mysqlcheck(1) — Linux manual page

NAME \| SYNOPSIS \| DESCRIPTION \| COPYRIGHT \| SEE ALSO \| AUTHOR \| COLOPHON

MARIADB-CHECK(1)         MariaDB Database System        MARIADB-CHECK(1)

NAME top

       mariadb-check - a table maintenance program (mysqlcheck is now a
       symlink to mariadb-check)

SYNOPSIS top


       mysqlcheck [options] [db_name [tbl_name ...]]

DESCRIPTION top

The mysqlcheck client performs table maintenance: It checks,
repairs, optimizes, or analyzes tables.

Each table is locked and therefore unavailable to other sessions
while it is being processed, although for check operations, the
table is locked with a READ lock only. Table maintenance
operations can be time-consuming, particularly for large tables.
If you use the --databases or --all-databases option to process
all tables in one or more databases, an invocation of mysqlcheck
might take a long time. (This is also true for mysql_upgrade
because that program invokes mysqlcheck to check all tables and
repair them if necessary.)

mysqlcheck is similar in function to myisamchk, but works
differently. The main operational difference is that mysqlcheck
must be used when the mysqld server is running, whereas myisamchk
should be used when it is not. The benefit of using mysqlcheck is
that you do not have to stop the server to perform table
maintenance.

mysqlcheck uses the SQL statements CHECK TABLE, REPAIR TABLE,
ANALYZE TABLE, and OPTIMIZE TABLE in a convenient way for the
user. It determines which statements to use for the operation you
want to perform, and then sends the statements to the server to
be executed.

The MyISAM storage engine supports all four maintenance
operations, so mysqlcheck can be used to perform any of them on
MyISAM tables. Other storage engines do not necessarily support
all operations. In such cases, an error message is displayed. For
example, if test.t is a MEMORY table, an attempt to check it
produces this result:

shell> mysqlcheck test t
test.t
note : The storage engine for the table doesn´t support check

If mysqlcheck is unable to repair a table, see the MariaDB
Knowledge Base for manual table repair strategies. This will be
the case, for example, for InnoDB tables, which can be checked
with CHECK TABLE, but not repaired with REPAIR TABLE.

The use of mysqlcheck with partitioned tables is not supported.

Caution

It is best to make a backup of a table before performing a
table repair operation; under some circumstances the
operation might cause data loss. Possible causes include but
are not limited to file system errors.

There are three general ways to invoke mysqlcheck:

shell> mysqlcheck [options] db_name [tbl_name ...]
shell> mysqlcheck [options] --databases db_name ...
shell> mysqlcheck [options] --all-databases

If you do not name any tables following db_name or if you use the
--databases or --all-databases option, entire databases are
checked.

mysqlcheck has a special feature compared to other client
programs. The default behavior of checking tables (--check) can
be changed by renaming the binary. If you want to have a tool
that repairs tables by default, you should just make a copy of
mysqlcheck named mysqlrepair, or make a symbolic link to
mysqlcheck named mysqlrepair. If you invoke mysqlrepair, it
repairs tables.

The following names can be used to change mysqlcheck default
behavior.
┌───────────────┬───────────────────────┐
│ mysqlrepair │ The default option is │
│ │ --repair │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ mysqlanalyze │ The default option is │
│ │ --analyze │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ mysqloptimize │ The default option is │
│ │ --optimize │
└───────────────┴───────────────────────┘

mysqlcheck supports the following options, which can be specified
on the command line or in the [mysqlcheck] and [client] option
file groups. The -c, -r, -a and -o options are exclusive to each
other.

• --help, -?

Display a help message and exit.

• --all-databases, -A

Check all tables in all databases. This is the same as using
the --databases option and naming all the databases on the
command line.

• --all-in-1, -1

Instead of issuing a statement for each table, execute a
single statement for each database that names all the tables
from that database to be processed.

• --analyze, -a

Analyze the tables.

• --auto-repair

If a checked table is corrupted, automatically fix it. Any
necessary repairs are done after all tables have been
checked.

• --character-sets-dir=path

The directory where character sets are installed.

• --check, -c

Check the tables for errors. This is the default operation.

• --check-only-changed, -C

Check only tables that have changed since the last check or
that have not been closed properly.

• --check-upgrade, -g

Invoke CHECK TABLE with the FOR UPGRADE option to check
tables for incompatibilities with the current version of the
server. This option automatically enables the --fix-db-names
and --fix-table-names options.

• --compress

Compress all information sent between the client and the
server if both support compression.

• --databases, -B

Process all tables in the named databases. Normally,
mysqlcheck treats the first name argument on the command line
as a database name and following names as table names. With
this option, it treats all name arguments as database names.

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

Write a debugging log. A typical debug_options string is
´d:t:o,file_name´. The default is ´d:t:o´.

• --debug-check

Print some debugging information when the program exits.

• --debug-info

Print debugging information and memory and CPU usage
statistics when the program exits.

• --default-auth=name

Default authentication client-side plugin to use.

• --default-character-set=charset_name

Use charset_name as the default character set.

• --defaults-extra-file=filename

Set filename as the file to read default options from after
the global defaults files has been read. Must be given as
first option.

• --defaults-file=filename

Set filename as the file to read default options from,
override global defaults files. Must be given as first
option.

• --extended, -e

If you are using this option to check tables, it ensures that
they are 100% consistent but takes a long time.

If you are using this option to repair tables, it will force
using the old, slow, repair with keycache method, instead of
the much faster repair by sorting.

• --fast, -F

Check only tables that have not been closed properly.

• --fix-db-names

Convert database names to the format used since MySQL 5.1.
Only database names that contain special characters are
affected.

• --fix-table-names

Convert table names (including views) to the format used
since MySQL 5.1. Only table names that contain special
characters are affected.

• --flush,

Flush each table after check. This is useful if you don't
want to have the checked tables take up space in the caches
after the check.

• --force, -f

Continue even if an SQL error occurs.

• --host=host_name, -h host_name

Connect to the MariaDB server on the given host.

• --medium-check, -m

Do a check that is faster than an --extended operation. This
finds only 99.99% of all errors, which should be good enough
in most cases.

• --no-defaults

Do not read default options from any option file. This must
be given as the first argument.

• --optimize, -o

Optimize the tables.

• --password[=password], -p[password]

The password to use when connecting to the server. If you use
the short option form (-p), you cannot have a space between
the option and the password. If you omit the password value
following the --password or -p option on the command line,
mysqlcheck prompts for one.

Specifying a password on the command line should be
considered insecure. You can use an option file to avoid
giving the password on the command line.

• --persistent, -Z

Used with ANALYZE TABLE to append the option PERSISENT FOR
ALL.

• --pipe, -W

On Windows, connect to the server via a named pipe. This
option applies only if the server supports named-pipe
connections.

• --plugin-dir=name

Directory for client-side plugins.

• --port=port_num, -P port_num

The TCP/IP port number to use for the connection. Forces
--protocol=tcp when specified on the command line without
other connection properties.

• --print-defaults

Print the program argument list and exit. This must be given
as the first argument.

• --process-tables

Perform the requested operation on tables. Defaults to on;
use --skip-process-tables to disable.

• --process-views=val

Perform the requested operation (only CHECK VIEW or REPAIR
VIEW). Possible values are NO, YES (correct the checksum, if
necessary, add the mariadb-version field), UPGRADE_FROM_MYSQL
(same as YES and toggle the algorithm MERGE<->TEMPTABLE.

• --protocol={TCP|SOCKET|PIPE|MEMORY}

The connection protocol to use for connecting to the server.
It is useful when the other connection parameters normally
would cause a protocol to be used other than the one you
want.

• --quick, -q

If you are using this option to check tables, it prevents the
check from scanning the rows to check for incorrect links.
This is the fastest check method.

If you are using this option to repair tables, it tries to
repair only the index tree. This is the fastest repair
method.

• --repair, -r

Perform a repair that can fix almost anything except unique
keys that are not unique.

• --silent, -s

Silent mode. Print only error messages.

• --skip-database=db_name

Don't process the database (case-sensitive) specified as
argument.

• --socket=path, -S path

For connections to localhost, the Unix socket file to use,
or, on Windows, the name of the named pipe to use. Forces
--protocol=socket when specified on the command line without
other connection properties; on Windows, forces
--protocol=pipe.

• --ssl

Enable SSL for connection (automatically enabled with other
flags). Disable with --skip-ssl.

• --ssl-ca=name

CA file in PEM format (check OpenSSL docs, implies --ssl).

• --ssl-capath=name

CA directory (check OpenSSL docs, implies --ssl).

• --ssl-cert=name

X509 cert in PEM format (check OpenSSL docs, implies --ssl).

• --ssl-cipher=name

SSL cipher to use (check OpenSSL docs, implies --ssl).

• --ssl-key=name

X509 key in PEM format (check OpenSSL docs, implies --ssl).

• --ssl-crl=name

Certificate revocation list (check OpenSSL docs, implies
--ssl).

• --ssl-crlpath=name

Certificate revocation list path (check OpenSSL docs, implies
--ssl).

• --ssl-verify-server-cert

Verify server's "Common Name" in its cert against hostname
used when connecting. This option is disabled by default.

• --tables

Override the --databases or -B option. All name arguments
following the option are regarded as table names.

• --use-frm

For repair operations on MyISAM tables, get the table
structure from the .frm file so that the table can be
repaired even if the .MYI header is corrupted.

• --user=user_name, -u user_name

The MariaDB user name to use when connecting to the server.

• --verbose, -v

Verbose mode. Print information about the various stages of
program operation. Using one --verbose option will give you
more information about what mysqlcheck is doing.

Using two --verbose options will also give you connection
information.

Using it 3 times will print out all CHECK, RENAME and ALTER
TABLE during the check phase.

• --version, -V

Display version information and exit.

• --write-binlog

This option is enabled by default, so that ANALYZE TABLE,
OPTIMIZE TABLE, and REPAIR TABLE statements generated by
mysqlcheck are written to the binary log. Use
--skip-write-binlog to cause NO_WRITE_TO_BINLOG to be added
to the statements so that they are not logged. Use the
--skip-write-binlog when these statements should not be sent
to replication slaves or run when using the binary logs for
recovery from backup.

COPYRIGHT top

       Copyright 2007-2008 MySQL AB, 2008-2010 Sun Microsystems, Inc.,
       2010-2020 MariaDB Foundation

       This documentation is free software; you can redistribute it
       and/or modify it only 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
       02110-1335 USA or see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

AUTHOR top

       MariaDB Foundation (http://www.mariadb.org/).

COLOPHON top

       This page is part of the MariaDB (MariaDB database server)
       project.  Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://mariadb.org/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this manual
       page, see ⟨https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb/reporting-bugs/⟩.
       This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/MariaDB/server⟩ on 2023-12-22.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2023-05-11.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

MariaDB 10.8                   15 May 2020              MARIADB-CHECK(1)