The mysqladmin program is used to administrate various aspects of the MySQL database server. Using it, the administrator can perform tasks such as: create and delete databases, shutdown the database server, update the privilege tables, and view running MySQL processes. The general syntax is:

%>mysqladmin [options] command(s)

Where [options] can be one or a series of options used in conjunction with the mysqladmin program, and [database] is the name of the database to use. Since it is assumed to be the reader’s first time using the MySQL monitor, take a moment to review all offered options by executing the following command:

%>mysqladmin --help

This produces a long list of options that can be used in conjunction with the mysqladmin program. As a demonstration of how these options are used, let’s use mysqladmin to create a new database named widgets, which will be used throughout the remainder of this article to demonstrate various other useful MySQL functions. A new database is created as follows:

%>mysqladmin -u root -p create widgets
Enter Password:

Upon execution, mysqladmin will create the database and return to the shell prompt. Typically, the next step is to secure the new database by modifying the privilege tables.