How to show/list the users in a MySQL database

To show/list the users in a MySQL database, first log into your MySQL server as an administrative user using the mysql client, then run this MySQL query:

mysql> select * from mysql.user;

However, note that this query shows a large listing of MySQL user information, including user permission information, so as a practical matter you may want to trim down some of the fields to display, something like this:

mysql> select host, user, password from mysql.user;

The next section provides details and background information about this second query.

How to reduce the amount of ‘user’ information shown

You can get a listing of the fields in the mysql.user table by running this MySQL query:

mysql> desc mysql.user;

On my current server this shows the following 37 columns of MySQL user information, as shown here:

mysql> desc mysql.user;
+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field                 | Type                              | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Host                  | char(60)                          | NO   | PRI |         |       | 
| User                  | char(16)                          | NO   | PRI |         |       | 
| Password              | char(41)                          | NO   |     |         |       | 
| Select_priv           | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Insert_priv           | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Update_priv           | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Delete_priv           | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Create_priv           | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Drop_priv             | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Reload_priv           | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Shutdown_priv         | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Process_priv          | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| File_priv             | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Grant_priv            | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| References_priv       | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Index_priv            | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Alter_priv            | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Show_db_priv          | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Super_priv            | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Create_tmp_table_priv | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Lock_tables_priv      | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Execute_priv          | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Repl_slave_priv       | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Repl_client_priv      | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Create_view_priv      | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Show_view_priv        | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Create_routine_priv   | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Alter_routine_priv    | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| Create_user_priv      | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       | 
| ssl_type              | enum('','ANY','X509','SPECIFIED') | NO   |     |         |       | 
| ssl_cipher            | blob                              | NO   |     | NULL    |       | 
| x509_issuer           | blob                              | NO   |     | NULL    |       | 
| x509_subject          | blob                              | NO   |     | NULL    |       | 
| max_questions         | int(11) unsigned                  | NO   |     | 0       |       | 
| max_updates           | int(11) unsigned                  | NO   |     | 0       |       | 
| max_connections       | int(11) unsigned                  | NO   |     | 0       |       | 
| max_user_connections  | int(11) unsigned                  | NO   |     | 0       |       | 
+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
37 rows in set (0.10 sec)

So for most cases where you want to show MySQL user accounts you'll probably want to limit your MySQL users' query to a few important columns, something like this:

select host, user, password from mysql.user;

How can I show user's privileges

SHOW GRANTS [FOR user]


This statement lists the GRANT statement or statements that must be issued to duplicate the privileges that are granted to a MySQL user account. The account is named using the same format as for the GRANT statement; for example, 'jeffrey'@'localhost'. If you specify only the user name part of the account name, a host name part of '%' is used. For additional information about specifying account names, see Section 12.5.1.3, “GRANT Syntax”.

mysql> SHOW GRANTS FOR 'root'@'localhost';
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Grants for root@localhost                                           |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+



To list the privileges granted to the account that you are using to connect to the server, you can use any of the following statements:

SHOW GRANTS;
SHOW GRANTS FOR CURRENT_USER;
SHOW GRANTS FOR CURRENT_USER();



As of MySQL 5.0.24, if SHOW GRANTS FOR CURRENT_USER (or any of the equivalent syntaxes) is used in DEFINER context, such as within a stored procedure that is defined with SQL SECURITY DEFINER), the grants displayed are those of the definer and not the invoker.

SHOW GRANTS displays only the privileges granted explicitly to the named account. Other privileges might be available to the account, but they are not displayed. For example, if an anonymous account exists, the named account might be able to use its privileges, but SHOW GRANTS will not display them.

SHOW GRANTS requires the SELECT privilege for the mysql database.