MySQL Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Introduction

The MySQL database system uses a client-server architecture that centers around the server , mysqld. The server is the program that actually manipulates databases. Client programs don’t do that directly. Instead, they communicate your intent to the server by means of statements written in Structured Query Language (SQL). Client programs are installed locally on the machine from which you want to access MySQL, but the server can be installed anywhere, as long as clients can connect to it. MySQL is an inherently networked database system, so clients can communicate with a server that is running locally on your machine or one that is running somewhere else, perhaps on a machine on the other side of the planet. Clients can be written for many different purposes, but each interacts with the server by connecting to it, sending SQL statements to it to have database operations performed, and receiving the statement results from it.

One such client is the mysql program that is included in MySQL distributions. When used interactively, mysql prompts you for a statement, sends it to the MySQL server for execution, and then displays the results. This capability makes mysql useful in its own right, but it’s also a valuable tool to help you with your MySQL programming activities. It’s often convenient to be able to quickly review the structure of a table that you’re accessing from within a script, to try a statement before using it in a program to make sure that it produces the right ...