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MYISAMCHK(1)		    MariaDB 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).

       The use of myisamchk with partitioned tables is not supported.

	   Caution

	   It is best to make a	backup of a table before performing a table
	   repair operation; under some	circumstances the operation might
	   cause data loss. Possible causes include but	are not	limited	to
	   file	system errors.

       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 does not
       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 MariaDB 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".

	   Important

	   You must ensure that	no other program is using the tables while you
	   are running myisamchk. The most effective means of doing so is to
	   shut	down the MariaDB server	while running myisamchk, or to lock
	   all tables that myisamchk is	being used on.

	   Otherwise, when you run myisamchk, it may display the following
	   error message:

	       warning:	clients	are using or haven't closed the	table properly

	   This	means that you are trying to check a table that	has been
	   updated by another program (such as the mariadbd server) that
	   hasn't yet closed the file or that has died without closing the
	   file	properly, which	can sometimes lead to the corruption of	one or
	   more	MyISAM tables.

	   If mariadbd 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

	   However, the	easiest	way to avoid this problem is to	use CHECK
	   TABLE instead of myisamchk to check tables.

       myisamchk supports the following	options, which can be specified	on the
       command line or in the [myisamchk] option file group.

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. Options are	grouped	by type	of
	   operation.

          --HELP, -H

	   Display a help message and exit. Options are	presented in a single
	   list.

          --debug=debug_options, -# debug_options

	   Write a debugging log. A typical debug_options string is
	   'd:t:o,file_name'. The default is 'd:t:o,/tmp/myisamchk.trace'.

          --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. If you are running
	   mariadbd with external locking disabled, the	table can be locked
	   only	by another myisamchk command.

          --print-defaults

	   Print the program argument list and exit.

          --no-defaults

	   Don't read default options from any option file.

          --defaults-file=#

	   Only	read default options from the given file.

          --defaults-extra-file=#

	   Read	this file after	the global files are read.

       You can also set	the following variables	by using --var_name=value
       syntax:
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | Variable	      |	Default	Value	  |
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | decode_bits	      |	9		  |
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | ft_max_word_len      |	version-dependent |
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | ft_min_word_len      |	4		  |
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | ft_stopword_file     |	built-in list	  |
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | key_buffer_size      |	523264		  |
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | key_cache_block_size |	1024		  |
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | myisam_block_size    |	1024		  |
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | read_buffer_size     |	262136		  |
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | sort_buffer_size     |	2097144		  |
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | sort_key_blocks      |	16		  |
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | stats_method	      |	nulls_unequal	  |
       +----------------------+-------------------+
       | write_buffer_size    |	262136		  |
       +----------------------+-------------------+

       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 Section 5.1.4, "Server System
       Variables", and Section 7.4.7, "MyISAM Index Statistics Collection".

       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 mariadbd. 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	[mariadbd] and
       [myisamchk] sections of an option file:

	   [mariadbd]
	   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.

	   For a description of	the output format, see the section called
	   "MYISAMCHK TABLE INFORMATION".

          --fast, -F

	   Check only tables that haven't 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. States will be updated as with
	   --update-state.

          --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

	   Do not 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	does not use locking, such as mariadbd 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 shouldn't
	   use this option if the mariadbd 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
       (operations performed when an option such as --recover or
       --safe-recover is given):

          --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.

          --correct-checksum

	   Correct the checksum	information for	the table.

          --create-missing-keys

	   Create missing keys.	This assumes that the data file	is correct and
	   that	the number of rows stored in the index file is correct.
	   Enables --quick.

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

	   The 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. Do not use
	   this	option unless you are desperate.

	   For a description of	the output format, see the section called
	   "MYISAMCHK TABLE INFORMATION".

          --force, -f

	   Overwrite old intermediate files (files with	names like
	   tbl_name.TMD) instead of aborting. Add another --force to avoid
	   'myisam_sort_buffer_size is too small' errors. In this case we will
	   attempt to do the repair with the given myisam_sort_buffer_size and
	   dynamically allocate	as many	management buffers as needed.

          --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

	   Use the same	technique as -r	and -n,	but create 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 modifying	only the index file, not the
	   data	file. You can specify this option twice	to force myisamchk to
	   modify the original data file in case of duplicate keys. NOTE:
	   Tables where	the data file is corrupted can't be fixed with this
	   option.

          --recover, -r

	   Do a	repair that can	fix almost any problem except unique keys that
	   are not 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 cannot 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 using --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-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.

          --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

	   The 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. Specifying the
	   --verbose option once or twice produces additional information. See
	   the section called "MYISAMCHK TABLE INFORMATION".

          --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
	   table's index numbers, use SHOW INDEX, which	displays a table's
	   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.)

          --stats-method=name

	   Specifies how index statistics collection code should treat NULLs.
	   Possible values of name are "nulls_unequal" (default),
	   "nulls_equal" (emulate MySQL	4 behavior), and "nulls_ignored".

MYISAMCHK TABLE	INFORMATION
       To obtain a description of a MyISAM table or statistics about it, use
       the commands shown here.	The output from	these commands is explained
       later in	this section.

          myisamchk -d	tbl_name

	   Runs	myisamchk in "describe mode" to	produce	a description of your
	   table. If you start the MariaDB server with external	locking
	   disabled, myisamchk may report an error for a table that is updated
	   while it runs. However, because myisamchk does not change the table
	   in describe mode, there is no risk of destroying data.

          myisamchk -dv tbl_name

	   Adding -v runs myisamchk in verbose mode so that it produces	more
	   information about the table.	Adding -v a second time	produces even
	   more	information.

          myisamchk -eis tbl_name

	   Shows only the most important information from a table. This
	   operation is	slow because it	must read the entire table.

          myisamchk -eiv tbl_name

	   This	is like	-eis, but tells	you what is being done.

       The tbl_name argument can be either the name of a MyISAM	table or the
       name of its index file, as described in myisamchk(1). Multiple tbl_name
       arguments can be	given.

       Suppose that a table named person has the following structure. (The
       MAX_ROWS	table option is	included so that in the	example	output from
       myisamchk shown later, some values are smaller and fit the output
       format more easily.)

	   CREATE TABLE	person
	   (
	     id		INT NOT	NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
	     last_name	VARCHAR(20) NOT	NULL,
	     first_name	VARCHAR(20) NOT	NULL,
	     birth	DATE,
	     death	DATE,
	     PRIMARY KEY (id),
	     INDEX (last_name, first_name),
	     INDEX (birth)
	   ) MAX_ROWS =	1000000;

       Suppose also that the table has these data and index file sizes:

	   -rw-rw----  1 mysql	mysql  9347072 Aug 19 11:47 person.MYD
	   -rw-rw----  1 mysql	mysql  6066176 Aug 19 11:47 person.MYI

       Example of myisamchk -dvv output:

	   MyISAM file:		person
	   Record format:	Packed
	   Character set:	latin1_swedish_ci (8)
	   File-version:	1
	   Creation time:	2009-08-19 16:47:41
	   Recover time:	2009-08-19 16:47:56
	   Status:		checked,analyzed,optimized keys
	   Auto	increment key:		    1  Last value:		  306688
	   Data	records:	       306688  Deleted blocks:		       0
	   Datafile parts:	       306688  Deleted data:		       0
	   Datafile pointer (bytes):	    4  Keyfile pointer (bytes):	       3
	   Datafile length:	      9347072  Keyfile length:		 6066176
	   Max datafile	length:	   4294967294  Max keyfile length:   17179868159
	   Recordlength:		   54
	   table description:
	   Key Start Len Index	 Type		      Rec/key	      Root  Blocksize
	   1   2     4	 unique	 long			    1	     99328	 1024
	   2   6     20	 multip. varchar prefix		  512	   3563520	 1024
	       27    20		 varchar		  512
	   3   48    3	 multip. uint24	NULL	       306688	   6065152	 1024
	   Field Start Length Nullpos Nullbit Type
	   1	 1     1
	   2	 2     4		      no zeros
	   3	 6     21		      varchar
	   4	 27    21		      varchar
	   5	 48    3      1	      1	      no zeros
	   6	 51    3      1	      2	      no zeros

       Explanations for	the types of information myisamchk produces are	given
       here.  "Keyfile"	refers to the index file.  "Record" and	"row" are
       synonymous, as are "field" and "column."

       The initial part	of the table description contains these	values:

          MyISAM file

	   Name	of the MyISAM (index) file.

          Record format

	   The format used to store table rows.	The preceding examples use
	   Fixed length. Other possible	values are Compressed and Packed.
	   (Packed corresponds to what SHOW TABLE STATUS reports as Dynamic.)

          Chararacter set

	   The table default character set.

          File-version

	   Version of MyISAM format. Currently always 1.

          Creation time

	   When	the data file was created.

          Recover time

	   When	the index/data file was	last reconstructed.

          Status

	   Table status	flags. Possible	values are crashed, open, changed,
	   analyzed, optimized keys, and sorted	index pages.

          Auto	increment key, Last value

	   The key number associated the table's AUTO_INCREMENT	column,	and
	   the most recently generated value for this column. These fields do
	   not appear if there is no such column.

          Data	records

	   The number of rows in the table.

          Deleted blocks

	   How many deleted blocks still have reserved space. You can optimize
	   your	table to minimize this space. See Section 6.6.4, "MyISAM Table
	   Optimization".

          Datafile parts

	   For dynamic-row format, this	indicates how many data	blocks there
	   are.	For an optimized table without fragmented rows,	this is	the
	   same	as Data	records.

          Deleted data

	   How many bytes of unreclaimed deleted data there are. You can
	   optimize your table to minimize this	space. See Section 6.6.4,
	   "MyISAM Table Optimization".

          Datafile pointer

	   The size of the data	file pointer, in bytes.	It is usually 2, 3, 4,
	   or 5	bytes. Most tables manage with 2 bytes,	but this cannot	be
	   controlled from MariaDB yet.	For fixed tables, this is a row
	   address. For	dynamic	tables,	this is	a byte address.

          Keyfile pointer

	   The size of the index file pointer, in bytes. It is usually 1, 2,
	   or 3	bytes. Most tables manage with 2 bytes,	but this is calculated
	   automatically by MariaDB. It	is always a block address.

          Max datafile	length

	   How long the	table data file	can become, in bytes.

          Max keyfile length

	   How long the	table index file can become, in	bytes.

          Recordlength

	   How much space each row takes, in bytes.

       The table description part of the output	includes a list	of all keys in
       the table. For each key,	myisamchk displays some	low-level information:

          Key

	   This	key's number. This value is shown only for the first column of
	   the key. If this value is missing, the line corresponds to the
	   second or later column of a multiple-column key. For	the table
	   shown in the	example, there are two table description lines for the
	   second index. This indicates	that it	is a multiple-part index with
	   two parts.

          Start

	   Where in the	row this portion of the	index starts.

          Len

	   How long this portion of the	index is. For packed numbers, this
	   should always be the	full length of the column. For strings,	it may
	   be shorter than the full length of the indexed column, because you
	   can index a prefix of a string column. The total length of a
	   multiple-part key is	the sum	of the Len values for all key parts.

          Index

	   Whether a key value can exist multiple times	in the index. Possible
	   values are unique or	multip.	 (multiple).

          Type

	   What	data type this portion of the index has. This is a MyISAM data
	   type	with the possible values packed, stripped, or empty.

          Root

	   Address of the root index block.

          Blocksize

	   The size of each index block. By default this is 1024, but the
	   value may be	changed	at compile time	when MariaDB is	built from
	   source.

          Rec/key

	   This	is a statistical value used by the optimizer. It tells how
	   many	rows there are per value for this index. A unique index	always
	   has a value of 1. This may be updated after a table is loaded (or
	   greatly changed) with myisamchk -a. If this is not updated at all,
	   a default value of 30 is given.

       The last	part of	the output provides information	about each column:

          Field

	   The column number.

          Start

	   The byte position of	the column within table	rows.

          Length

	   The length of the column in bytes.

          Nullpos, Nullbit

	   For columns that can	be NULL, MyISAM	stores NULL values as a	flag
	   in a	byte. Depending	on how many nullable columns there are,	there
	   can be one or more bytes used for this purpose. The Nullpos and
	   Nullbit values, if nonempty,	indicate which byte and	bit contains
	   that	flag indicating	whether	the column is NULL.

	   The position	and number of bytes used to store NULL flags is	shown
	   in the line for field 1. This is why	there are six Field lines for
	   the person table even though	it has only five columns.

          Type

	   The data type. The value may	contain	any of the following
	   descriptors:

	      constant

	       All rows	have the same value.

	      no endspace

	       Do not store endspace.

	      no endspace, not_always

	       Do not store endspace and do not	do endspace compression	for
	       all values.

	      no endspace, no empty

	       Do not store endspace. Do not store empty values.

	      table-lookup

	       The column was converted	to an ENUM.

	      zerofill(N)

	       The most	significant N bytes in the value are always 0 and are
	       not stored.

	      no zeros

	       Do not store zeros.

	      always zero

	       Zero values are stored using one	bit.

          Huff	tree

	   The number of the Huffman tree associated with the column.

          Bits

	   The number of bits used in the Huffman tree.

       The Huff	tree and Bits fields are displayed if the table	has been
       compressed with myisampack. See myisampack(1), for an example of	this
       information.

       Example of myisamchk -eiv output:

	   Checking MyISAM file: person
	   Data	records:  306688   Deleted blocks:	 0
	   - check file-size
	   - check record delete-chain
	   No recordlinks
	   - check key delete-chain
	   block_size 1024:
	   - check index reference
	   - check data	record references index: 1
	   Key:	 1:  Keyblocks used:  98%  Packed:    0%  Max levels:  3
	   - check data	record references index: 2
	   Key:	 2:  Keyblocks used:  99%  Packed:   97%  Max levels:  3
	   - check data	record references index: 3
	   Key:	 3:  Keyblocks used:  98%  Packed:  -14%  Max levels:  3
	   Total:    Keyblocks used:  98%  Packed:   89%
	   - check records and index references
	   *** LOTS OF ROW NUMBERS DELETED ***
	   Records:	       306688  M.recordlength:	     25	 Packed:	    83%
	   Recordspace used:	   97% Empty space:	      2% Blocks/Record:	  1.00
	   Record blocks:      306688  Delete blocks:	      0
	   Record data:	      7934464  Deleted data:	      0
	   Lost	space:	       256512  Linkdata:	1156096
	   User	time 43.08, System time	1.68
	   Maximum resident set	size 0,	Integral resident set size 0
	   Non-physical	pagefaults 0, Physical pagefaults 0, Swaps 0
	   Blocks in 0 out 7, Messages in 0 out	0, Signals 0
	   Voluntary context switches 0, Involuntary context switches 0
	   Maximum memory usage: 1046926 bytes (1023k)

       myisamchk -eiv output includes the following information:

          Data	records

	   The number of rows in the table.

          Deleted blocks

	   How many deleted blocks still have reserved space. You can optimize
	   your	table to minimize this space. See Section 6.6.4, "MyISAM Table
	   Optimization".

          Key

	   The key number.

          Keyblocks used

	   What	percentage of the keyblocks are	used. When a table has just
	   been	reorganized with myisamchk, the	values are very	high (very
	   near	theoretical maximum).

          Packed

	   MariaDB tries to pack key values that have a	common suffix. This
	   can only be used for	indexes	on CHAR	and VARCHAR columns. For long
	   indexed strings that	have similar leftmost parts, this can
	   significantly reduce	the space used.	In the preceding example, the
	   second key is 40 bytes long and a 97% reduction in space is
	   achieved.

          Max levels

	   How deep the	B-tree for this	key is.	Large tables with long key
	   values get high values.

          Records

	   How many rows are in	the table.

          M.recordlength

	   The average row length. This	is the exact row length	for tables
	   with	fixed-length rows, because all rows have the same length.

          Packed

	   MariaDB strips spaces from the end of strings. The Packed value
	   indicates the percentage of savings achieved	by doing this.

          Recordspace used

	   What	percentage of the data file is used.

          Empty space

	   What	percentage of the data file is unused.

          Blocks/Record

	   Average number of blocks per	row (that is, how many links a
	   fragmented row is composed of). This	is always 1.0 for fixed-format
	   tables. This	value should stay as close to 1.0 as possible. If it
	   gets	too large, you can reorganize the table. See Section 6.6.4,
	   "MyISAM Table Optimization".

          Recordblocks

	   How many blocks (links) are used. For fixed-format tables, this is
	   the same as the number of rows.

          Deleteblocks

	   How many blocks (links) are deleted.

          Recorddata

	   How many bytes in the data file are used.

          Deleted data

	   How many bytes in the data file are deleted (unused).

          Lost	space

	   If a	row is updated to a shorter length, some space is lost.	This
	   is the sum of all such losses, in bytes.

          Linkdata

	   When	the dynamic table format is used, row fragments	are linked
	   with	pointers (4 to 7 bytes each).  Linkdata	is the sum of the
	   amount of storage used by all such pointers.

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 file system, out of memory errors can	easily occur.
       If this happens,	run myisamchk with the --tmpdir=path option to specify
       a directory located on a	file system that has more space.

       When performing repair operations, myisamchk also needs a lot of	disk
       space:

          Twice 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	must be
	   available on	the same file system as	the original data file,	as 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 must be available on the
	   same	file system as the original data file.

          When	using --recover	or --sort-recover (but not when	using
	   --safe-recover), you	need space on disk for sorting.	This space is
	   allocated in	the temporary directory	(specified by TMPDIR or
	   --tmpdir=path). The following formula yields	the amount of space
	   required:

	       (largest_key + row_pointer_length) x number_of_rows x 2

	   You can check the length of the keys	and the	row_pointer_length
	   with	myisamchk -dv tbl_name (see the	section	called "MYISAMCHK
	   TABLE INFORMATION").	The row_pointer_length and number_of_rows
	   values are the Datafile pointer and Data records values in the
	   table description. To determine the largest_key value, check	the
	   Key lines in	the table description. The Len column indicates	the
	   number of bytes for each key	part. For a multiple-column index, the
	   key size is the sum of the Len values for all key parts.

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

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 2007-2008 MySQL AB, 2008-2010 Sun Microsystems, Inc.,
       2010-2024 MariaDB Foundation

       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 02110-1335 USA or see
       http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

SEE ALSO
       For more	information, please refer to the MariaDB Knowledge Base,
       available online	at https://mariadb.com/kb/

AUTHOR
       MariaDB Foundation (http://www.mariadb.org/).

MariaDB	11.4		       3 September 2024			  MYISAMCHK(1)

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