MySQL Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Preventing Query Output from Scrolling off the Screen

Problem

Query output zooms off the top of your screen before you can see it.

Solution

Tell mysql to display output a page at a time, or run mysql in a window that allows scrollback.

Discussion

If a statement produces many lines of output, normally the lines just scroll right off the top of the screen. To prevent this, tell mysql to present output a page at a time by specifying the --pager option.^[3] --pager = program tells mysql to use a specific program as your pager:

%mysql --pager=/usr/bin/less

--pager by itself (with no option value) tells mysql to use your default pager, as specified in your PAGER environment variable:

%mysql --pager

If your PAGER variable isn’t set, you must either define it or use the first form of the command to specify a pager program explicitly. To define PAGER, use the instructions given in Appendix B for setting environment variables.

Within a mysql session, you can turn paging on or off using \P or \n, respectively. \P without an argument enables paging using the program specified in your PAGER variable. \P with an argument enables paging using the argument as the name of the paging program:

mysql>\P
PAGER set to /bin/more
mysql> \P /usr/bin/less
PAGER set to /usr/bin/less
mysql> \n
PAGER set to stdout

Another way to deal with long result sets is to use a terminal program that allows you to scroll back through previous output. Programs such as xterm for the X Window System, Terminal for Mac OS X, or the console ...