pack_isam
MYISAMPACK(1) MySQL Database System MYISAMPACK(1)
NAME
myisampack - generate compressed, read-only MyISAM tables
pack_isam - generate compressed, read-only ISAM tables
SYNOPSIS
myisampack [options] file_name ...
pack_isam [options] file_name ...
DESCRIPTION
The myisampack utility compresses MyISAM tables. myisampack works by
compressing each column in the table separately. Usually, myisampack
packs the data file 40%-70%.
When the table is used later, the server reads into memory the
information needed to decompress columns. This results in much better
performance when accessing individual rows, because you only have to
uncompress exactly one row.
MySQL uses mmap() when possible to perform memory mapping on compressed
tables. If mmap() does not work, MySQL falls back to normal read/write
file operations.
A similar utility, pack_isam, compresses ISAM tables. Because ISAM
tables are deprecated, this section discusses only myisampack, but the
general procedures for using myisampack are also true for pack_isam
unless otherwise specified. References to myisamchk should be read as
references to isamchk if you are using pack_isam.
Please note the following:
o If the mysqld server was invoked with external locking disabled, it
is not a good idea to invoke myisampack if the table might be
updated by the server during the packing process. It is safest to
compress tables with the server stopped.
o After packing a table, it becomes read-only. This is generally
intended (such as when accessing packed tables on a CD). Allowing
writes to a packed table is on our TODO list, but with low priority.
o myisampack can pack BLOB or TEXT columns. (The older pack_isam
program for ISAM tables does not have this capability.)
Invoke myisampack like this:
shell> myisampack [options] file_name ...
Each filename argument should be the name of an index (.MYI) file. If you are
not in the database directory, you should specify the pathname to the file. It
is permissible to omit the .MYI extension.
After you compress a table with myisampack, you should use myisamchk -rq to
rebuild its indexes. myisamchk(1).
myisampack supports the following options:
o --help, -?
Display a help message and exit.
o --backup, -b
Make a backup of each table's data file using the name tbl_name.OLD.
o --character-sets-dir=path
The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 9.1, "The
Character Set Used for Data and Sorting".
o --debug[=debug_options], -# [debug_options]
Write a debugging log. The debug_options string often is 'd:t:o,file_name'.
o --force, -f
Produce a packed table even if it becomes larger than the original or if
the intermediate file from an earlier invocation of myisampack exists.
(myisampack creates an intermediate file named tbl_name.TMD in the database
directory while it compresses the table. If you kill myisampack, the .TMD
file might not be deleted.) Normally, myisampack exits with an error if it
finds that tbl_name.TMD exists. With --force, myisampack packs the table
anyway.
o --join=big_tbl_name, -j big_tbl_name
Join all tables named on the command line into a single table big_tbl_name.
All tables that are to be combined must have identical structure (same
column names and types, same indexes, and so forth).
o --packlength=len, -p len
Specify the row length storage size, in bytes. The value should be 1, 2, or
3. myisampack stores all rows with length pointers of 1, 2, or 3 bytes. In
most normal cases, myisampack can determine the correct length value before
it begins packing the file, but it may notice during the packing process
that it could have used a shorter length. In this case, myisampack prints a
note that you could use a shorter row length the next time you pack the
same file.
o --silent, -s
Silent mode. Write output only when errors occur.
o --test, -t
Do not actually pack the table, just test packing it.
o --tmpdir=path, -T path
Use the named directory as the location where myisampack creates temporary
files.
o --verbose, -v
Verbose mode. Write information about the progress of the packing operation
and its result.
o --version, -V
Display version information and exit.
o --wait, -w
Wait and retry if the table is in use. If the mysqld server was invoked
with external locking disabled, it is not a good idea to invoke myisampack
if the table might be updated by the server during the packing process.
The following sequence of commands illustrates a typical table compression
session:
shell> ls -l station.*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 monty my 994128 Apr 17 19:00 station.MYD
-rw-rw-r-- 1 monty my 53248 Apr 17 19:00 station.MYI
-rw-rw-r-- 1 monty my 5767 Apr 17 19:00 station.frm
shell> myisamchk -dvv station
MyISAM file: station
Isam-version: 2
Creation time: 1996-03-13 10:08:58
Recover time: 1997-02-02 3:06:43
Data records: 1192 Deleted blocks: 0
Datafile parts: 1192 Deleted data: 0
Datafile pointer (bytes): 2 Keyfile pointer (bytes): 2
Max datafile length: 54657023 Max keyfile length: 33554431
Recordlength: 834
Record format: Fixed length
table description:
Key Start Len Index Type Root Blocksize Rec/key
1 2 4 unique unsigned long 1024 1024 1
2 32 30 multip. text 10240 1024 1
Field Start Length Type
1 1 1
2 2 4
3 6 4
4 10 1
5 11 20
6 31 1
7 32 30
8 62 35
9 97 35
10 132 35
11 167 4
12 171 16
13 187 35
14 222 4
15 226 16
16 242 20
17 262 20
18 282 20
19 302 30
20 332 4
21 336 4
22 340 1
23 341 8
24 349 8
25 357 8
26 365 2
27 367 2
28 369 4
29 373 4
30 377 1
31 378 2
32 380 8
33 388 4
34 392 4
35 396 4
36 400 4
37 404 1
38 405 4
39 409 4
40 413 4
41 417 4
42 421 4
43 425 4
44 429 20
45 449 30
46 479 1
47 480 1
48 481 79
49 560 79
50 639 79
51 718 79
52 797 8
53 805 1
54 806 1
55 807 20
56 827 4
57 831 4
shell> myisampack station.MYI
Compressing station.MYI: (1192 records)
- Calculating statistics
normal: 20 empty-space: 16 empty-zero: 12 empty-fill: 11
pre-space: 0 end-space: 12 table-lookups: 5 zero: 7
Original trees: 57 After join: 17
- Compressing file
87.14%
Remember to run myisamchk -rq on compressed tables
shell> ls -l station.*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 monty my 127874 Apr 17 19:00 station.MYD
-rw-rw-r-- 1 monty my 55296 Apr 17 19:04 station.MYI
-rw-rw-r-- 1 monty my 5767 Apr 17 19:00 station.frm
shell> myisamchk -dvv station
MyISAM file: station
Isam-version: 2
Creation time: 1996-03-13 10:08:58
Recover time: 1997-04-17 19:04:26
Data records: 1192 Deleted blocks: 0
Datafile parts: 1192 Deleted data: 0
Datafile pointer (bytes): 3 Keyfile pointer (bytes): 1
Max datafile length: 16777215 Max keyfile length: 131071
Recordlength: 834
Record format: Compressed
table description:
Key Start Len Index Type Root Blocksize Rec/key
1 2 4 unique unsigned long 10240 1024 1
2 32 30 multip. text 54272 1024 1
Field Start Length Type Huff tree Bits
1 1 1 constant 1 0
2 2 4 zerofill(1) 2 9
3 6 4 no zeros, zerofill(1) 2 9
4 10 1 3 9
5 11 20 table-lookup 4 0
6 31 1 3 9
7 32 30 no endspace, not_always 5 9
8 62 35 no endspace, not_always, no empty 6 9
9 97 35 no empty 7 9
10 132 35 no endspace, not_always, no empty 6 9
11 167 4 zerofill(1) 2 9
12 171 16 no endspace, not_always, no empty 5 9
13 187 35 no endspace, not_always, no empty 6 9
14 222 4 zerofill(1) 2 9
15 226 16 no endspace, not_always, no empty 5 9
16 242 20 no endspace, not_always 8 9
17 262 20 no endspace, no empty 8 9
18 282 20 no endspace, no empty 5 9
19 302 30 no endspace, no empty 6 9
20 332 4 always zero 2 9
21 336 4 always zero 2 9
22 340 1 3 9
23 341 8 table-lookup 9 0
24 349 8 table-lookup 10 0
25 357 8 always zero 2 9
26 365 2 2 9
27 367 2 no zeros, zerofill(1) 2 9
28 369 4 no zeros, zerofill(1) 2 9
29 373 4 table-lookup 11 0
30 377 1 3 9
31 378 2 no zeros, zerofill(1) 2 9
32 380 8 no zeros 2 9
33 388 4 always zero 2 9
34 392 4 table-lookup 12 0
35 396 4 no zeros, zerofill(1) 13 9
36 400 4 no zeros, zerofill(1) 2 9
37 404 1 2 9
38 405 4 no zeros 2 9
39 409 4 always zero 2 9
40 413 4 no zeros 2 9
41 417 4 always zero 2 9
42 421 4 no zeros 2 9
43 425 4 always zero 2 9
44 429 20 no empty 3 9
45 449 30 no empty 3 9
46 479 1 14 4
47 480 1 14 4
48 481 79 no endspace, no empty 15 9
49 560 79 no empty 2 9
50 639 79 no empty 2 9
51 718 79 no endspace 16 9
52 797 8 no empty 2 9
53 805 1 17 1
54 806 1 3 9
55 807 20 no empty 3 9
56 827 4 no zeros, zerofill(2) 2 9
57 831 4 no zeros, zerofill(1) 2 9
myisampack displays the following kinds of information:
o normal
The number of columns for which no extra packing is used.
o empty-space
The number of columns containing values that are only spaces. These occupy
one bit.
o empty-zero
The number of columns containing values that are only binary zeros. These
occupy one bit.
o empty-fill
The number of integer columns that do not occupy the full byte range of
their type. These are changed to a smaller type. For example, a BIGINT
column (eight bytes) can be stored as a TINYINT column (one byte) if all
its values are in the range from -128 to 127.
o pre-space
The number of decimal columns that are stored with leading spaces. In this
case, each value contains a count for the number of leading spaces.
o end-space
The number of columns that have a lot of trailing spaces. In this case,
each value contains a count for the number of trailing spaces.
o table-lookup
The column had only a small number of different values, which were
converted to an ENUM before Huffman compression.
o zero
The number of columns for which all values are zero.
o Original trees
The initial number of Huffman trees.
o After join
The number of distinct Huffman trees left after joining trees to save some
header space.
After a table has been compressed, myisamchk -dvv prints additional
information about each column:
o Type
The data type. The value may contain any of the following descriptors:
o constant
All rows have the same value.
o no endspace
Do not store endspace.
o no endspace, not_always
Do not store endspace and do not do endspace compression for all values.
o no endspace, no empty
Do not store endspace. Do not store empty values.
o table-lookup
The column was converted to an ENUM.
o zerofill(N)
The most significant N bytes in the value are always 0 and are not
stored.
o no zeros
Do not store zeros.
o always zero
Zero values are stored using one bit.
o Huff tree
The number of the Huffman tree associated with the column.
o Bits
The number of bits used in the Huffman tree.
After you run myisampack, you must run myisamchk to re-create any indexes. At
this time, you can also sort the index blocks and create statistics needed for
the MySQL optimizer to work more efficiently:
shell> myisamchk -rq --sort-index --analyze tbl_name.MYI
A similar procedure applies for ISAM tables. After using pack_isam, use
isamchk to re-create the indexes:
shell> isamchk -rq --sort-index --analyze tbl_name.ISM
After you have installed the packed table into the MySQL database directory,
you should execute mysqladmin flush-tables to force mysqld to start using the
new table.
To unpack a packed table, use the --unpack option to myisamchk or isamchk.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1997-2006 MySQL AB
This documentation is NOT distributed under a GPL license. Use of this
documentation is subject to the following terms: You may create a
printed copy of this documentation solely for your own personal use.
Conversion to other formats is allowed as long as the actual content is
not altered or edited in any way. You shall not publish or distribute
this documentation in any form or on any media, except if you
distribute the documentation in a manner similar to how MySQL
disseminates it (that is, electronically for download on a Web site
with the software) or on a CD-ROM or similar medium, provided however
that the documentation is disseminated together with the software on
the same medium. Any other use, such as any dissemination of printed
copies or use of this documentation, in whole or in part, in another
publication, requires the prior written consent from an authorized
representative of MySQL AB. MySQL AB reserves any and all rights to
this documentation not expressly granted above.
Please email <docs@mysql.com> for more information.
SEE ALSO
isamchk(1), isamlog(1), msql2mysql(1), myisam_ftdump(1), myisamchk(1),
myisamlog(1), mysql(1), mysql.server(1), mysql_config(1),
mysql_explain_log(1), mysql_fix_privilege_tables(1), mysql_zap(1),
mysqlaccess(1), mysqladmin(1), mysqlbinlog(1), mysqlcheck(1),
mysqld(1), mysqld(8), mysqld_multi(1), mysqld_safe(1), mysqldump(1),
mysqlhotcopy(1), mysqlimport(1), mysqlshow(1), pack_isam(1), perror(1),
replace(1), safe_mysqld(1)
For more information, please refer to the MySQL Reference Manual, which
may already be installed locally and which is also available online at
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.
AUTHOR
MySQL AB (http://www.mysql.com/). This software comes with no
warranty.
MySQL 4.1 11/02/2006 MYISAMPACK(1)
