Browsing MySQL from Command Line

To view a MySQL schema from the command line, use the commands show databases;, show tables; , and describe . See the following example:

mysql> show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema | 
| email              | 
| elggDB             |
| wikiDB             | 
+--------------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)


mysql> show tables
    -> ;
+------------------+
| Tables_in_email  |
+------------------+
| access_sender    | 
| alias            | 
| transport        | 
| user2domains     | 
+------------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> describe alias 
    -> ;
+----------+------------------+------+-----+
| Field    | Type             | Null | Key | 
+----------+------------------+------+-----+
| id       | int(11) unsigned | NO   | PRI | 
| username | varchar(128)     | NO   |     |
| domain   | varchar(128)     | YES  |     | 
| enabled  | enum('Y','N')    | NO   |     |
| goto     | varchar(128)     | NO   |     |
| notes    | varchar(255)     | YES  |     |
| updated  | timestamp        | NO   |     |
+----------+------------------+------+-----+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)