Learning MySQL, 2nd Edition

Chapter 8. Managing Users and Privileges

The simplest database system is just a bunch of files lying around, with some data in them, and no unified access process. With any RDBMS, we come to expect a significantly higher level of sophistication and abstraction. For one, we want to be able to access the database from multiple clients simultaneously. However, not all of the clients are similar, and not every one of them necessarily needs access to all of the data in the database. It’s possible to imagine a database where every user is a superuser, but that would mean you’d have to install a dedicated database for every app and dataset: wasteful. Instead, databases have evolved to support multiple users and roles and provide a means to control privileges and access on a very fine-grained level to guarantee secure shared environments.

Understanding users and privileges is an important part of working efficiently with a database system. Well-planned and managed roles result in a secure system that is easy to manage and work with. In this chapter, we will review most of the things one needs to know about user and privilege management, starting from the basics and moving toward new features like roles. After finishing this chapter, you should have all the basics required to manage access within a MySQL database.

Understanding Users and Privileges

The first building block in the foundation of a shared system is the concept of a user. Most modern operating systems have user-based access, ...