Let MySQL client command line accept characters with accents as input

Question

I don't know how to enable my MySQL client to accept letters with accents as input on the command line on Ubuntu. These chars are not echoed on the console nor accepted as input. As far as I remember, in previous versions of mysql, I solved this problem by launching the client with command mysql --default-character-set=utf8 but this doesn't work with mysql Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.7.25, for Linux (x86_64) using EditLine wrapper on Ubuntu 18.04.

What does work is echo 'SELECT "é" AS letter' | mysql <dbname>, which gives the correct output.

I suspect the EditLine wrapper to be guilty of this behaviour, but I don't know how to get rid of this unwanted feature.

Please provide `SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'char%';` and the contents of `my.cnf`. — Rick James, Nov 19 '19 at 13:55
Please provide an example of the problem -- what you typed and what showed. — Rick James, Nov 19 '19 at 14:07
When I type "abcdé" at the command line interface of mysql, only the letters "abcd" show up and are sent to the MySQL client. — Pierre François, Nov 20 '19 at 10:03
You can use mariadb-client. It supports utf-8 chars. Drop in replacement for mysql-client. — Himanshu Mishra, Nov 25 '19 at 18:34
@HimanshuMishra: Thank you, I will try this. Can I use the maria-db client to connect a mysql server? — Pierre François, Nov 25 '19 at 21:35
@HimanshuMishra: I can't install mariadb-client without uninstalling mysql, which is not possible in my case since I am in a production environment. Thanks anyway for the idea. — Pierre François, Nov 26 '19 at 08:53
I solved the problem by installing phpmyadmin as a workaround. — Pierre François, Nov 26 '19 at 13:03

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 27 '19 at 09:10

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I discovered today that I inherited in my current bash an alias from the setup of a previous installation:

alias mysql='mysql --default-character-set=utf8'

Since I removed that alias (with unalias mysql), the misbehaviour disappeared.

answered Nov 27 '19 at 09:10

Pierre François

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score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 01 '19 at 09:52

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You can make your database support UTF-8 encoding

Try the following : ALTER DATABASE your_database_name CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

answered Mar 01 '19 at 09:52

Noblesse

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As far as I understand, the command you recommend affects the database and the server, but not the MySQL client. I issued it without any change at client side. – Pierre François Mar 01 '19 at 11:21

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 19 '19 at 14:07

-1

If you are using Terminal,

Terminal > Preferences > Encodings > UTF-8 Unicode

answered Nov 19 '19 at 14:07

Rick James

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This is not the answer, since I am able to type "é" at the shell within the terminal. It is only inside mysql that the letters with accents don't show up. – Pierre François Nov 20 '19 at 10:04
Let's see `SELECT col, HEX(col) ...` for some row and column that is messed up. – Rick James Nov 20 '19 at 18:45
the columns (inside the database on the server side) are not messed up. The chars with accents never reach the server. The command line of the mysql client just ignores these when typed at the prompt. – Pierre François Nov 21 '19 at 08:55
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@PierreFrançois - OK. That further implicates the terminal program. – Rick James Nov 22 '19 at 01:46

Let MySQL client command line accept characters with accents as input

3 Answers3