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MYISAMCHK(1)		     MySQL Database System		  MYISAMCHK(1)



NAME
       myisamchk - MyISAM table-maintenance utility

SYNOPSIS
       myisamchk [options] tbl_name ...

DESCRIPTION
       The myisamchk utility gets information about your database tables or
       checks, repairs, or optimizes them.  myisamchk works with MyISAM tables
       (tables that have .MYD and .MYI files for storing data and indexes).

       Invoke myisamchk like this:

	  shell> myisamchk [options] tbl_name ...

       The options specify what you want myisamchk to do. They are described
       in the following sections. You can also get a list of options by
       invoking myisamchk --help.

       With no options, myisamchk simply checks your table as the default
       operation. To get more information or to tell myisamchk to take
       corrective action, specify options as described in the following
       discussion.

       tbl_name is the database table you want to check or repair. If you run
       myisamchk somewhere other than in the database directory, you must
       specify the path to the database directory, because myisamchk has no
       idea where the database is located. In fact, myisamchk doesnt actually
       care whether the files you are working on are located in a database
       directory. You can copy the files that correspond to a database table
       into some other location and perform recovery operations on them there.

       You can name several tables on the myisamchk command line if you wish.
       You can also specify a table by naming its index file (the file with
       the .MYI suffix). This allows you to specify all tables in a directory
       by using the pattern *.MYI. For example, if you are in a database
       directory, you can check all the MyISAM tables in that directory like
       this:

	  shell> myisamchk *.MYI

       If you are not in the database directory, you can check all the tables
       there by specifying the path to the directory:

	  shell> myisamchk /path/to/database_dir/*.MYI

       You can even check all tables in all databases by specifying a wildcard
       with the path to the MySQL data directory:

	  shell> myisamchk /path/to/datadir/*/*.MYI

       The recommended way to quickly check all MyISAM tables is:

	  shell> myisamchk --silent --fast /path/to/datadir/*/*.MYI

       If you want to check all MyISAM tables and repair any that are
       corrupted, you can use the following command:

	  shell> myisamchk --silent --force --fast --update-state \
		    --key_buffer_size=64M --sort_buffer_size=64M \
		    --read_buffer_size=1M --write_buffer_size=1M \
		    /path/to/datadir/*/*.MYI

       This command assumes that you have more than 64MB free. For more
       information about memory allocation with myisamchk, see the section
       called MYISAMCHK MEMORY USAGE.

       You must ensure that no other program is using the tables while you are
       running myisamchk. Otherwise, when you run myisamchk, it may display
       the following error message:

	  warning: clients are using or havent closed the table properly

       This means that you are trying to check a table that has been updated
       by another program (such as the mysqld server) that hasnt yet closed
       the file or that has died without closing the file properly.

       If mysqld is running, you must force it to flush any table
       modifications that are still buffered in memory by using FLUSH TABLES.
       You should then ensure that no one is using the tables while you are
       running myisamchk. The easiest way to avoid this problem is to use
       CHECK TABLE instead of myisamchk to check tables.

MYISAMCHK GENERAL OPTIONS
       The options described in this section can be used for any type of table
       maintenance operation performed by myisamchk. The sections following
       this one describe options that pertain only to specific operations,
       such as table checking or repairing.

	 --help, -?

	  Display a help message and exit.

	 --debug=debug_options, -# debug_options

	  Write a debugging log. The debug_options string often is
	  d:t:o,file_name.

	 --silent, -s

	  Silent mode. Write output only when errors occur. You can use -s
	  twice (-ss) to make myisamchk very silent.

	 --verbose, -v

	  Verbose mode. Print more information about what the program does.
	  This can be used with -d and -e. Use -v multiple times (-vv, -vvv)
	  for even more output.

	 --version, -V

	  Display version information and exit.

	 --wait, -w

	  Instead of terminating with an error if the table is locked, wait
	  until the table is unlocked before continuing. Note that if you are
	  running mysqld with external locking disabled, the table can be
	  locked only by another myisamchk command.


       You can also set the following variables by using --var_name=value
       syntax:

       +------------------+-------------------+
       |Variable	  | Default Value     |
       +------------------+-------------------+
       |sort_key_blocks   | 16		      |
       +------------------+-------------------+
       |stats_method	  | nulls_unequal     |
       +------------------+-------------------+
       |write_buffer_size | 262136	      |
       +------------------+-------------------+
       |decode_bits	  | 9		      |
       +------------------+-------------------+
       |ft_max_word_len   | version-dependent |
       +------------------+-------------------+
       |ft_min_word_len   | 4		      |
       +------------------+-------------------+
       |ft_stopword_file  | built-in list     |
       +------------------+-------------------+
       |key_buffer_size   | 523264	      |
       +------------------+-------------------+
       |myisam_block_size | 1024	      |
       +------------------+-------------------+
       |read_buffer_size  | 262136	      |
       +------------------+-------------------+
       |sort_buffer_size  | 2097144	      |
       +------------------+-------------------+

       The possible myisamchk variables and their default values can be
       examined with myisamchk --help:

       sort_buffer_size is used when the keys are repaired by sorting keys,
       which is the normal case when you use --recover.

       key_buffer_size is used when you are checking the table with
       --extend-check or when the keys are repaired by inserting keys row by
       row into the table (like when doing normal inserts). Repairing through
       the key buffer is used in the following cases:

	 You use --safe-recover.

	 The temporary files needed to sort the keys would be more than twice
	  as big as when creating the key file directly. This is often the
	  case when you have large key values for CHAR, VARCHAR, or TEXT
	  columns, because the sort operation needs to store the complete key
	  values as it proceeds. If you have lots of temporary space and you
	  can force myisamchk to repair by sorting, you can use the
	  --sort-recover option.


       Repairing through the key buffer takes much less disk space than using
       sorting, but is also much slower.

       If you want a faster repair, set the key_buffer_size and
       sort_buffer_size variables to about 25% of your available memory. You
       can set both variables to large values, because only one of them is
       used at a time.

       myisam_block_size is the size used for index blocks.

       stats_method influences how NULL values are treated for index
       statistics collection when the --analyze option is given. It acts like
       the myisam_stats_method system variable. For more information, see the
       description of myisam_stats_method in the section called SYSTEM
       VARIABLES, and Section 4.7, MyISAM Index Statistics Collection. For
       MySQL 5.0, stats_method was added in MySQL 5.0.14. For older versions,
       the statistics collection method is equivalent to nulls_equal.

       ft_min_word_len and ft_max_word_len indicate the minimum and maximum
       word length for FULLTEXT indexes.  ft_stopword_file names the stopword
       file. These need to be set under the following circumstances.

       If you use myisamchk to perform an operation that modifies table
       indexes (such as repair or analyze), the FULLTEXT indexes are rebuilt
       using the default full-text parameter values for minimum and maximum
       word length and the stopword file unless you specify otherwise. This
       can result in queries failing.

       The problem occurs because these parameters are known only by the
       server. They are not stored in MyISAM index files. To avoid the problem
       if you have modified the minimum or maximum word length or the stopword
       file in the server, specify the same ft_min_word_len, ft_max_word_len,
       and ft_stopword_file values to myisamchk that you use for mysqld. For
       example, if you have set the minimum word length to 3, you can repair a
       table with myisamchk like this:

	  shell> myisamchk --recover --ft_min_word_len=3 tbl_name.MYI

       To ensure that myisamchk and the server use the same values for
       full-text parameters, you can place each one in both the [mysqld] and
       [myisamchk] sections of an option file:

	  [mysqld]
	  ft_min_word_len=3
	  [myisamchk]
	  ft_min_word_len=3

       An alternative to using myisamchk is to use the REPAIR TABLE, ANALYZE
       TABLE, OPTIMIZE TABLE, or ALTER TABLE. These statements are performed
       by the server, which knows the proper full-text parameter values to
       use.

MYISAMCHK CHECK OPTIONS
       myisamchk supports the following options for table checking operations:

	 --check, -c

	  Check the table for errors. This is the default operation if you
	  specify no option that selects an operation type explicitly.

	 --check-only-changed, -C

	  Check only tables that have changed since the last check.

	 --extend-check, -e

	  Check the table very thoroughly. This is quite slow if the table has
	  many indexes. This option should only be used in extreme cases.
	  Normally, myisamchk or myisamchk --medium-check should be able to
	  determine whether there are any errors in the table.

	  If you are using --extend-check and have plenty of memory, setting
	  the key_buffer_size variable to a large value helps the repair
	  operation run faster.

	 --fast, -F

	  Check only tables that havent been closed properly.

	 --force, -f

	  Do a repair operation automatically if myisamchk finds any errors in
	  the table. The repair type is the same as that specified with the
	  --recover or -r option.

	 --information, -i

	  Print informational statistics about the table that is checked.

	 --medium-check, -m

	  Do a check that is faster than an --extend-check operation. This
	  finds only 99.99% of all errors, which should be good enough in most
	  cases.

	 --read-only, -T

	  Dont mark the table as checked. This is useful if you use myisamchk
	  to check a table that is in use by some other application that
	  doesnt use locking, such as mysqld when run with external locking
	  disabled.

	 --update-state, -U

	  Store information in the .MYI file to indicate when the table was
	  checked and whether the table crashed. This should be used to get
	  full benefit of the --check-only-changed option, but you shouldnt
	  use this option if the mysqld server is using the table and you are
	  running it with external locking disabled.

MYISAMCHK REPAIR OPTIONS
       myisamchk supports the following options for table repair operations:

	 --backup, -B

	  Make a backup of the .MYD file as file_name-time.BAK

	 --character-sets-dir=path

	  The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 9.1,
	  The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting.

	 --correct-checksum

	  Correct the checksum information for the table.

	 --data-file-length=len, -D len

	  Maximum length of the data file (when re-creating data file when it
	  is full).

	 --extend-check, -e

	  Do a repair that tries to recover every possible row from the data
	  file. Normally, this also finds a lot of garbage rows. Dont use
	  this option unless you are desperate.

	 --force, -f

	  Overwrite old intermediate files (files with names like
	  tbl_name.TMD) instead of aborting.

	 --keys-used=val, -k val

	  For myisamchk, the option value is a bit-value that indicates which
	  indexes to update. Each binary bit of the option value corresponds
	  to a table index, where the first index is bit 0. An option value of
	  0 disables updates to all indexes, which can be used to get faster
	  inserts. Deactivated indexes can be reactivated by using myisamchk
	  -r.

	 --max-record-length=len

	  Skip rows larger than the given length if myisamchk cannot allocate
	  memory to hold them.

	 --parallel-recover, -p

	  Uses the same technique as -r and -n, but creates all the keys in
	  parallel, using different threads.  This is beta-quality code. Use
	  at your own risk!

	 --quick, -q

	  Achieve a faster repair by not modifying the data file. You can
	  specify this option twice to force myisamchk to modify the original
	  data file in case of duplicate keys.

	 --recover, -r

	  Do a repair that can fix almost any problem except unique keys that
	  arent unique (which is an extremely unlikely error with MyISAM
	  tables). If you want to recover a table, this is the option to try
	  first. You should try --safe-recover only if myisamchk reports that
	  the table cant be recovered using --recover. (In the unlikely case
	  that --recover fails, the data file remains intact.)

	  If you have lots of memory, you should increase the value of
	  sort_buffer_size.

	 --safe-recover, -o

	  Do a repair using an old recovery method that reads through all rows
	  in order and updates all index trees based on the rows found. This
	  is an order of magnitude slower than --recover, but can handle a
	  couple of very unlikely cases that --recover cannot. This recovery
	  method also uses much less disk space than --recover. Normally, you
	  should repair first with --recover, and then with --safe-recover
	  only if --recover fails.

	  If you have lots of memory, you should increase the value of
	  key_buffer_size.

	 --set-character-set=name

	  Change the character set used by the table indexes. This option was
	  replaced by --set-collation in MySQL 5.0.3.

	 --set-collation=name

	  Specify the collation to use for sorting table indexes. The
	  character set name is implied by the first part of the collation
	  name. This option was added in MySQL 5.0.3.

	 --sort-recover, -n

	  Force myisamchk to use sorting to resolve the keys even if the
	  temporary files would be very large.

	 --tmpdir=path, -t path

	  Path of the directory to be used for storing temporary files. If
	  this is not set, myisamchk uses the value of the TMPDIR environment
	  variable.  tmpdir can be set to a list of directory paths that are
	  used successively in round-robin fashion for creating temporary
	  files. The separator character between directory names is the colon
	  (:) on Unix and the semicolon (;) on Windows, NetWare, and OS/2.

	 --unpack, -u

	  Unpack a table that was packed with myisampack.

OTHER MYISAMCHK OPTIONS
       myisamchk supports the following options for actions other than table
       checks and repairs:

	 --analyze, -a

	  Analyze the distribution of key values. This improves join
	  performance by enabling the join optimizer to better choose the
	  order in which to join the tables and which indexes it should use.
	  To obtain information about the key distribution, use a myisamchk
	  --description --verbose tbl_name command or the SHOW INDEX FROM
	  tbl_name statement.

	 --block-search=offset, -b offset

	  Find the record that a block at the given offset belongs to.

	 --description, -d

	  Print some descriptive information about the table.

	 --set-auto-increment[=value], -A[value]

	  Force AUTO_INCREMENT numbering for new records to start at the given
	  value (or higher, if there are existing records with AUTO_INCREMENT
	  values this large). If value is not specified, AUTO_INCREMENT
	  numbers for new records begin with the largest value currently in
	  the table, plus one.

	 --sort-index, -S

	  Sort the index tree blocks in high-low order. This optimizes seeks
	  and makes table scans that use indexes faster.

	 --sort-records=N, -R N

	  Sort records according to a particular index. This makes your data
	  much more localized and may speed up range-based SELECT and ORDER BY
	  operations that use this index. (The first time you use this option
	  to sort a table, it may be very slow.) To determine a tables index
	  numbers, use SHOW INDEX, which displays a tables indexes in the
	  same order that myisamchk sees them. Indexes are numbered beginning
	  with 1.

	  If keys are not packed (PACK_KEYS=0)), they have the same length, so
	  when myisamchk sorts and moves records, it just overwrites record
	  offsets in the index. If keys are packed (PACK_KEYS=1), myisamchk
	  must unpack key blocks first, then re-create indexes and pack the
	  key blocks again. (In this case, re-creating indexes is faster than
	  updating offsets for each index.)

MYISAMCHK MEMORY USAGE
       Memory allocation is important when you run myisamchk.  myisamchk uses
       no more memory than its memory-related variables are set to. If you are
       going to use myisamchk on very large tables, you should first decide
       how much memory you want it to use. The default is to use only about
       3MB to perform repairs. By using larger values, you can get myisamchk
       to operate faster. For example, if you have more than 32MB RAM, you
       could use options such as these (in addition to any other options you
       might specify):

	  shell> myisamchk --sort_buffer_size=16M --key_buffer_size=16M \
		     --read_buffer_size=1M --write_buffer_size=1M ...

       Using --sort_buffer_size=16M should probably be enough for most cases.

       Be aware that myisamchk uses temporary files in TMPDIR. If TMPDIR
       points to a memory filesystem, you may easily get out of memory errors.
       If this happens, run myisamchk with the --tmpdir=path option to specify
       some directory located on a filesystem that has more space.

       When repairing, myisamchk also needs a lot of disk space:

	 Double the size of the data file (the original file and a copy).
	  This space is not needed if you do a repair with --quick; in this
	  case, only the index file is re-created. This space is needed on the
	  same filesystem as the original data file! (The copy is created in
	  the same directory as the original.)

	 Space for the new index file that replaces the old one. The old
	  index file is truncated at the start of the repair operation, so you
	  usually ignore this space. This space is needed on the same
	  filesystem as the original index file!

	 When using --recover or --sort-recover (but not when using
	  --safe-recover), you need space for a sort buffer. The following
	  formula yields the amount of space required:

	  (largest_key + row_pointer_length)  number_of_rows  2
       You can check the length of the keys and the row_pointer_length with
       myisamchk -dv tbl_name. This space is allocated in the temporary
       directory (specified by TMPDIR or --tmpdir=path).


       If you have a problem with disk space during repair, you can try
       --safe-recover instead of --recover.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 1997-2006 MySQL AB

       This documentation is NOT distributed under a GPL license. Use of this
       documentation is subject to the following terms: You may create a
       printed copy of this documentation solely for your own personal use.
       Conversion to other formats is allowed as long as the actual content is
       not altered or edited in any way. You shall not publish or distribute
       this documentation in any form or on any media, except if you
       distribute the documentation in a manner similar to how MySQL
       disseminates it (that is, electronically for download on a Web site
       with the software) or on a CD-ROM or similar medium, provided however
       that the documentation is disseminated together with the software on
       the same medium. Any other use, such as any dissemination of printed
       copies or use of this documentation, in whole or in part, in another
       publication, requires the prior written consent from an authorized
       representative of MySQL AB. MySQL AB reserves any and all rights to
       this documentation not expressly granted above.

       Please email  for more information.

SEE ALSO
       msql2mysql(1), my_print_defaults(1), myisam_ftdump(1), myisamlog(1),
       myisampack(1), mysql(1), mysql.server(1), mysql_config(1),
       mysql_explain_log(1), mysql_fix_privilege_tables(1),
       mysql_tzinfo_to_sql(1), mysql_upgrade(1), mysql_zap(1), mysqlaccess(1),
       mysqladmin(1), mysqlbinlog(1), mysqlcheck(1), mysqld(8),
       mysqld_multi(1), mysqld_safe(1), mysqldump(1), mysqlhotcopy(1),
       mysqlimport(1), mysqlmanager(8), mysqlshow(1), perror(1), replace(1),
       safe_mysqld(1)

       For more information, please refer to the MySQL Reference Manual, which
       may already be installed locally and which is also available online at
       http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.

AUTHOR
       MySQL AB (http://www.mysql.com/).  This software comes with no
       warranty.



MySQL 5.0			  12/20/2006			  MYISAMCHK(1)




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