MARIADB-SHOW(1)

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, so this is mariadb-show — a whole legend. It displays database, table, and column information.

and yes, the page literally says: mariadb-show is now a symlink to mariadb-show. that's what it says. it's a symlink to itself. iconic behavior honestly, we don't ask questions 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

mariadb-show [options] [db_name [tbl_name [col_name]]]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

the mariadb-show client is your little shortcut bestie for peeking at stuff fast: which databases exist, what tables are in them, or a table's columns and indexes. no cap.

under the hood mariadb-show is just a command-line interface to a bunch of SQL SHOW statements. so like — the exact same info is available if you go run those statements yourself. for example you can just issue them from the mariadb client program. same tea, different mug 🍓

invoke it like this:

shell> mariadb-show [options] [db_name [tbl_name [col_name]]]

• if you give no database, you get a list of database names. a little lineup ✨
• if you give no table, you get all matching tables in the database.
• if you give no column, you get all matching columns and column types in the table.

the output only shows the names of those databases, tables, or columns that you actually have some privileges for. so like, you only see what you're invited to 👑

if the last argument has shell or SQL wildcard characters (*, ?, %, or _), only the names matched by the wildcard get shown. and heads up — if a database name contains any underscores, you gotta escape those with a backslash (some Unix shells need two) to get a proper list of tables or columns. * and ? get converted into the SQL wildcard characters % and _. this might cause some confusion when you try to display the columns for a table that has a _ in the name, because in that case mariadb-show shows you only the table names that match the pattern. 😭 the fix is easy though: just add an extra % last on the command line as a separate argument. slay.

mariadb-show supports the following options, and you can specify them on the command line or in the [mariadb-show] and [client] option file groups. mariadb-show also supports the options for processing option files described.

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• --help, -? — shows a help message and exits. the classic "what do I do" button 🫶
• --character-sets-dir=path, -c path — the directory where character sets are installed.
• --compress, -C — compresses all information sent between the client and the server, if both sides support compression.
• --count — shows the number of rows per table. fair warning: this can be slow for non-MyISAM tables. ⚠️
• --debug[=debug_options], -# [debug_options] — writes a debugging log. a typical debug_options string is 'd:t:o,file_name'. the default is 'd:t:o'.
• --debug-check — prints some debugging information when the program exits.
• --debug-info — prints debugging information plus 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 — sets 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 — sets filename as the file to read default options from, overriding global defaults files. must be given as first option. ⭐
• --defaults-group-suffix=suffix — in addition to the groups named on the command line, reads groups that have the given suffix.
• --host=host_name, -h host_name — connects to the MariaDB server on the given host.
• --keys, -k — shows table indexes.
• --no-defaults — does not read default options from any option file. this must be given as the first argument. ⭐
• --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, mariadb-show 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. bestie, protect the password 🔒

• --pipe, -W — on Windows, connects to the server via a named pipe. this option applies only if the server supports named-pipe connections.
• --plugin-dir=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.
• --protocol={TCP|SOCKET|PIPE|MEMORY} — the connection protocol to use for connecting to the server. it's useful when the other connection parameters would normally cause a protocol to be used other than the one you want.
• --print-defaults — prints the program argument list and exits. this must be given as the first argument. ⭐
• --show-table-type, -t — shows a column indicating the table type, as in SHOW FULL TABLES. the type is BASE TABLE or VIEW.
• --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 — enables SSL for the 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 — verifies the server's "Common Name" in its cert against the hostname used when connecting. this option is disabled by default.
• --status, -i — displays extra information about each table.
• --user=user_name, -u user_name — the MariaDB user name to use when connecting to the server.
• --verbose, -v — verbose mode. prints more information about what the program does. you can use this option multiple times to increase the amount of information. the more -v the more yapping 🗣️
• --version, -V — displays version information and exits.

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright 2007-2008 MySQL AB, 2008-2010 Sun Microsystems, Inc., 2010-2025 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/.

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

for more information, please refer to the MariaDB Documentation, available online at https://mariadb.com/docs/

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🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

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

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and that's the whole page bestie!! 💜 this one's from MariaDB 11.8, dated 5 March 2025, and the manual page is MARIADB-SHOW(1). go forth and SHOW things, you absolute main character 🦋✨