MySQL in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Name

REVOKE

Synopsis

REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES, GRANT OPTION FROM user[, ...]

REVOKE privilege[,...] [(column[, ...])] 
ON {[{database|*}.{table|*}] | *}
FROM 'user'@'host'[, ...]

Use this statement to revoke some or all privileges that were granted to a user with the GRANT statement. The first syntax is used to revoke all privileges from a user. Multiple users may be given in a comma-separated list. A list of users and their privileges are stored in the mysql database, in the user table in particular:

REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES
ON *.*
FROM 'paola'@localhost';

To revoke only some privileges, use the second syntax structure, giving the specific privileges to be removed in a comma-separated list after the keyword REVOKE. For a list of privileges and their descriptions, see Table 4-2 under the description of the GRANT statement earlier in this chapter.

To revoke privileges for specific columns, list the columns within parentheses in a comma-separated list. Privileges that are granted based on columns are stored in the columns_priv table of the mysql database. Privileges may be revoked on a specific table for a specific database. To revoke privileges on all tables of a database, specify an asterisk as a wildcard for the table name. You can do the same for the database name to apply the statement to all databases. Table-specific privileges are stored in the tables_priv table, and database-specific privileges are stored in the db table.