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• 1 General Information about MySQL
  • 1.1 What is MySQL?
  • 1.2 About this manual
    • 1.2.1 Conventions used in this manual
  • 1.3 History of MySQL
  • 1.4 The main features of MySQL
  • 1.5 How stable is MySQL?
  • 1.6 Year 2000 compliance
  • 1.7 General SQL information and tutorials
  • 1.8 Useful MySQL-related links
• 2 MySQL mailing lists and how to ask questions or report errors (bugs)
  • 2.1 The MySQL mailing lists
  • 2.2 Asking questions or reporting bugs
  • 2.3 How to report bugs / problems
    • 2.3.1 What to do if MySQL keeps crashing
  • 2.4 Guidelines for answering questions on the mailing list
• 3 Licensing or When do I have/want to pay for MySQL?
  • 3.1 How much MySQL costs
  • 3.2 How to get commercial support
    • 3.2.1 Basic email support
    • 3.2.2 Extended email support
    • 3.2.3 Login support
    • 3.2.4 Extended login support
  • 3.3 How to pay for licenses or support
  • 3.4 Who to contact for more information about licensing or support
  • 3.5 What copyrights MySQL uses
  • 3.6 When you may distribute MySQL commercially without a fee
  • 3.7 Selling a product that can be configured to use MySQL
  • 3.8 Running a commercial web server using MySQL
  • 3.9 Selling commercial Perl/Tcl/PHP/etc. applications
  • 3.10 Possible future changes in the licensing
• 4 Installing MySQL
  • 4.1 How to get MySQL
  • 4.2 Operating systems supported by MySQL
  • 4.3 Which MySQL version to use
  • 4.4 How and when updates are released
  • 4.5 Installation layouts
  • 4.6 Installing a MySQL binary distribution
    • 4.6.1 Building client programs
    • 4.6.2 System-specific notes
      • 4.6.2.1 Linux notes
      • 4.6.2.2 HP-UX notes
  • 4.7 Installing a MySQL source distribution
    • 4.7.1 Quick installation overview
    • 4.7.2 Applying patches
    • 4.7.3 Typical configure options
  • 4.8 Problems compiling?
  • 4.9 MIT-pthreads notes
  • 4.10 Perl installation comments
    • 4.10.1 Problems using the Perl DBI/DBD interface
  • 4.11 System-specific notes
    • 4.11.1 Solaris notes
    • 4.11.2 Solarix x86 notes
    • 4.11.3 SunOS 4 notes
    • 4.11.4 Linux notes (all Linux versions)
      • 4.11.4.1 Linux-x86 notes
      • 4.11.4.2 RedHat 5.0 notes
      • 4.11.4.3 RedHat 5.1 notes
      • 4.11.4.4 Linux-Sparc notes
      • 4.11.4.5 Linux-Alpha notes
      • 4.11.4.6 MkLinux notes
    • 4.11.5 Linux RPM notes
    • 4.11.6 Alpha-DEC-Unix notes
    • 4.11.7 Alpha-DEC-OSF1 notes
    • 4.11.8 SGI-IRIX notes
    • 4.11.9 FreeBSD notes
      • 4.11.9.1 FreeBSD-3.0 notes
    • 4.11.10 BSD/OS 2.# notes
      • 4.11.10.1 BSD/OS 3.# notes
    • 4.11.11 SCO notes
    • 4.11.12 SCO Unixware 7.0 notes
    • 4.11.13 IBM-AIX notes
    • 4.11.14 HP-UX notes
  • 4.12 TcX binaries
  • 4.13 Win32 notes
  • 4.14 Post-installation setup and testing
    • 4.14.1 Problems running mysql_install_db
    • 4.14.2 Problems starting the MySQL server
    • 4.14.3 Automatically starting and stopping MySQL
    • 4.14.4 Option files
  • 4.15 Is there anything special to do when upgrading/downgrading MySQL?
    • 4.15.1 Upgrading from a 3.21 version to 3.22
    • 4.15.2 Upgrading from a 3.20 version to 3.21
    • 4.15.3 Upgrading to another architecture
• 5 How standards-compatible is MySQL?
  • 5.1 MySQL extensions to ANSI SQL92
  • 5.2 Functionality missing from MySQL
    • 5.2.1 Sub-selects
    • 5.2.2 SELECT INTO TABLE
    • 5.2.3 Transactions
    • 5.2.4 Stored procedures and triggers
    • 5.2.5 Foreign Keys
      • 5.2.5.1 Reasons NOT to use foreign keys
    • 5.2.6 Views
    • 5.2.7 `--' as the start of a comment
  • 5.3 What standards does MySQL follow?
  • 5.4 Limitations of BLOB and TEXT types
  • 5.5 How to cope without COMMIT-ROLLBACK
• 6 The MySQL access privilege system
  • 6.1 What the privilege system does
  • 6.2 Connecting to the MySQL server
    • 6.2.1 Keeping your password secure
  • 6.3 Privileges provided by MySQL
  • 6.4 How the privilege system works
  • 6.5 Access control, stage 1: Connection verification
  • 6.6 Access control, stage 2: Request verification
  • 6.7 When privilege changes take effect
  • 6.8 Setting up the initial MySQL privileges
  • 6.9 Adding new user privileges to MySQL
  • 6.10 How to set up passwords
  • 6.11 Causes of Access denied errors
  • 6.12 How to make MySQL secure against crackers
• 7 MySQL language reference
  • 7.1 Literals: how to write strings and numbers
    • 7.1.1 Strings
    • 7.1.2 Numbers
    • 7.1.3 NULL values
    • 7.1.4 Database, table, index, column and alias names
      • 7.1.4.1 Case sensitivity in names
  • 7.2 Column types
    • 7.2.1 Column type storage requirements
    • 7.2.5 Numeric types
    • 7.2.6 Date and time types
      • 7.2.6.1 The DATETIME, DATE and TIMESTAMP types
      • 7.2.6.2 The TIME type
      • 7.2.6.3 The YEAR type
    • 7.2.7 String types
      • 7.2.7.1 The CHAR and VARCHAR types
      • 7.2.7.2 The BLOB and TEXT types
      • 7.2.7.3 The ENUM type
      • 7.2.7.4 The SET type
    • 7.2.8 Choosing the right type for a column
    • 7.2.9 Column indexes
    • 7.2.10 Multiple-column indexes
    • 7.2.11 Using column types from other database engines
  • 7.3 Functions for use in SELECT and WHERE clauses
    • 7.3.1 Grouping functions
    • 7.3.2 Normal arithmetic operations
    • 7.3.3 Bit functions
    • 7.3.4 Logical operations
    • 7.3.5 Comparison operators
    • 7.3.6 String comparison functions
    • 7.3.7 Control flow functions
    • 7.3.8 Mathematical functions
    • 7.3.9 String functions
    • 7.3.10 Date and time functions
    • 7.3.11 Miscellaneous functions
    • 7.3.12 Functions for use with GROUP BY clauses
  • 7.4 CREATE DATABASE syntax
  • 7.5 DROP DATABASE syntax
  • 7.6 CREATE TABLE syntax
    • 7.6.1 Silent column specification changes
  • 7.7 ALTER TABLE syntax
  • 7.8 OPTIMIZE TABLE syntax
  • 7.9 DROP TABLE syntax
  • 7.10 DELETE syntax
  • 7.11 SELECT syntax
  • 7.12 JOIN syntax
  • 7.13 INSERT syntax
  • 7.14 REPLACE syntax
  • 7.15 LOAD DATA INFILE syntax
  • 7.16 UPDATE syntax
  • 7.17 USE syntax
  • 7.18 FLUSH syntax (clearing caches)
  • 7.19 KILL syntax
  • 7.20 SHOW syntax (Get information about tables, columns...)
  • 7.21 EXPLAIN syntax (Get information about a SELECT)
  • 7.22 DESCRIBE syntax (Get information about columns)
  • 7.23 LOCK TABLES/UNLOCK TABLES syntax
  • 7.24 SET OPTION syntax
  • 7.25 GRANT and REVOKE syntax
  • 7.26 CREATE INDEX syntax (Compatibility function)
  • 7.27 DROP INDEX syntax (Compatibility function)
  • 7.28 Comment syntax
  • 7.29 CREATE FUNCTION/DROP FUNCTION syntax
  • 7.30 Is MySQL picky about reserved words?
• 8 Example SQL queries
  • 8.1 Queries from twin project
    • 8.1.1 Find all non-distributed twins
    • 8.1.2 Show a table on twin pair status
• 9 MySQL Server functions
  • 9.1 What languages are supported by MySQL?
    • 9.1.1 The character set used for data and sorting
    • 9.1.2 Adding a new character set
    • 9.1.3 Multi-byte character support
  • 9.2 The update log
  • 9.3 How big MySQL tables can be
• 10 Getting maximum performance from MySQL
  • 10.1 Changing the size of MySQL buffers
  • 10.2 How MySQL uses memory
  • 10.3 How compiling and linking affects the speed of MySQL
  • 10.4 How MySQL uses indexes
  • 10.5 How MySQL optimizes WHERE clauses
  • 10.6 How MySQL opens and closes tables
    • 10.6.1 Drawbacks of creating large numbers of tables in a database
  • 10.7 Why so many open tables?
  • 10.8 Using symbolic links for databases and tables
  • 10.9 How MySQL locks tables
  • 10.10 How to arrange a table to be as fast/small as possible
  • 10.11 Factors affecting the speed of INSERT statements
  • 10.12 Factors affecting the speed of DELETE statements
  • 10.13 How do I get MySQL to run at full speed?
  • 10.14 What are the different row formats? Or, when should VARCHAR/CHAR be used?
• 11 The MySQL benchmark suite
• 12 MySQL Utilites
  • 12.1 Overview of the different MySQL programs
  • 12.2 Importing data from text files
  • 12.3 The MySQL compressed read-only table generator
• 13 Using isamchk for table maintenance and crash recovery
  • 13.1 isamchk invocation syntax
  • 13.2 isamchk memory usage
  • 13.3 Setting up a table maintenance regime
  • 13.4 Getting information about a table
  • 13.5 Using isamchk for crash recovery
    • 13.5.1 How to check tables for errors
    • 13.5.2 How to repair tables
    • 13.5.3 Table optimization
• 14 Adding new functions to MySQL
  • 14.1 Adding a new user-definable function
    • 14.1.1 UDF calling sequences
    • 14.1.2 Argument processing
    • 14.1.3 Return values and error handling
    • 14.1.4 Compiling and installing user-definable functions
  • 14.2 Adding a new native function
• 15 MySQL ODBC Support
  • 15.1 Operating systems supported by MyODBC
  • 15.2 How to report problems with MyODBC
  • 15.3 Programs known to work with MyODBC
  • 15.4 How to fill in the various fields in the ODBC administrator program
  • 15.5 How to get the value of an AUTO_INCREMENT column in ODBC
• 16 Problems and common errors
  • 16.1 Some common errors when using MySQL
    • 16.1.1 MySQL server has gone away error
    • 16.1.2 Can't connect to local MySQL server error
    • 16.1.3 Host '...' is blocked error
    • 16.1.4 Out of memory error
    • 16.1.5 Packet too large error
    • 16.1.6 The table is full error
    • 16.1.7 Commands out of sync error in client
    • 16.1.8 Ignoring user error
    • 16.1.9 Table 'xxx' doesn't exist error
  • 16.2 How MySQL handles a full disk
  • 16.3 How to run SQL commands from a text file
  • 16.4 Where MySQL stores temporary files
  • 16.5 How to protect `/tmp/mysql.sock' from being deleted
  • 16.6 Access denied error
  • 16.7 How to run MySQL as a normal user
  • 16.8 Problems with file permissions
  • 16.9 File not found
  • 16.10 Problems using DATE columns
  • 16.11 Case sensitivity in searches
  • 16.12 Problems with NULL values
  • 16.13 Problems with alias
  • 16.14 Deleting rows from related tables
  • 16.15 Solving problems with no matching rows
  • 16.16 Problems with ALTER TABLE.
• 17 Solving some common problems with MySQL
  • 17.1 Database replication
  • 17.2 Database backups
  • 17.3 Running multiple MySQL servers on the same machine
• 18 MySQL client tools and API's
  • 18.1 MySQL C API
  • 18.2 C API datatypes
  • 18.3 C API function overview
  • 18.4 C API function descriptions
    • 18.4.1 mysql_affected_rows()
    • 18.4.2 mysql_close()
    • 18.4.3 mysql_connect()
    • 18.4.4 mysql_create_db()
    • 18.4.5 mysql_data_seek()
    • 18.4.6 mysql_debug()
    • 18.4.7 mysql_drop_db()
    • 18.4.8 mysql_dump_debug_info()
    • 18.4.9 mysql_eof()
    • 18.4.10 mysql_errno()
    • 18.4.11 mysql_error()
    • 18.4.12 mysql_escape_string()
    • 18.4.13 mysql_fetch_field()
    • 18.4.14 mysql_fetch_fields()
    • 18.4.15 mysql_fetch_field_direct()
    • 18.4.16 mysql_fetch_lengths()
    • 18.4.17 mysql_fetch_row()
    • 18.4.18 mysql_field_seek()
    • 18.4.19 mysql_field_tell()
    • 18.4.20 mysql_free_result()
    • 18.4.21 mysql_get_client_info()
    • 18.4.22 mysql_get_host_info()
    • 18.4.23 mysql_get_proto_info()
    • 18.4.24 mysql_get_server_info()
    • 18.4.25 mysql_info()
    • 18.4.26 mysql_init()
    • 18.4.27 mysql_insert_id()
    • 18.4.28 mysql_kill()
    • 18.4.29 mysql_list_dbs()
    • 18.4.30 mysql_list_fields()
    • 18.4.31 mysql_list_processes()
    • 18.4.32 mysql_list_tables()
    • 18.4.33 mysql_num_fields()
    • 18.4.34 mysql_num_rows()
    • 18.4.35 mysql_ping()
    • 18.4.36 mysql_query()
    • 18.4.37 mysql_real_connect()
    • 18.4.38 mysql_real_query()
    • 18.4.39 mysql_reload()
    • 18.4.40 mysql_row_tell()
    • 18.4.41 mysql_select_db()
    • 18.4.42 mysql_shutdown()
    • 18.4.43 mysql_stat()
    • 18.4.44 mysql_store_result()
    • 18.4.45 mysql_thread_id()
    • 18.4.46 mysql_use_result()
    • 18.4.47 Why is it that after mysql_query() returns success, mysql_store_result() sometimes returns NULL?
    • 18.4.48 What results can I get from a query?
    • 18.4.49 How can I get the unique ID for the last inserted row?
    • 18.4.50 Problems linking with the C API
    • 18.4.51 How to make a thread-safe client
  • 18.5 MySQL Perl API's
    • 18.5.1 DBI with DBD::mysql
      • 18.5.1.1 The DBI interface
      • 18.5.1.2 More DBI/DBD information
  • 18.6 MySQL Java connectivity (JDBC)
  • 18.7 MySQL PHP API's
  • 18.8 MySQL C++ API's
  • 18.9 MySQL Python API's
  • 18.10 MySQL TCL API's
• 19 How MySQL compares to other databases
  • 19.1 How MySQL compares to mSQL
    • 19.1.1 How to convert mSQL tools for MySQL
    • 19.1.2 How mSQL and MySQL client/server communications protocols differ
    • 19.1.3 How mSQL 2.0 SQL syntax differs from MySQL
  • 19.2 How MySQL compares to PostgreSQL
• A Some MySQL users
• B Contributed programs
• C Contributors to MySQL
• D MySQL change history
  • 19.3 Changes in release 3.22.x (Beta version)
    • 19.3.1 Changes in release 3.22.14
    • 19.3.2 Changes in release 3.22.13
    • 19.3.3 Changes in release 3.22.12
    • 19.3.4 Changes in release 3.22.11
    • 19.3.5 Changes in release 3.22.10
    • 19.3.6 Changes in release 3.22.9
    • 19.3.7 Changes in release 3.22.8
    • 19.3.8 Changes in release 3.22.7
    • 19.3.9 Changes in release 3.22.6
    • 19.3.10 Changes in release 3.22.5
    • 19.3.11 Changes in release 3.22.4
    • 19.3.12 Changes in release 3.22.3
    • 19.3.13 Changes in release 3.22.2
    • 19.3.14 Changes in release 3.22.1
    • 19.3.15 Changes in release 3.22.0
  • 19.4 Changes in release 3.21.x
    • 19.4.1 Changes in release 3.21.33
    • 19.4.2 Changes in release 3.21.32
    • 19.4.3 Changes in release 3.21.31
    • 19.4.4 Changes in release 3.21.30
    • 19.4.5 Changes in release 3.21.29
    • 19.4.6 Changes in release 3.21.28
    • 19.4.7 Changes in release 3.21.27
    • 19.4.8 Changes in release 3.21.26
    • 19.4.9 Changes in release 3.21.25
    • 19.4.10 Changes in release 3.21.24
    • 19.4.11 Changes in release 3.21.23
    • 19.4.12 Changes in release 3.21.22
    • 19.4.13 Changes in release 3.21.21a
    • 19.4.14 Changes in release 3.21.21
    • 19.4.15 Changes in release 3.21.20
    • 19.4.16 Changes in release 3.21.19
    • 19.4.17 Changes in release 3.21.18
    • 19.4.18 Changes in release 3.21.17
    • 19.4.19 Changes in release 3.21.16
    • 19.4.20 Changes in release 3.21.15
    • 19.4.21 Changes in release 3.21.14b
    • 19.4.22 Changes in release 3.21.14a
    • 19.4.23 Changes in release 3.21.13
    • 19.4.24 Changes in release 3.21.12
    • 19.4.25 Changes in release 3.21.11
    • 19.4.26 Changes in release 3.21.10
    • 19.4.27 Changes in release 3.21.9
    • 19.4.28 Changes in release 3.21.8
    • 19.4.29 Changes in release 3.21.7
    • 19.4.30 Changes in release 3.21.6
    • 19.4.31 Changes in release 3.21.5
    • 19.4.32 Changes in release 3.21.4
    • 19.4.33 Changes in release 3.21.3
    • 19.4.34 Changes in release 3.21.2
    • 19.4.35 Changes in release 3.21.0
  • 19.5 Changes in release 3.20.x
    • 19.5.1 Changes in release 3.20.18
    • 19.5.2 Changes in release 3.20.17
    • 19.5.3 Changes in release 3.20.16
    • 19.5.4 Changes in release 3.20.15
    • 19.5.5 Changes in release 3.20.14
    • 19.5.6 Changes in release 3.20.13
    • 19.5.7 Changes in release 3.20.11
    • 19.5.8 Changes in release 3.20.10
    • 19.5.9 Changes in release 3.20.9
    • 19.5.10 Changes in release 3.20.8
    • 19.5.11 Changes in release 3.20.7
    • 19.5.12 Changes in release 3.20.6
    • 19.5.13 Changes in release 3.20.3
    • 19.5.14 Changes in release 3.20.0
  • 19.6 Changes in release 3.19.x
    • 19.6.1 Changes in release 3.19.5
    • 19.6.2 Changes in release 3.19.4
    • 19.6.3 Changes in release 3.19.3
• E Known errors and design deficiencies in MySQL
• F List of things we want to add to MySQL in the future (The TODO)
  • 19.7 Things that must done in the real near future
  • 19.8 Things that have to be done sometime
  • 19.9 Some things we don't have any plans to do
• G Comments on porting to other systems
  • 19.10 Debugging MySQL
  • 19.11 Comments about RTS threads
  • 19.12 Differences between different thread packages
• H Description of MySQL regular expression syntax
• I What is Unireg?
• J The MySQL server license for non Microsoft operating systems
• K The MySQL license for Microsoft operating systems
• SQL command, type and function index
• Concept Index

This document was generated on 1 January 1999 using the texi2html translator version 1.52 (extended by davida@detron.se).