tail -f equivalent for MySQL logging database

Solution 1:

I don't think some people understand the question (or I don't). You don't want to log the queries against the DB; rather a log from an application is going into a DB. If it were a file you could tail the log. How do you tail a table so that when a new row is added it is output?

It shouldn't be to hard to write a simple loop to handle this, assuming you have a unique field that monotonically increases over time (e.g., a sequence number).

current_pos = select max(seq) from table
while true
  new_pos = select max(seq) from table
  if new_pos > current_pos
    select * from table where seq > current_pos
    current_pos = new_pos
  endif
  sleep 1
endwhile

Solution 2:

Turn on MySQL binary logging. Then you can use the mysqlbinlog command to see all data-modifying statements.

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Solution 3:

It appears that many of us don't quite understand your question. What do you mean by "logging database", which isn't a standard MySQL term.

Use the MySQL General Query Log, which logs each statement received from a client.

You can then set log_output = TABLE in your my.cnf . The file will be written to $mysql_data_directory/general_log.CSV . You can tail -f this file to view queries in real time.

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Solution 4:

Here's what I use. Seems the simplest solution, though it's not very efficient:

watch "mysql db_name -e '(SELECT * FROM my_table ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 10) ORDER BY id ASC;'"