MYSQLIMPORT

Invoke mysqlimport like this:

mysqlimport [options] db_name textfile1 [textfile2 ...]

For each text file named on the command line, mysqlimport strips any extension from the file name and uses the result to determine the name of the table into which to import the file's contents. For example, files named patient.txt, patient.text, and patient all would be imported into a table named patient.

mysqlimport supports the following options, which can be specified on the command line or in the [mysqlimport] and [client] groups of an option file. For information about option files used by MySQL programs, see Section 6.2.2.2, lqUsing Option Filesrq.

* --help, -?

Comman-Line Format

-help

Display a help message and exit.

* --bind-address=ip_address

Comman-Line Format

-bin-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

Comman-Line Format	-characte-set-dir=path
Type	String
Default Value	[none]

The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 12.15, lqCharacter Set Configurationrq.

* --columns=column_list, -c column_list

Comman-Line Format

-columns=column_list

This option takes a list of comma-separated column names as its value. The order of the column names indicates how to match data file columns with table columns.

* --compress, -C

Comman-Line Format	-compress[={OFF|ON}]
Deprecated	8.0.18
Type	Boolean
Default Value	OFF

Compress all information sent between the client and the server if possible. See Section 6.2.8, lqConnection Compression Controlrq.

As of MySQL 8.0.18, this option is deprecated. Expect it to be removed in a future version of MySQL. See the section called lqConfiguring Legacy Connection Compressionrq.

* --compression-algorithms=value

Comman-Line Format	-compressio-algorithms=value
Introduced	8.0.18
Type	Set
Default Value	uncompressed
Valid Values	zlib zstd uncompressed

The permitted compression algorithms for connections to the server. The available algorithms are the same as for the protocol_compression_algorithms system variable. The default value is uncompressed.

For more information, see Section 6.2.8, lqConnection Compression Controlrq.

This option was added in MySQL 8.0.18.

* --debug[=debug_options], -# [debug_options]

Comman-Line Format	-debug[=debug_options]
Type	String
Default Value	d:t:o

Write a debugging log. A typical debug_options string is d:t:o,file_name. The default is d:t:o.

This option is available only if MySQL was built using WITH_DEBUG. MySQL release binaries provided by Oracle are not built using this option.

* --debug-check

Comman-Line Format	-debu-check
Type	Boolean
Default Value	FALSE

Print some debugging information when the program exits.

This option is available only if MySQL was built using WITH_DEBUG. MySQL release binaries provided by Oracle are not built using this option.

* --debug-info

Comman-Line Format	-debu-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 using WITH_DEBUG. MySQL release binaries provided by Oracle are not built using this option.

* --default-character-set=charset_name

Comman-Line Format	-defaul-characte-set=charset_name
Type	String

Use charset_name as the default character set. See Section 12.15, lqCharacter Set Configurationrq.

* --default-auth=plugin

Comman-Line Format	-defaul-auth=plugin
Type	String

A hint about which client-side authentication plugin to use. See Section 8.2.17, lqPluggable Authenticationrq.

* --defaults-extra-file=file_name

Comman-Line Format	-default-extr-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 file_name 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 6.2.2.3, lqComman-Line Options that Affect Optio-File Handlingrq.

* --defaults-file=file_name

Comman-Line Format	-default-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 file_name 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 6.2.2.3, lqComman-Line Options that Affect Optio-File Handlingrq.

* --defaults-group-suffix=str

Comman-Line Format	-default-grou-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, mysqlimport normally reads the [client] and [mysqlimport] groups. If this option is given as --defaults-group-suffix=_other, mysqlimport also reads the [client_other] and [mysqlimport_other] groups.

For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 6.2.2.3, lqComman-Line Options that Affect Optio-File Handlingrq.

* --delete, -D

Comman-Line Format

-delete

Empty the table before importing the text file.

* --enable-cleartext-plugin

Comman-Line Format	-enabl-cleartex-plugin
Type	Boolean
Default Value	FALSE

Enable the mysql_clear_password cleartext authentication plugin. (See Section 8.4.1.4, lqClien-Side Cleartext Pluggable Authenticationrq.)

* --fields-terminated-by=..., --fields-enclosed-by=..., --fields-optionally-enclosed-by=..., --fields-escaped-by=...

Comman-Line Format	-field-terminate-by=string
Type	String

Comman-Line Format	-field-enclose-by=string
Type	String

Comman-Line Format	-field-optionall-enclose-by=string
Type	String

Comman-Line Format	-field-escape-by
Type	String

These options have the same meaning as the corresponding clauses for LOAD DATA. See Section 15.2.9, lqLOAD DATA Statementrq.

* --force, -f

Comman-Line Format

-force

Ignore errors. For example, if a table for a text file does not exist, continue processing any remaining files. Without --force, mysqlimport exits if a table does not exist.

* --get-server-public-key

Comman-Line Format	-ge-serve-publi-key
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 the caching_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 the caching_sha2_password plugin, see Section 8.4.1.2, lqCaching SH-2 Pluggable Authenticationrq.

* --host=host_name, -h host_name

Comman-Line Format	-host=host_name
Type	String
Default Value	localhost

Import data to the MySQL server on the given host. The default host is localhost.

* --ignore, -i

Comman-Line Format

-ignore

See the description for the --replace option.

* --ignore-lines=N

Comman-Line Format	-ignor-lines=#
Type	Numeric

Ignore the first N lines of the data file.

* --lines-terminated-by=...

Comman-Line Format	-line-terminate-by=string
Type	String

This option has the same meaning as the corresponding clause for LOAD DATA. For example, to import Windows files that have lines terminated with carriage return/linefeed pairs, use --lines-terminated-by="rn". (You might have to double the backslashes, depending on the escaping conventions of your command interpreter.) See Section 15.2.9, lqLOAD DATA Statementrq.

* --local, -L

Comman-Line Format	-local
Type	Boolean
Default Value	FALSE

By default, files are read by the server on the server host. With this option, mysqlimport reads input files locally on the client host.

Successful use of LOCAL load operations within mysqlimport also requires that the server permits local loading; see Section 8.1.6, lqSecurity Considerations for LOAD DATA LOCALrq

* --lock-tables, -l

Comman-Line Format

-loc-tables

Lock all tables for writing before processing any text files. This ensures that all tables are synchronized on the server.

* --login-path=name

Comman-Line Format	-logi-path=name
Type	String

Read options from the named login path in the .mylogin.cnf login path file. A lqlogin pathrq 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 the mysql_config_editor utility. See mysql_config_editor(1).

For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 6.2.2.3, lqComman-Line Options that Affect Optio-File Handlingrq.

* --low-priority

Comman-Line Format

-lo-priority

Use LOW_PRIORITY when loading the table. This affects only storage engines that use only table-level locking (such as MyISAM, MEMORY, and MERGE).

* --no-defaults

Comman-Line Format

-n-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. See mysql_config_editor(1).

For additional information about this and other option-file options, see Section 6.2.2.3, lqComman-Line Options that Affect Optio-File Handlingrq.

* --password[=password], -p[password]

Comman-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, mysqlimport 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. See Section 8.1.2.1, lqEn-User Guidelines for Password Securityrq.

To explicitly specify that there is no password and that mysqlimport should not prompt for one, use the --skip-password option.

* --password1[=pass_val] The password for multifactor authentication factor 1 of the MySQL account used for connecting to the server. The password value is optional. If not given, mysqlimport prompts for one. If given, there must be no space between --password1= 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. See Section 8.1.2.1, lqEn-User Guidelines for Password Securityrq.

To explicitly specify that there is no password and that mysqlimport should not prompt for one, use the --skip-password1 option.

--password1 and --password are synonymous, as are --skip-password1 and --skip-password.

* --password2[=pass_val] The password for multifactor authentication factor 2 of the MySQL account used for connecting to the server. The semantics of this option are similar to the semantics for --password1; see the description of that option for details.

* --password3[=pass_val] The password for multifactor authentication factor 3 of the MySQL account used for connecting to the server. The semantics of this option are similar to the semantics for --password1; see the description of that option for details.

* --pipe, -W

Comman-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 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 the named_pipe_full_access_group system variable.

* --plugin-dir=dir_name

Comman-Line Format	-plugi-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 but mysqlimport does not find it. See Section 8.2.17, lqPluggable Authenticationrq.

* --port=port_num, -P port_num

Comman-Line Format	-port=port_num
Type	Numeric
Default Value	3306

For TCP/IP connections, the port number to use.

* --print-defaults

Comman-Line Format

-prin-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 6.2.2.3, lqComman-Line Options that Affect Optio-File Handlingrq.

* --protocol={TCP|SOCKET|PIPE|MEMORY}

Comman-Line Format	-protocol=type
Type	String
Default Value	[see text]
Valid Values	TCP SOCKET PIPE MEMORY

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, see Section 6.2.7, lqConnection Transport Protocolsrq.

* --replace, -r

Comman-Line Format

-replace

The --replace and --ignore options control handling of input rows that duplicate existing rows on unique key values. If you specify --replace, new rows replace existing rows that have the same unique key value. If you specify --ignore, input rows that duplicate an existing row on a unique key value are skipped. If you do not specify either option, an error occurs when a duplicate key value is found, and the rest of the text file is ignored.

* --server-public-key-path=file_name

Comman-Line Format	-serve-publi-ke-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 the sha256_password or caching_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, see Section 8.4.1.3, lqSH-256 Pluggable Authenticationrq, and Section 8.4.1.2, lqCaching SH-2 Pluggable Authenticationrq.

* --shared-memory-base-name=name

Comman-Line Format	-share-memor-bas-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 the shared_memory system variable enabled to support shared-memory connections.

* --silent, -s

Comman-Line Format

-silent

Silent mode. Produce output only when errors occur.

* --socket=path, -S path

Comman-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 the named_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. See the section called lqCommand Options for Encrypted Connectionsrq.

* --ssl-fips-mode={OFF|ON|STRICT}

Comman-Line Format	-ss-fip-mode={OFF|ON|STRICT}
Deprecated	8.0.34
Type	Enumeration
Default Value	OFF
Valid Values	OFF ON STRICT

Controls whether to enable FIPS mode on the client side. The --ssl-fips-mode option differs from other --ssl-xxx options in that it is not used to establish encrypted connections, but rather to affect which cryptographic operations to permit. See Section 8.8, lqFIPS Supportrq.

These --ssl-fips-mode values are permitted:

* OFF: Disable FIPS mode.

* ON: Enable FIPS mode.

* STRICT: Enable lqstrictrq FIPS mode.

Note
If the OpenSSL FIPS Object Module is not available, the only permitted value for --ssl-fips-mode is OFF. In this case, setting --ssl-fips-mode to ON or STRICT causes the client to produce a warning at startup and to operate in non-FIPS mode.

As of MySQL 8.0.34, this option is deprecated. Expect it to be removed in a future version of MySQL.

* --tls-ciphersuites=ciphersuite_list

Comman-Line Format	-tl-ciphersuites=ciphersuite_list
Introduced	8.0.16
Type	String

The permissible ciphersuites for encrypted connections that use TLSv1.3. The value is a list of one or more colon-separated ciphersuite names. The ciphersuites that can be named for this option depend on the SSL library used to compile MySQL. For details, see Section 8.3.2, lqEncrypted Connection TLS Protocols and Ciphersrq.

This option was added in MySQL 8.0.16.

* --tls-version=protocol_list

Comman-Line Format	-tl-version=protocol_list
Type	String
Default Value (≥ 8.0.16)	TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2,TLSv1.3 (OpenSSL 1.1.1 or higher) TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2 (otherwise)
Default Value (≤ 8.0.15)	TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2

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, see Section 8.3.2, lqEncrypted Connection TLS Protocols and Ciphersrq.

* --user=user_name, -u user_name

Comman-Line Format	-user=user_name,
Type	String

The user name of the MySQL account to use for connecting to the server.

* --use-threads=N

Comman-Line Format	-us-threads=#
Type	Numeric

Load files in parallel using N threads.

* --verbose, -v

Comman-Line Format

-verbose

Verbose mode. Print more information about what the program does.

* --version, -V

Comman-Line Format

-version

Display version information and exit.

* --zstd-compression-level=level

Comman-Line Format	-zst-compressio-level=#
Introduced	8.0.18
Type	Integer

The compression level to use for connections to the server that use the zstd compression algorithm. The permitted levels are from 1 to 22, with larger values indicating increasing levels of compression. The default zstd compression level is 3. The compression level setting has no effect on connections that do not use zstd compression.

For more information, see Section 6.2.8, lqConnection Compression Controlrq.

This option was added in MySQL 8.0.18.

Here is a sample session that demonstrates use of mysqlimport:

$> mysql -e 'CREATE TABLE imptest(id INT, n VARCHAR(30))' test
$> ed
a
100     Max Sydow
101     Count Dracula
.
w imptest.txt
32
q
$> od -c imptest.txt
0000000   1   0   0  t   M   a   x       S   y   d   o   w  n   1   0
0000020   1  t   C   o   u   n   t       D   r   a   c   u   l   a  n
0000040
$> mysqlimport --local test imptest.txt
test.imptest: Records: 2  Deleted: 0  Skipped: 0  Warnings: 0
$> mysql -e 'SELECT * FROM imptest' test
+------+---------------+
| id   | n             |
+------+---------------+
|  100 | Max Sydow     |
|  101 | Count Dracula |
+------+---------------+

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 1997, 2025, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

This documentation is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it only under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.

This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with the program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 0211-1301 USA or see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

SEE ALSO

AUTHOR

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

COPYRIGHT

SEE ALSO

AUTHOR