MySQL users FAQ: How do I show/list MySQL users, i.e., the user accounts in a MySQL database?
To show/list the users in a MySQL database, first log into your MySQL server as an administrative user using the mysql client, then run this MySQL query:
mysql> select * from mysql.user;
However, note that this query shows a large listing of MySQL user information, including user permission information, so as a practical matter you may want to trim down some of the fields to display, something like this:
mysql> select host, user, password from mysql.user;
The next section provides details and background information about this second query.
How to reduce the amount of ‘user’ information shown
You can get a listing of the fields in the mysql.user table by running this MySQL query:
mysql> desc mysql.user;
On my current server this shows the following 37 columns of MySQL user information, as shown here:
mysql> desc mysql.user; +-----------------------+-----------------------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-----------------------+-----------------------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | Host | char(60) | NO | PRI | | | | User | char(16) | NO | PRI | | | | Password | char(41) | NO | | | | | Select_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Insert_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Update_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Delete_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Create_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Drop_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Reload_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Shutdown_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Process_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | File_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Grant_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | References_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Index_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Alter_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Show_db_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Super_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Create_tmp_table_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Lock_tables_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Execute_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Repl_slave_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Repl_client_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Create_view_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Show_view_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Create_routine_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Alter_routine_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | Create_user_priv | enum(‘N‘,‘Y‘) | NO | | N | | | ssl_type | enum(‘‘,‘ANY‘,‘X509‘,‘SPECIFIED‘) | NO | | | | | ssl_cipher | blob | NO | | NULL | | | x509_issuer | blob | NO | | NULL | | | x509_subject | blob | NO | | NULL | | | max_questions | int(11) unsigned | NO | | 0 | | | max_updates | int(11) unsigned | NO | | 0 | | | max_connections | int(11) unsigned | NO | | 0 | | | max_user_connections | int(11) unsigned | NO | | 0 | | +-----------------------+-----------------------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ 37 rows in set (0.10 sec)
So for most cases where you want to show MySQL user accounts you‘ll probably want to limit your MySQL users‘ query to a few important columns, something like this:
select host, user, password from mysql.user;
In summary, if you need to list the users in a MySQL database, I hope this has been helpful.