mysqladmin Command Reference: Commands, Usage & CI Examples

mysqladmin runs administrative commands like ping, status, and create on MySQL.

mysqladmin performs administrative operations on a MySQL/MariaDB server: liveness checks, status, creating/dropping databases, and flushing. In CI its main job is the readiness probe.

Common flags and usage

• ping: check whether the server is alive
• status: show uptime, threads, and queries
• create / drop <db>: create or drop a database
• --wait[=N]: retry the connection N times
• --silent: suppress output and rely on the exit code
• -h 127.0.0.1: force TCP to a service container

Example

until mysqladmin -h 127.0.0.1 -u root -p${MYSQL_PWD} ping --silent; do
  echo "waiting for mysql..."; sleep 1
done

In CI

mysqladmin ping is the canonical wait-for-MySQL gate. Note ping reports the server is alive and exits 0 even on "Access denied", because the server answered, which is fine for readiness but means it does not validate credentials.

Key takeaways

• mysqladmin ping is the standard MySQL readiness probe in CI.
• ping succeeds on "Access denied" because the server still answered.
• Use -h 127.0.0.1 to force TCP to a service container.

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