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Basic MySQL Commands

· 2 min read

My own quick reference guide for MySQL database.

Find Version​

mysql --version

Install MySQL​

Install MySQL on Unix, follow this guide from Digital Ocean

Download the current stable release dmg file from MySQL's official developer site

Open the dmg file, which unzip into a .pkg file, run the pkg file to install MySQL. A temporary password xxxxx will be created and displayed on screen for root@localhost. Note it down.

Go to OSX/System Preferences/MySQL, click the button Start MySQL Server to start the MySQL server. The status indicator will turn into green from red.

Login as root to change root password, first using the temporary password

mysql -u root -p

At this point, MySQL won't allow you to do anything without resetting the root password first. So let's do that (already logged into MySQL)

mysql> SET PASSWORD = PASSWORD('your_new_password');

Reload the privileges

mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> quit

Main Usages​

Show all the databases and use a database

mysql> show databases;
mysql> use some_database;

Show all the tables

mysql> show tables;

Describe a table;

mysql> describe some_table;

Update a user's password

mysql> use mysql;
mysql> update user set authentication_string=PASSWORD('your_new_password') where User='some_user';
mysql> flush privileges;
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