mysql.user table on mySQL

Question

I use mySQL on Mac OS. I login mySQL by the command

mysql - u root

then run the command below

select User from mysql.user;

It show the table below

+---------+
| User    |
+---------+
| root    |
| root    |
|         |
| root    |
|         |
| gerrit2 |
| root    |
+---------+
7 rows in set (0.08 sec)

I don't understand that there're 4 rows has root and 2 rows has no name. Please explain me. Thank you!

You'll get a clearer picture of what's in there if you do `SELECT user, host, password FROM mysql.user` — Michael Berkowski, Feb 14 '12 at 13:41

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 14 '12 at 13:37

4

The row-defining part in mysql.users is the (host,user) tuple - this means:

You can have permissions without a username, depending on which host you connect from
You can have different permissions with the same username, again depending on the host

answered Feb 14 '12 at 13:37

Eugen Rieck

64,175
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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 14 '12 at 13:33

2

You can have multiple records for the same user in the mysql.user table, since you can have different passwords and/or permissions depending on the host the user connects from. If you run select * you will see the differences.

answered Feb 14 '12 at 13:33

Maxim Krizhanovsky

26,265
5
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mysql.user table on mySQL

2 Answers2