MySQL :: MySQL 5.7 Reference Manual :: 4.5.1.1 mysql Client Options (original) (raw)

4.5.1.1 mysql Client Options

mysql supports the following options, which can be specified on the command line or in the[mysql] and [client] groups of an option file. For information about option files used by MySQL programs, see Section 4.2.2.2, “Using Option Files”.

• --help, -?

  Command-Line Format	--help
  Display a help message and exit.

• --auto-rehash

  Command-Line Format	--auto-rehash
  Disabled by	skip-auto-rehash
  Enable automatic rehashing. This option is on by default, which enables database, table, and column name completion. Use--disable-auto-rehash to disable rehashing. That causes mysql to start faster, but you must issue therehash command or its\# shortcut if you want to use name completion.
  To complete a name, enter the first part and press Tab. If the name is unambiguous, mysql completes it. Otherwise, you can press Tab again to see the possible names that begin with what you have typed so far. Completion does not occur if there is no default database.
  Note
  This feature requires a MySQL client that is compiled with the readline library. Typically, the readline library is not available on Windows.

• --auto-vertical-output

  Command-Line Format	--auto-vertical-output
  Cause result sets to be displayed vertically if they are too wide for the current window, and using normal tabular format otherwise. (This applies to statements terminated by; or \G.)

• --batch, -B

  Command-Line Format	--batch
  Print results using tab as the column separator, with each row on a new line. With this option,mysql does not use the history file.
  Batch mode results in nontabular output format and escaping of special characters. Escaping may be disabled by using raw mode; see the description for the--raw option.

• --binary-as-hex

  Command-Line Format	--binary-as-hex
  Introduced	5.7.19
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE
  When this option is given, mysql displays binary data using hexadecimal notation (0x_`value`_). This occurs whether the overall output display format is tabular, vertical, HTML, or XML.
  --binary-as-hex when enabled affects display of all binary strings, including those returned by functions such asCHAR() andUNHEX(). The following example demonistrates this using the ASCII code forA (65 decimal, 41 hexadecimal):

  • --binary-as-hex disabled:

  mysql> SELECT CHAR(0x41), UNHEX('41');  
  +------------+-------------+  
  | CHAR(0x41) | UNHEX('41') |  
  +------------+-------------+  
  | A          | A           |  
  +------------+-------------+  

  • --binary-as-hex enabled:

  mysql> SELECT CHAR(0x41), UNHEX('41');  
  +------------------------+--------------------------+  
  | CHAR(0x41)             | UNHEX('41')              |  
  +------------------------+--------------------------+  
  | 0x41                   | 0x41                     |  
  +------------------------+--------------------------+  

To write a binary string expression so that it displays as a character string regardless of whether--binary-as-hex is enabled, use these techniques:

• The CHAR() function has aUSING_`charset`_ clause:

mysql> SELECT CHAR(0x41 USING utf8mb4);  
+--------------------------+  
| CHAR(0x41 USING utf8mb4) |  
+--------------------------+  
| A                        |  
+--------------------------+  

• More generally, useCONVERT() to convert an expression to a given character set:

mysql> SELECT CONVERT(UNHEX('41') USING utf8mb4);  
+------------------------------------+  
| CONVERT(UNHEX('41') USING utf8mb4) |  
+------------------------------------+  
| A                                  |  
+------------------------------------+  

This option was added in MySQL 5.7.19.

• --binary-mode

  Command-Line Format	--binary-mode
  This option helps when processingmysqlbinlog output that may containBLOB values. By default,mysql translates \r\n in statement strings to \n and interprets\0 as the statement terminator.--binary-mode disables both features. It also disables all mysql commands except charset anddelimiter in noninteractive mode (for input piped to mysql or loaded using thesource command).

• --bind-address=ip_address

  Command-Line Format	--bind-address=ip_address
  On a computer having multiple network interfaces, use this option to select which interface to use for connecting to the MySQL server.

• --character-sets-dir=dir_name

  Command-Line Format	--character-sets-dir=dir_name
  Type	Directory name
  The directory where character sets are installed. SeeSection 10.15, “Character Set Configuration”.

• --column-names

  Command-Line Format	--column-names
  Write column names in results.

• --column-type-info

  Command-Line Format	--column-type-info
  Display result set metadata. This information corresponds to the contents of C API MYSQL_FIELD data structures. See C API Basic Data Structures.

• --comments,-c

  Command-Line Format	--comments
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE
  Whether to strip or preserve comments in statements sent to the server. The default is--skip-comments (strip comments), enable with--comments (preserve comments).
  Note
  In MySQL 5.7, the mysql client always passes optimizer hints to the server, regardless of whether this option is given. To ensure that optimizer hints are not stripped if you are using an older version of the mysql client with a version of the server that understands optimizer hints, invoke mysql with the--comments option.
  Comment stripping is deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20. You should expect this feature and the options to control it to be removed in a future MySQL release.

• --compress,-C

  Command-Line Format	--compress[={OFF|ON}]
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	OFF
  Compress all information sent between the client and the server if possible. SeeSection 4.2.6, “Connection Compression Control”.

• --connect-expired-password

  Command-Line Format	--connect-expired-password
  Indicate to the server that the client can handle sandbox mode if the account used to connect has an expired password. This can be useful for noninteractive invocations ofmysql because normally the server disconnects noninteractive clients that attempt to connect using an account with an expired password. (SeeSection 6.2.12, “Server Handling of Expired Passwords”.)

• --connect-timeout=value

  Command-Line Format	--connect-timeout=value
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	0
  The number of seconds before connection timeout. (Default value is 0.)

• --database=db_name,-D _`dbname`_

  Command-Line Format	--database=dbname
  Type	String
  The database to use. This is useful primarily in an option file.

• --debug[=debug_options],-# [_`debugoptions`_]

  Command-Line Format	--debug[=debug_options]
  Type	String
  Default Value	d:t:o,/tmp/mysql.trace
  Write a debugging log. A typical_debugoptions_ string isd:t:o,_`filename`_. The default is d:t:o,/tmp/mysql.trace.
  This option is available only if MySQL was built usingWITH_DEBUG. MySQL release binaries provided by Oracle are not built using this option.

• --debug-check

  Command-Line Format	--debug-check
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE
  Print some debugging information when the program exits.
  This option is available only if MySQL was built usingWITH_DEBUG. MySQL release binaries provided by Oracle are not built using this option.

• --debug-info,-T

  Command-Line Format	--debug-info
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE
  Print debugging information and memory and CPU usage statistics when the program exits.
  This option is available only if MySQL was built usingWITH_DEBUG. MySQL release binaries provided by Oracle are not built using this option.

• --default-auth=plugin

  Command-Line Format	--default-auth=plugin
  Type	String
  A hint about which client-side authentication plugin to use. See Section 6.2.13, “Pluggable Authentication”.

• --default-character-set=charset_name

  Command-Line Format	--default-character-set=charset_name
  Type	String
  Use charsetname as the default character set for the client and connection.
  This option can be useful if the operating system uses one character set and the mysql client by default uses another. In this case, output may be formatted incorrectly. You can usually fix such issues by using this option to force the client to use the system character set instead.
  For more information, seeSection 10.4, “Connection Character Sets and Collations”, andSection 10.15, “Character Set Configuration”.

• --defaults-extra-file=file_name

  Command-Line Format	--defaults-extra-file=file_name
  Type	File name
  Read this option file after the global option file but (on Unix) before the user option file. If the file does not exist or is otherwise inaccessible, an error occurs. If_filename_ is not an absolute path name, it is interpreted relative to the current directory.
  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 4.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --defaults-file=file_name

  Command-Line Format	--defaults-file=file_name
  Type	File name
  Use only the given option file. If the file does not exist or is otherwise inaccessible, an error occurs. If_filename_ is not an absolute path name, it is interpreted relative to the current directory.
  Exception: Even with--defaults-file, client programs read .mylogin.cnf.
  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 4.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --defaults-group-suffix=str

  Command-Line Format	--defaults-group-suffix=str
  Type	String
  Read not only the usual option groups, but also groups with the usual names and a suffix of_str_. For example,mysql normally reads the[client] and [mysql] groups. If this option is given as--defaults-group-suffix=_other,mysql also reads the[client_other] and[mysql_other] groups.
  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 4.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --delimiter=str

  Command-Line Format	--delimiter=str
  Type	String
  Default Value	;
  Set the statement delimiter. The default is the semicolon character (;).

• --disable-named-commands
  Disable named commands. Use the \* form only, or use named commands only at the beginning of a line ending with a semicolon (;).mysql starts with this option_enabled_ by default. However, even with this option, long-format commands still work from the first line. See Section 4.5.1.2, “mysql Client Commands”.
• --enable-cleartext-plugin

  Command-Line Format	--enable-cleartext-plugin
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE
  Enable the mysql_clear_password cleartext authentication plugin. (SeeSection 6.4.1.6, “Client-Side Cleartext Pluggable Authentication”.)

• --execute=statement,-e _`statement`_

  Command-Line Format	--execute=statement
  Type	String
  Execute the statement and quit. The default output format is like that produced with--batch. SeeSection 4.2.2.1, “Using Options on the Command Line”, for some examples. With this option, mysql does not use the history file.

• --force, -f

  Command-Line Format	--force
  Continue even if an SQL error occurs.

• --get-server-public-key

  Command-Line Format	--get-server-public-key
  Introduced	5.7.23
  Type	Boolean
  Request from the server the public key required for RSA key pair-based password exchange. This option applies to clients that authenticate with thecaching_sha2_password authentication plugin. For that plugin, the server does not send the public key unless requested. This option is ignored for accounts that do not authenticate with that plugin. It is also ignored if RSA-based password exchange is not used, as is the case when the client connects to the server using a secure connection.
  If--server-public-key-path=file_name is given and specifies a valid public key file, it takes precedence over--get-server-public-key.
  For information about thecaching_sha2_password plugin, seeSection 6.4.1.4, “Caching SHA-2 Pluggable Authentication”.
  The --get-server-public-key option was added in MySQL 5.7.23.

• --histignore

  Command-Line Format	--histignore=pattern_list
  Type	String
  A list of one or more colon-separated patterns specifying statements to ignore for logging purposes. These patterns are added to the default pattern list ("*IDENTIFIED*:*PASSWORD*"). The value specified for this option affects logging of statements written to the history file, and tosyslog if the--syslog option is given. For more information, see Section 4.5.1.3, “mysql Client Logging”.

• --host=host_name,-h _`hostname`_

  Command-Line Format	--host=host_name
  Type	String
  Default Value	localhost
  Connect to the MySQL server on the given host.

• --html, -H

  Command-Line Format	--html
  Produce HTML output.

• --ignore-spaces,-i

  Command-Line Format	--ignore-spaces
  Ignore spaces after function names. The effect of this is described in the discussion for theIGNORE_SPACE SQL mode (seeSection 5.1.10, “Server SQL Modes”).

• --init-command=str

  Command-Line Format	--init-command=str
  SQL statement to execute after connecting to the server. If auto-reconnect is enabled, the statement is executed again after reconnection occurs.

• --line-numbers

  Command-Line Format	--line-numbers
  Disabled by	skip-line-numbers
  Write line numbers for errors. Disable this with--skip-line-numbers.

• --local-infile[={0|1}]

  Command-Line Format	--local-infile[={0|1}]
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE
  By default, LOCAL capability forLOAD DATA is determined by the default compiled into the MySQL client library. To enable or disable LOCAL data loading explicitly, use the--local-infile option. When given with no value, the option enablesLOCAL data loading. When given as--local-infile=0 or--local-infile=1, the option disables or enables LOCAL data loading.
  Successful use of LOCAL load operations within mysql also requires that the server permits local loading; seeSection 6.1.6, “Security Considerations for LOAD DATA LOCAL”

• --login-path=name

  Command-Line Format	--login-path=name
  Type	String
  Read options from the named login path in the.mylogin.cnf login path file. A“login path” is an option group containing options that specify which MySQL server to connect to and which account to authenticate as. To create or modify a login path file, use themysql_config_editor utility. SeeSection 4.6.6, “mysql_config_editor — MySQL Configuration Utility”.
  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 4.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --max-allowed-packet=value

  Command-Line Format	--max-allowed-packet=value
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	16777216
  The maximum size of the buffer for client/server communication. The default is 16MB, the maximum is 1GB.

• --max-join-size=value

  Command-Line Format	--max-join-size=value
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	1000000
  The automatic limit for rows in a join when using--safe-updates. (Default value is 1,000,000.)

• --named-commands,-G

  Command-Line Format	--named-commands
  Disabled by	skip-named-commands
  Enable named mysql commands. Long-format commands are permitted, not just short-format commands. For example, quit and \q both are recognized. Use--skip-named-commands to disable named commands. SeeSection 4.5.1.2, “mysql Client Commands”.

• --net-buffer-length=value

  Command-Line Format	--net-buffer-length=value
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	16384
  The buffer size for TCP/IP and socket communication. (Default value is 16KB.)

• --no-auto-rehash,-A

  Command-Line Format	--no-auto-rehash
  Deprecated	Yes
  This has the same effect as--skip-auto-rehash. See the description for--auto-rehash.

• --no-beep, -b

  Command-Line Format	--no-beep
  Do not beep when errors occur.

• --no-defaults

  Command-Line Format	--no-defaults
  Do not read any option files. If program startup fails due to reading unknown options from an option file,--no-defaults can be used to prevent them from being read.
  The exception is that the .mylogin.cnf file is read in all cases, if it exists. This permits passwords to be specified in a safer way than on the command line even when --no-defaults is used. To create .mylogin.cnf, use the mysql_config_editor utility. SeeSection 4.6.6, “mysql_config_editor — MySQL Configuration Utility”.
  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 4.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --one-database,-o

  Command-Line Format	--one-database
  Ignore statements except those that occur while the default database is the one named on the command line. This option is rudimentary and should be used with care. Statement filtering is based only onUSE statements.
  Initially, mysql executes statements in the input because specifying a database_dbname_ on the command line is equivalent to insertingUSE_db_name_ at the beginning of the input. Then, for eachUSE statement encountered,mysql accepts or rejects following statements depending on whether the database named is the one on the command line. The content of the statements is immaterial.
  Suppose that mysql is invoked to process this set of statements:

DELETE FROM db2.t2;  
USE db2;  
DROP TABLE db1.t1;  
CREATE TABLE db1.t1 (i INT);  
USE db1;  
INSERT INTO t1 (i) VALUES(1);  
CREATE TABLE db2.t1 (j INT);  

If the command line is mysql --force --one-database db1, mysql handles the input as follows:

• The DELETE statement is executed because the default database isdb1, even though the statement names a table in a different database.
• The DROP TABLE andCREATE TABLE statements are not executed because the default database is notdb1, even though the statements name a table in db1.
• The INSERT andCREATE TABLE statements are executed because the default database isdb1, even though theCREATE TABLE statement names a table in a different database.
• --pager[=command]

  Command-Line Format	--pager[=command]
  Disabled by	skip-pager
  Type	String
  Use the given command for paging query output. If the command is omitted, the default pager is the value of yourPAGER environment variable. Valid pagers are less, more,cat [> filename], and so forth. This option works only on Unix and only in interactive mode. To disable paging, use--skip-pager.Section 4.5.1.2, “mysql Client Commands”, discusses output paging further.

• --password[=password],-p[_`password`_]

  Command-Line Format	--password[=password]
  Type	String
  The password of the MySQL account used for connecting to the server. The password value is optional. If not given,mysql prompts for one. If given, there must be no space between--password= or-p and the password following it. If no password option is specified, the default is to send no password.
  Specifying a password on the command line should be considered insecure. To avoid giving the password on the command line, use an option file. SeeSection 6.1.2.1, “End-User Guidelines for Password Security”.
  To explicitly specify that there is no password and thatmysql should not prompt for one, use the--skip-password option.

• --pipe, -W

  Command-Line Format	--pipe
  Type	String
  On Windows, connect to the server using a named pipe. This option applies only if the server was started with thenamed_pipe system variable enabled to support named-pipe connections. In addition, the user making the connection must be a member of the Windows group specified by thenamed_pipe_full_access_group system variable.

• --plugin-dir=dir_name

  Command-Line Format	--plugin-dir=dir_name
  Type	Directory name
  The directory in which to look for plugins. Specify this option if the --default-auth option is used to specify an authentication plugin butmysql does not find it. SeeSection 6.2.13, “Pluggable Authentication”.

• --port=port_num,-P _`portnum`_

  Command-Line Format	--port=port_num
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	3306
  For TCP/IP connections, the port number to use.

• --print-defaults

  Command-Line Format	--print-defaults
  Print the program name and all options that it gets from option files.
  For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 4.2.2.3, “Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File Handling”.

• --prompt=format_str

  Command-Line Format	--prompt=format_str
  Type	String
  Default Value	mysql>
  Set the prompt to the specified format. The default ismysql>. The special sequences that the prompt can contain are described inSection 4.5.1.2, “mysql Client Commands”.

• --protocol={TCP|SOCKET|PIPE|MEMORY}

  Command-Line Format	--protocol=type
  Type	String
  Default Value	[see text]
  Valid Values	TCPSOCKETPIPEMEMORY
  The transport protocol to use for connecting to the server. It is useful when the other connection parameters normally result in use of a protocol other than the one you want. For details on the permissible values, seeSection 4.2.5, “Connection Transport Protocols”.

• --quick, -q

  Command-Line Format	--quick
  Do not cache each query result, print each row as it is received. This may slow down the server if the output is suspended. With this option, mysql does not use the history file.
  By default, mysql fetches all result rows before producing any output; while storing these, it calculates a running maximum column length from the actual value of each column in succession. When printing the output, it uses this maximum to format it. When--quick is specified,mysql does not have the rows for which to calculate the length before starting, and so uses the maximum length. In the following example, tablet1 has a single column of typeBIGINT and containing 4 rows. The default output is 9 characters wide; this width is equal the maximum number of characters in any of the column values in the rows returned (5), plus 2 characters each for the spaces used as padding and the `	characters used as column delimiters). The output when using the--quickoption is 25 characters wide; this is equal to the number of characters needed to represent-9223372036854775808, which is the longest possible value that can be stored in a (signed)BIGINT` column, or 19 characters, plus the 4 characters used for padding and column delimiters. The difference can be seen here:

$> mysql -t test -e "SELECT * FROM t1"  
+-------+  
| c1    |  
+-------+  
|   100 |  
|  1000 |  
| 10000 |  
|    10 |  
+-------+  
$> mysql --quick -t test -e "SELECT * FROM t1"  
+----------------------+  
| c1                   |  
+----------------------+  
|                  100 |  
|                 1000 |  
|                10000 |  
|                   10 |  
+----------------------+  

• --raw, -r

  Command-Line Format	--raw
  For tabular output, the “boxing” around columns enables one column value to be distinguished from another. For nontabular output (such as is produced in batch mode or when the --batch or--silent option is given), special characters are escaped in the output so they can be identified easily. Newline, tab, NUL, and backslash are written as \n,\t, \0, and\\. The--raw option disables this character escaping.
  The following example demonstrates tabular versus nontabular output and the use of raw mode to disable escaping:

% mysql  
mysql> SELECT CHAR(92);  
+----------+  
| CHAR(92) |  
+----------+  
| \        |  
+----------+  
% mysql -s  
mysql> SELECT CHAR(92);  
CHAR(92)  
\\  
% mysql -s -r  
mysql> SELECT CHAR(92);  
CHAR(92)  
\  

• --reconnect

  Command-Line Format	--reconnect
  Disabled by	skip-reconnect
  If the connection to the server is lost, automatically try to reconnect. A single reconnect attempt is made each time the connection is lost. To suppress reconnection behavior, use--skip-reconnect.

• --safe-updates,--i-am-a-dummy,-U

  Command-Line Format	--safe-updates--i-am-a-dummy
  Type	Boolean
  Default Value	FALSE
  If this option is enabled,UPDATE andDELETE statements that do not use a key in the WHERE clause or aLIMIT clause produce an error. In addition, restrictions are placed onSELECT statements that produce (or are estimated to produce) very large result sets. If you have set this option in an option file, you can use--skip-safe-updates on the command line to override it. For more information about this option, see Using Safe-Updates Mode (--safe-updates).

• --secure-auth

  Command-Line Format	--secure-auth
  Deprecated	Yes
  Do not send passwords to the server in old (pre-4.1) format. This prevents connections except for servers that use the newer password format.
  As of MySQL 5.7.5, this option is deprecated; expect it to be removed in a future MySQL release. It is always enabled and attempting to disable it (--skip-secure-auth,--secure-auth=0) produces an error. Before MySQL 5.7.5, this option is enabled by default but can be disabled.

• --select-limit=value

  Command-Line Format	--select-limit=value
  Type	Numeric
  Default Value	1000
  The automatic limit forSELECT statements when using--safe-updates. (Default value is 1,000.)

• --server-public-key-path=file_name

  Command-Line Format	--server-public-key-path=file_name
  Type	File name
  The path name to a file in PEM format containing a client-side copy of the public key required by the server for RSA key pair-based password exchange. This option applies to clients that authenticate with thesha256_password orcaching_sha2_password authentication plugin. This option is ignored for accounts that do not authenticate with one of those plugins. It is also ignored if RSA-based password exchange is not used, as is the case when the client connects to the server using a secure connection.
  If--server-public-key-path=file_name is given and specifies a valid public key file, it takes precedence over--get-server-public-key.
  For sha256_password, this option applies only if MySQL was built using OpenSSL.
  For information about the sha256_password and caching_sha2_password plugins, seeSection 6.4.1.5, “SHA-256 Pluggable Authentication”, andSection 6.4.1.4, “Caching SHA-2 Pluggable Authentication”.

• --shared-memory-base-name=name

  Command-Line Format	--shared-memory-base-name=name
  Platform Specific	Windows
  On Windows, the shared-memory name to use for connections made using shared memory to a local server. The default value is MYSQL. The shared-memory name is case-sensitive.
  This option applies only if the server was started with theshared_memory system variable enabled to support shared-memory connections.

• --show-warnings

  Command-Line Format	--show-warnings
  Cause warnings to be shown after each statement if there are any. This option applies to interactive and batch mode.

• --sigint-ignore

  Command-Line Format	--sigint-ignore
  Ignore SIGINT signals (typically the result of typing Control+C).
  Without this option, typing Control+C interrupts the current statement if there is one, or cancels any partial input line otherwise.

• --silent, -s

  Command-Line Format	--silent
  Silent mode. Produce less output. This option can be given multiple times to produce less and less output.
  This option results in nontabular output format and escaping of special characters. Escaping may be disabled by using raw mode; see the description for the--raw option.

• --skip-column-names,-N

  Command-Line Format	--skip-column-names
  Do not write column names in results. Use of this option causes the output to be right-aligned, as shown here:

$> echo "SELECT * FROM t1" | mysql -t test  
+-------+  
| c1    |  
+-------+  
| a,c,d |  
| c     |  
+-------+  
$> echo "SELECT * FROM t1" | ./mysql -uroot -Nt test  
+-------+  
| a,c,d |  
|     c |  
+-------+  

• --skip-line-numbers,-L

  Command-Line Format	--skip-line-numbers
  Do not write line numbers for errors. Useful when you want to compare result files that include error messages.

• --socket=path,-S _`path`_

  Command-Line Format	--socket={file_name|pipe_name}
  Type	String
  For connections to localhost, the Unix socket file to use, or, on Windows, the name of the named pipe to use.
  On Windows, this option applies only if the server was started with the named_pipe system variable enabled to support named-pipe connections. In addition, the user making the connection must be a member of the Windows group specified by thenamed_pipe_full_access_group system variable.

• --ssl*
  Options that begin with --ssl specify whether to connect to the server using encryption and indicate where to find SSL keys and certificates. SeeCommand Options for Encrypted Connections.
• --syslog, -j

  Command-Line Format	--syslog
  This option causes mysql to send interactive statements to the system logging facility. On Unix, this is syslog; on Windows, it is the Windows Event Log. The destination where logged messages appear is system dependent. On Linux, the destination is often the /var/log/messages file.
  Here is a sample of output generated on Linux by using--syslog. This output is formatted for readability; each logged message actually takes a single line.

Mar  7 12:39:25 myhost MysqlClient[20824]:  
  SYSTEM_USER:'oscar', MYSQL_USER:'my_oscar', CONNECTION_ID:23,  
  DB_SERVER:'127.0.0.1', DB:'--', QUERY:'USE test;'  
Mar  7 12:39:28 myhost MysqlClient[20824]:  
  SYSTEM_USER:'oscar', MYSQL_USER:'my_oscar', CONNECTION_ID:23,  
  DB_SERVER:'127.0.0.1', DB:'test', QUERY:'SHOW TABLES;'  

For more information, see Section 4.5.1.3, “mysql Client Logging”.

• --table, -t

  Command-Line Format	--table
  Display output in table format. This is the default for interactive use, but can be used to produce table output in batch mode.

• --tee=file_name

  Command-Line Format	--tee=file_name
  Type	File name
  Append a copy of output to the given file. This option works only in interactive mode. Section 4.5.1.2, “mysql Client Commands”, discusses tee files further.

• --tls-version=protocol_list

  Command-Line Format	--tls-version=protocol_list
  Introduced	5.7.10
  Type	String
  Default Value (≥ 5.7.28)	TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2
  Default Value (≤ 5.7.27)	TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2 (OpenSSL)TLSv1,TLSv1.1 (yaSSL)
  The permissible TLS protocols for encrypted connections. The value is a list of one or more comma-separated protocol names. The protocols that can be named for this option depend on the SSL library used to compile MySQL. For details, seeSection 6.3.2, “Encrypted Connection TLS Protocols and Ciphers”.
  This option was added in MySQL 5.7.10.

• --unbuffered,-n

  Command-Line Format	--unbuffered
  Flush the buffer after each query.

• --user=user_name,-u _`username`_

  Command-Line Format	--user=user_name
  Type	String
  The user name of the MySQL account to use for connecting to the server.

• --verbose, -v

  Command-Line Format	--verbose
  Verbose mode. Produce more output about what the program does. This option can be given multiple times to produce more and more output. (For example, -v -v -v produces table output format even in batch mode.)

• --version, -V

  Command-Line Format	--version
  Display version information and exit.

• --vertical,-E

  Command-Line Format	--vertical
  Print query output rows vertically (one line per column value). Without this option, you can specify vertical output for individual statements by terminating them with\G.

• --wait, -w

  Command-Line Format	--wait
  If the connection cannot be established, wait and retry instead of aborting.

• --xml, -X

  Command-Line Format	--xml
  Produce XML output.

<field name="column_name">NULL</field>  

The output when --xml is used with mysql matches that ofmysqldump --xml. SeeSection 4.5.4, “mysqldump — A Database Backup Program”, for details.
The XML output also uses an XML namespace, as shown here:

$> mysql --xml -uroot -e "SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'version%'"  
<?xml version="1.0"?>  
<resultset statement="SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'version%'" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">  
<row>  
<field name="Variable_name">version</field>  
<field name="Value">5.0.40-debug</field>  
</row>  
<row>  
<field name="Variable_name">version_comment</field>  
<field name="Value">Source distribution</field>  
</row>  
<row>  
<field name="Variable_name">version_compile_machine</field>  
<field name="Value">i686</field>  
</row>  
<row>  
<field name="Variable_name">version_compile_os</field>  
<field name="Value">suse-linux-gnu</field>  
</row>  
</resultset>