_DATE

    In strict mode, don't accept dates where the month or day part is 0. If used with the IGNORE option, MySQL inserts a '0000-00-00' date for any such date. When not in strict mode, the date is accepted but a warning is generated. (Added in MySQL 5.0.2)

•   ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY

    Do not allow queries for which the SELECT list refers to non-aggregated columns that are not named in the GROUP BY clause. The following query is invalid with this mode enabled because address is not named in the GROUP BY clause:

    SELECT name, address, MAX(age) FROM t GROUP BY name;
As of MySQL 5.0.23, this mode also restricts references to non-aggregated columns in the HAVING clause that are not named in the GROUP BY clause.

•   PIPES_AS_CONCAT

    Treat || as a string concatenation operator (same as CONCAT()) rather than as a synonym for OR.

•   REAL_AS_FLOAT

    Treat REAL as a synonym for FLOAT. By default, MySQL treats REAL as a synonym for DOUBLE.

•   STRICT_ALL_TABLES

    Enable strict mode for all storage engines. Invalid data values are rejected. Additional detail follows. (Added in MySQL 5.0.2)

•   STRICT_TRANS_TABLES

    Enable strict mode for transactional storage engines, and when possible for non-transactional storage engines. Additional details follow. (Implemented in MySQL 5.0.2)

Strict mode controls how MySQL handles input values that are invalid or missing. A value can be invalid for several reasons. For example, it might have the wrong data type for the column, or it might be out of range. A value is missing when a new row to be inserted does not contain a value for a non-NULL column that has no explicit DEFAULT clause in its definition. (For a NULL column, NULL is inserted if the value is missing.)

For transactional tables, an error occurs for invalid or missing values in a statement when either of the STRICT_ALL_TABLES or STRICT_TRANS_TABLES modes are enabled. The statement is aborted and rolled back.

For non-transactional tables, the behavior is the same for either mode, if the bad value occurs in the first row to be inserted or updated. The statement is aborted and the table remains unchanged. If the statement inserts or modifies multiple rows and the bad value occurs in the second or later row, the result depends on which strict option is enabled:

•   For STRICT_ALL_TABLES, MySQL returns an error and ignores the rest of the rows. However, in this case, the earlier rows still have been inserted or updated. This means that you might get a partial update, which might not be what you want. To avoid this, it's best to use single-row statements because these can be aborted without changing the table.

•   For STRICT_TRANS_TABLES, MySQL converts an invalid value to the closest valid value for the column and insert the adjusted value. If a value is missing, MySQL inserts the implicit default value for the column data type. In either case, MySQL generates a warning rather than an error and continues processing the statement. Implicit defaults are described in Section 1.4, “Data Type Default Values”.

Strict mode disallows invalid date values such as '2004-04-31'. It does not disallow dates with zero parts such as '2004-04-00' or “zero” dates. To disallow these as well, enable the NO_ZERO_IN_DATE and NO_ZERO_DATE SQL modes in addition to strict mode.

If you are not using strict mode (that is, neither STRICT_TRANS_TABLES nor STRICT_ALL_TABLES is enabled), MySQL inserts adjusted values for invalid or missing values and produces warnings. In strict mode, you can produce this behavior by using INSERT IGNORE or UPDATE IGNORE. See Section 5.4.28, “SHOW WARNINGS Syntax”.

The following special modes are provided as shorthand for combinations of mode values from the preceding list. All are available in MySQL 5.0 beginning with version 5.0.0, except for TRADITIONAL, which was implemented in MySQL 5.0.2.

The descriptions include all mode values that are available in the most recent version of MySQL. For older versions, a combination mode does not include individual mode values that are not available except in newer versions.

•   ANSI

    Equivalent to REAL_AS_FLOAT, PIPES_AS_CONCAT, ANSI_QUOTES, IGNORE_SPACE. Before MySQL 5.0.3, ANSI also includes ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY.

    As of MySQL 5.0.40, ANSI mode also causes the server to return an error for queries where a set function S with an outer reference S(outer_ref) cannot be aggregated in the outer query against which the outer reference has been resolved. This is such a query:

    SELECT * FROM t1 WHERE t1.a IN (SELECT MAX(t1.b) FROM t2 WHERE ...);
Here, MAX(t1.b) cannot aggregated in the outer query because it appears in the WHERE clause of that query. Standard SQL requires an error in this situation. If ANSI mode is not enabled, the server treats S(outer_ref) in such queries the same way that it would interpret S(const), as was always done prior to 5.0.40.

See Section 8.3, “Running MySQL in ANSI Mode”.

•   DB2

    Equivalent to PIPES_AS_CONCAT, ANSI_QUOTES, IGNORE_SPACE, NO_KEY_OPTIONS, NO_TABLE_OPTIONS, NO_FIELD_OPTIONS.

•   MAXDB

    Equivalent to PIPES_AS_CONCAT, ANSI_QUOTES, IGNORE_SPACE, NO_KEY_OPTIONS, NO_TABLE_OPTIONS, NO_FIELD_OPTIONS, NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER.

•   MSSQL

    Equivalent to PIPES_AS_CONCAT, ANSI_QUOTES, IGNORE_SPACE, NO_KEY_OPTIONS, NO_TABLE_OPTIONS, NO_FIELD_OPTIONS.

•   MYSQL323

    Equivalent to NO_FIELD_OPTIONS, HIGH_NOT_PRECEDENCE.

•   MYSQL40

    Equivalent to NO_FIELD_OPTIONS, HIGH_NOT_PRECEDENCE.

•   ORACLE

    Equivalent to PIPES_AS_CONCAT, ANSI_QUOTES, IGNORE_SPACE, NO_KEY_OPTIONS, NO_TABLE_OPTIONS, NO_FIELD_OPTIONS, NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER.

•   POSTGRESQL

    Equivalent to PIPES_AS_CONCAT, ANSI_QUOTES, IGNORE_SPACE, NO_KEY_OPTIONS, NO_TABLE_OPTIONS, NO_FIELD_OPTIONS.

•   TRADITIONAL

    Equivalent to STRICT_TRANS_TABLES, STRICT_ALL_TABLES, NO_ZERO_IN_DATE, NO_ZERO_DATE, ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO, NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER.

THE SHUTDOWN PROCESS

The server shutdown process takes place as follows:

1.  The shutdown process is initiated.

    Server shutdown can be initiated several ways. For example, a user with the SHUTDOWN privilege can execute a mysqladmin shutdown command. mysqladmin can be used on any platform supported by MySQL. Other operating system-specific shutdown initiation methods are possible as well: The server shuts down on Unix when it receives a SIGTERM signal. A server running as a service on Windows shuts down when the services manager tells it to.

2.  The server creates a shutdown thread if necessary.

    Depending on how shutdown was initiated, the server might create a thread to handle the shutdown process. If shutdown was requested by a client, a shutdown thread is created. If shutdown is the result of receiving a SIGTERM signal, the signal thread might handle shutdown itself, or it might create a separate thread to do so. If the server tries to create a shutdown thread and cannot (for example, if memory is exhausted), it issues a diagnostic message that appears in the error log:

    Error: Can't create thread to kill server

3.  The server stops accepting new connections.

    To prevent new activity from being initiated during shutdown, the server stops accepting new client connections. It does this by closing the network connections to which it normally listens for connections: the TCP/IP port, the Unix socket file, the Windows named pipe, and shared memory on Windows.

4.  The server terminates current activity.

    For each thread that is associated with a client connection, the connection to the client is broken and the thread is marked as killed. Threads die when they notice that they are so marked. Threads for idle connections die quickly. Threads that currently are processing statements check their state periodically and take longer to die. For additional information about thread termination, see Section 5.5.3, “KILL Syntax”, in particular for the instructions about killed REPAIR TABLE or OPTIMIZE TABLE operations on MyISAM tables.

    For threads that have an open transaction, the transaction is rolled back. Note that if a thread is updating a non-transactional table, an operation such as a multiple-row UPDATE or INSERT may leave the table partially updated, because the operation can terminate before completion.

    If the server is a master replication server, threads associated with currently connected slaves are treated like other client threads. That is, each one is marked as killed and exits when it next checks its state.

    If the server is a slave replication server, the I/O and SQL threads, if active, are stopped before client threads are marked as killed. The SQL thread is allowed to finish its current statement (to avoid causing replication problems), and then stops. If the SQL thread was in the middle of a transaction at this point, the transaction is rolled back.

5.  Storage engines are shut down or closed.

    At this stage, the table cache is flushed and all open tables are closed.

    Each storage engine performs any actions necessary for tables that it manages. For example, MyISAM flushes any pending index writes for a table. InnoDB flushes its buffer pool to disk (starting from 5.0.5: unless innodb_fast_shutdown is 2), writes the current LSN to the tablespace, and terminates its own internal threads.

6.  The server exits.

SERVER-SIDE HELP

MySQL Server supports a HELP statement that returns online information from the MySQL Reference manual (see Section 3.2, “HELP Syntax”). The proper operation of this statement requires that the help tables in the mysql database be initialized with help topic information, which is done by processing the contents of the fill_help_tables.sql script.

For a MySQL binary distribution on Unix, help table setup occurs when you run mysql_install_db. For an RPM distribution on Linux or binary distribution on Windows, help table setup occurs as part of the MySQL installation process.

For a MySQL source distribution, you can find the fill_help_tables.sql file in the scripts directory. To load the file manually, make sure that you have initialized the mysql database by running mysql_install_db, and then process the file with the mysql client as follows:

    shell> mysql -u root mysql < fill_help_tables.sql

If you are working with BitKeeper and a MySQL development source tree, the tree doesn't contain fill_help_tables.sql. You can download the proper file for your version of MySQL from http://dev.mysql.com/doc/. After downloading and uncompressing the file, process it with mysql as just described.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2007 MySQL AB

This documentation is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.

This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with the program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA or see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Please email <docs@mysql.com> for more information or if you are interested in doing a translation.

REFERENCES

1. MySQL Internals: Porting
    http://forge.mysql.com/wiki/MySQL_Internals_Porting

2. Auto-Increment in Multiple-Master Replication
    http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/replication-auto-increment.html

SEE ALSO
For more information, please refer to the MySQL Reference Manual, which may already be installed locally and which is also available online at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.

AUTHOR
MySQL AB (http://www.mysql.com/).