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mysqlcharacter-encodingfreebsd

How do I find out the default server character set in mysql?

Using MySQL on FreeBSD 8.2. How do I find out the default server character set? Is there some command I can run or file I can check?

UPDATE

Actually I want to know how to find both the default server character set and the current server character set.

Solution

  • As documented under Server Character Set and Collation:

    Initially, the server character set and collation depend on the options that you use when you start mysqld. You can use --character-set-server for the character set. Along with it, you can add --collation-server for the collation. If you don't specify a character set, that is the same as saying --character-set-server=latin1.

    The default server character set is therefore Windows-1252, which MySQL calls latin1, unless your copy of MySQL has been compiled with some other default.

    The manual goes on to say:

    The current server character set and collation can be determined from the values of the character_set_server and collation_server system variables. These variables can be changed at runtime.

    Therefore, to discover the server character set currently in use:

    SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set_server' ;