Preface and Legal Notices

This is the Reference Manual for the MySQL Database System, version 5.6, through release 5.6.48. Differences between minor versions of MySQL 5.6 are noted in the present text with reference to release numbers (5.6.x). For license information, see the Legal Notices.

This manual is not intended for use with older versions of the MySQL software due to the many functional and other differences between MySQL 5.6 and previous versions. If you are using an earlier release of the MySQL software, please refer to the appropriate manual. For example, MySQL 5.5 Reference Manual covers the 5.5 series of MySQL software releases.

If you are using MySQL 5.7, please refer to the MySQL 5.7 Reference Manual.

Licensing information—MySQL 5.6.  This product may include third-party software, used under license. If you are using a Commercial release of MySQL 5.6, see the MySQL 5.6 Commercial Release License Information User Manual for licensing information, including licensing information relating to third-party software that may be included in this Commercial release. If you are using a Community release of MySQL 5.6, see the MySQL 5.6 Community Release License Information User Manual for licensing information, including licensing information relating to third-party software that may be included in this Community release.

Licensing information—MySQL NDB Cluster 7.3.  This product may include third-party software, used under license. If you are using a Commercial release of NDB Cluster 7.3, see the MySQL NDB Cluster 7.3 Commercial Release License Information User Manual for licensing information relating to third-party software that may be included in this Commercial release. If you are using a Community release of NDB Cluster 7.3, see the MySQL NDB Cluster 7.3 Community Release License Information User Manual for licensing information relating to third-party software that may be included in this Community release.

Licensing information—MySQL NDB Cluster 7.4.  This product may include third-party software, used under license. If you are using a Commercial release of NDB Cluster 7.4, see the MySQL NDB Cluster 7.4 Commercial Release License Information User Manual for licensing information relating to third-party software that may be included in this Commercial release. If you are using a Community release of NDB Cluster 7.4, see the MySQL NDB Cluster 7.4 Community Release License Information User Manual for licensing information relating to third-party software that may be included in this Community release.

Legal Notices

Copyright © 1997, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

This software and related documentation are provided under a license agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and are protected by intellectual property laws. Except as expressly permitted in your license agreement or allowed by law, you may not use, copy, reproduce, translate, broadcast, modify, license, transmit, distribute, exhibit, perform, publish, or display any part, in any form, or by any means. Reverse engineering, disassembly, or decompilation of this software, unless required by law for interoperability, is prohibited.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice and is not warranted to be error-free. If you find any errors, please report them to us in writing.

If this is software or related documentation that is delivered to the U.S. Government or anyone licensing it on behalf of the U.S. Government, then the following notice is applicable:

U.S. GOVERNMENT END USERS: Oracle programs, including any operating system, integrated software, any programs installed on the hardware, and/or documentation, delivered to U.S. Government end users are "commercial computer software" pursuant to the applicable Federal Acquisition Regulation and agency-specific supplemental regulations. As such, use, duplication, disclosure, modification, and adaptation of the programs, including any operating system, integrated software, any programs installed on the hardware, and/or documentation, shall be subject to license terms and license restrictions applicable to the programs. No other rights are granted to the U.S. Government.

This software or hardware is developed for general use in a variety of information management applications. It is not developed or intended for use in any inherently dangerous applications, including applications that may create a risk of personal injury. If you use this software or hardware in dangerous applications, then you shall be responsible to take all appropriate fail-safe, backup, redundancy, and other measures to ensure its safe use. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates disclaim any liability for any damages caused by use of this software or hardware in dangerous applications.

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Intel and Intel Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. AMD, Opteron, the AMD logo, and the AMD Opteron logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

This software or hardware and documentation may provide access to or information about content, products, and services from third parties. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates are not responsible for and expressly disclaim all warranties of any kind with respect to third-party content, products, and services unless otherwise set forth in an applicable agreement between you and Oracle. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates will not be responsible for any loss, costs, or damages incurred due to your access to or use of third-party content, products, or services, except as set forth in an applicable agreement between you and Oracle.

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 Oracle 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 Oracle. Oracle and/or its affiliates reserve any and all rights to this documentation not expressly granted above.

Documentation Accessibility

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Access to Oracle Support

Oracle customers that have purchased support have access to electronic support through My Oracle Support. For information, visit https://www.oracle.com/corporate/accessibility/learning-support.html#support-tab.