In precompiled binary MySQL distributions that include libmysqld, the embedded server library, MySQL builds the library using the appropriate vendor compiler if there is one.

To get a libmysqld library if you build MySQL from source yourself, you should configure MySQL with the --with-embedded-server option. See Section 2.9.2, “Typical configure Options”.

When you link your program with libmysqld, you must also include the system-specific pthread libraries and some libraries that the MySQL server uses. You can get the full list of libraries by executing mysql_config --libmysqld-libs.

The correct flags for compiling and linking a threaded program must be used, even if you do not directly call any thread functions in your code.

To compile a C program to include the necessary files to embed the MySQL server library into an executable version of a program, the compiler will need to know where to find various files and need instructions on how to compile the program. The following example shows how a program could be compiled from the command line, assuming that you are using gcc, use the GNU C compiler:

gcc mysql_test.c -o mysql_test -lz \
`/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config --include --libmysqld-libs`

Immediately following the gcc command is the name of the C program source file. After it, the -o option is given to indicate that the file name that follows is the name that the compiler is to give to the output file, the compiled program. The next line of code tells the compiler to obtain the location of the include files and libraries and other settings for the system on which it's compiled. Because of a problem with mysql_config, the option -lz (for compression) is added here. The mysql_config command is contained in backticks, not single quotes.

On some non-gcc platforms, the embedded library depends on C++ runtime libraries and linking against the embedded library might result in missing-symbol errors. To solve this, link using a C++ compiler or explicitly list the required libraries on the link command line.

The embedded server has the following limitations:

Some of these limitations can be changed by editing the mysql_embed.h include file and recompiling MySQL.

Any options that may be given with the mysqld server daemon, may be used with an embedded server library. Server options may be given in an array as an argument to the mysql_library_init(), which initializes the server. They also may be given in an option file like my.cnf. To specify an option file for a C program, use the --defaults-file option as one of the elements of the second argument of the mysql_library_init() function. See Section 28.2.3.40, “mysql_library_init()”, for more information on the mysql_library_init() function.

Using option files can make it easier to switch between a client/server application and one where MySQL is embedded. Put common options under the [server] group. These are read by both MySQL versions. Client/server-specific options should go under the [mysqld] section. Put options specific to the embedded MySQL server library in the [embedded] section. Options specific to applications go under section labeled [ApplicationName_SERVER]. See Section 4.2.3.2, “Using Option Files”.

These two example programs should work without any changes on a Linux or FreeBSD system. For other operating systems, minor changes are needed, mostly with file paths. These examples are designed to give enough details for you to understand the problem, without the clutter that is a necessary part of a real application. The first example is very straightforward. The second example is a little more advanced with some error checking. The first is followed by a command-line entry for compiling the program. The second is followed by a GNUmake file that may be used for compiling instead.

Example 1

test1_libmysqld.c

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
#include "mysql.h"

MYSQL *mysql;
MYSQL_RES *results;
MYSQL_ROW record;

static char *server_options[] = \
       { "mysql_test", "--defaults-file=my.cnf", NULL };
int num_elements = (sizeof(server_options) / sizeof(char *)) - 1;

static char *server_groups[] = { "libmysqld_server", 
                                 "libmysqld_client", NULL };

int main(void)
{
   mysql_library_init(num_elements, server_options, server_groups);
   mysql = mysql_init(NULL);
   mysql_options(mysql, MYSQL_READ_DEFAULT_GROUP, "libmysqld_client");
   mysql_options(mysql, MYSQL_OPT_USE_EMBEDDED_CONNECTION, NULL);

   mysql_real_connect(mysql, NULL,NULL,NULL, "database1", 0,NULL,0);

   mysql_query(mysql, "SELECT column1, column2 FROM table1");

   results = mysql_store_result(mysql);

   while((record = mysql_fetch_row(results))) {
      printf("%s - %s \n", record[0], record[1]);
   }

   mysql_free_result(results);
   mysql_close(mysql);
   mysql_library_end();

   return 0;
}

Here is the command line for compiling the above program:

gcc test1_libmysqld.c -o test1_libmysqld -lz \
 `/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config --include --libmysqld-libs`

Example 2

To try out the example, create an test2_libmysqld directory at the same level as the MySQL source directory. Save the test2_libmysqld.c source and the GNUmakefile in the directory, and run GNU make from inside the test2_libmysqld directory.

test2_libmysqld.c

/*
 * A simple example client, using the embedded MySQL server library
*/

#include <mysql.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

MYSQL *db_connect(const char *dbname);
void db_disconnect(MYSQL *db);
void db_do_query(MYSQL *db, const char *query);

const char *server_groups[] = {
  "test2_libmysqld_SERVER", "embedded", "server", NULL
};

int
main(int argc, char **argv)
{
  MYSQL *one, *two;

  /* mysql_library_init() must be called before any other mysql
   * functions.
   *
   * You can use mysql_library_init(0, NULL, NULL), and it
   * initializes the server using groups = {
   *   "server", "embedded", NULL
   *  }.
   *
   * In your $HOME/.my.cnf file, you probably want to put:

[test2_libmysqld_SERVER]
language = /path/to/source/of/mysql/sql/share/english

   * You could, of course, modify argc and argv before passing
   * them to this function.  Or you could create new ones in any
   * way you like.  But all of the arguments in argv (except for
   * argv[0], which is the program name) should be valid options
   * for the MySQL server.
   *
   * If you link this client against the normal mysqlclient
   * library, this function is just a stub that does nothing.
   */
  mysql_library_init(argc, argv, (char **)server_groups);

  one = db_connect("test");
  two = db_connect(NULL);

  db_do_query(one, "SHOW TABLE STATUS");
  db_do_query(two, "SHOW DATABASES");

  mysql_close(two);
  mysql_close(one);

  /* This must be called after all other mysql functions */
  mysql_library_end();

  exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

static void
die(MYSQL *db, char *fmt, ...)
{
  va_list ap;
  va_start(ap, fmt);
  vfprintf(stderr, fmt, ap);
  va_end(ap);
  (void)putc('\n', stderr);
  if (db)
    db_disconnect(db);
  exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}

MYSQL *
db_connect(const char *dbname)
{
  MYSQL *db = mysql_init(NULL);
  if (!db)
    die(db, "mysql_init failed: no memory");
  /*
   * Notice that the client and server use separate group names.
   * This is critical, because the server does not accept the
   * client's options, and vice versa.
   */
  mysql_options(db, MYSQL_READ_DEFAULT_GROUP, "test2_libmysqld_CLIENT");
  if (!mysql_real_connect(db, NULL, NULL, NULL, dbname, 0, NULL, 0))
    die(db, "mysql_real_connect failed: %s", mysql_error(db));

  return db;
}

void
db_disconnect(MYSQL *db)
{
  mysql_close(db);
}

void
db_do_query(MYSQL *db, const char *query)
{
  if (mysql_query(db, query) != 0)
    goto err;

  if (mysql_field_count(db) > 0)
  {
    MYSQL_RES   *res;
    MYSQL_ROW    row, end_row;
    int num_fields;

    if (!(res = mysql_store_result(db)))
      goto err;
    num_fields = mysql_num_fields(res);
    while ((row = mysql_fetch_row(res)))
    {
      (void)fputs(">> ", stdout);
      for (end_row = row + num_fields; row < end_row; ++row)
        (void)printf("%s\t", row ? (char*)*row : "NULL");
      (void)fputc('\n', stdout);
    }
    (void)fputc('\n', stdout);
    mysql_free_result(res);
  }
  else
    (void)printf("Affected rows: %lld\n", mysql_affected_rows(db));

  return;

err:
  die(db, "db_do_query failed: %s [%s]", mysql_error(db), query);
}

GNUmakefile

# This assumes the MySQL software is installed in /usr/local/mysql
inc      := /usr/local/mysql/include/mysql
lib      := /usr/local/mysql/lib

# If you have not installed the MySQL software yet, try this instead
#inc      := $(HOME)/mysql-6.0/include
#lib      := $(HOME)/mysql-6.0/libmysqld

CC       := gcc
CPPFLAGS := -I$(inc) -D_THREAD_SAFE -D_REENTRANT
CFLAGS   := -g -W -Wall
LDFLAGS  := -static
# You can change -lmysqld to -lmysqlclient to use the
# client/server library
LDLIBS    = -L$(lib) -lmysqld -lz -lm -ldl -lcrypt

ifneq (,$(shell grep FreeBSD /COPYRIGHT 2>/dev/null))
# FreeBSD
LDFLAGS += -pthread
else
# Assume Linux
LDLIBS += -lpthread
endif

# This works for simple one-file test programs
sources := $(wildcard *.c)
objects := $(patsubst %c,%o,$(sources))
targets := $(basename $(sources))

all: $(targets)

clean:
        rm -f $(targets) $(objects) *.core

We encourage everyone to promote free software by releasing code under the GPL or a compatible license. For those who are not able to do this, another option is to purchase a commercial license for the MySQL code from MySQL AB. For details, please see http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/.

This section describes C API data types other than those used for prepared statements. For information about the latter, see Section 28.2.5, “C API Prepared Statement Data types”.

The MYSQL_FIELD structure contains the members listed here:

The functions available in the C API are summarized here and described in greater detail in a later section. See Section 28.2.3, “C API Function Descriptions”.

Application programs should use this general outline for interacting with MySQL:

The purpose of calling mysql_library_init() and mysql_library_end() is to provide proper initialization and finalization of the MySQL library. For applications that are linked with the client library, they provide improved memory management. If you don't call mysql_library_end(), a block of memory remains allocated. (This does not increase the amount of memory used by the application, but some memory leak detectors will complain about it.) For applications that are linked with the embedded server, these calls start and stop the server.

In a non-multi-threaded environment, the call to mysql_library_init() may be omitted, because mysql_init() will invoke it automatically as necessary. However, mysql_library_init() is not thread-safe in a multi-threaded environment, and thus neither is mysql_init(), which calls mysql_library_init(). You must either call mysql_library_init() prior to spawning any threads, or else use a mutex to protect the call, whether you invoke mysql_library_init() or indirectly via mysql_init(). This should be done prior to any other client library call.

To connect to the server, call mysql_init() to initialize a connection handler, then call mysql_real_connect() with that handler (along with other information such as the hostname, username, and password). Upon connection, mysql_real_connect() sets the reconnect flag (part of the MYSQL structure) to a value of 1 in versions of the API older than 5.0.3, or 0 in newer versions. A value of 1 for this flag indicates that if a statement cannot be performed because of a lost connection, to try reconnecting to the server before giving up. You can use the MYSQL_OPT_RECONNECT option to mysql_options() to control reconnection behavior. When you are done with the connection, call mysql_close() to terminate it.

While a connection is active, the client may send SQL statements to the server using mysql_query() or mysql_real_query(). The difference between the two is that mysql_query() expects the query to be specified as a null-terminated string whereas mysql_real_query() expects a counted string. If the string contains binary data (which may include null bytes), you must use mysql_real_query().

For each non-SELECT query (for example, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE), you can find out how many rows were changed (affected) by calling mysql_affected_rows().

For SELECT queries, you retrieve the selected rows as a result set. (Note that some statements are SELECT-like in that they return rows. These include SHOW, DESCRIBE, and EXPLAIN. They should be treated the same way as SELECT statements.)

There are two ways for a client to process result sets. One way is to retrieve the entire result set all at once by calling mysql_store_result(). This function acquires from the server all the rows returned by the query and stores them in the client. The second way is for the client to initiate a row-by-row result set retrieval by calling mysql_use_result(). This function initializes the retrieval, but does not actually get any rows from the server.

In both cases, you access rows by calling mysql_fetch_row(). With mysql_store_result(), mysql_fetch_row() accesses rows that have previously been fetched from the server. With mysql_use_result(), mysql_fetch_row() actually retrieves the row from the server. Information about the size of the data in each row is available by calling mysql_fetch_lengths().

After you are done with a result set, call mysql_free_result() to free the memory used for it.

The two retrieval mechanisms are complementary. Client programs should choose the approach that is most appropriate for their requirements. In practice, clients tend to use mysql_store_result() more commonly.

An advantage of mysql_store_result() is that because the rows have all been fetched to the client, you not only can access rows sequentially, you can move back and forth in the result set using mysql_data_seek() or mysql_row_seek() to change the current row position within the result set. You can also find out how many rows there are by calling mysql_num_rows(). On the other hand, the memory requirements for mysql_store_result() may be very high for large result sets and you are more likely to encounter out-of-memory conditions.

An advantage of mysql_use_result() is that the client requires less memory for the result set because it maintains only one row at a time (and because there is less allocation overhead, mysql_use_result() can be faster). Disadvantages are that you must process each row quickly to avoid tying up the server, you don't have random access to rows within the result set (you can only access rows sequentially), and you don't know how many rows are in the result set until you have retrieved them all. Furthermore, you must retrieve all the rows even if you determine in mid-retrieval that you've found the information you were looking for.

The API makes it possible for clients to respond appropriately to statements (retrieving rows only as necessary) without knowing whether the statement is a SELECT. You can do this by calling mysql_store_result() after each mysql_query() (or mysql_real_query()). If the result set call succeeds, the statement was a SELECT and you can read the rows. If the result set call fails, call mysql_field_count() to determine whether a result was actually to be expected. If mysql_field_count() returns zero, the statement returned no data (indicating that it was an INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and so forth), and was not expected to return rows. If mysql_field_count() is non-zero, the statement should have returned rows, but didn't. This indicates that the statement was a SELECT that failed. See the description for mysql_field_count() for an example of how this can be done.

Both mysql_store_result() and mysql_use_result() allow you to obtain information about the fields that make up the result set (the number of fields, their names and types, and so forth). You can access field information sequentially within the row by calling mysql_fetch_field() repeatedly, or by field number within the row by calling mysql_fetch_field_direct(). The current field cursor position may be changed by calling mysql_field_seek(). Setting the field cursor affects subsequent calls to mysql_fetch_field(). You can also get information for fields all at once by calling mysql_fetch_fields().

For detecting and reporting errors, MySQL provides access to error information by means of the mysql_errno() and mysql_error() functions. These return the error code or error message for the most recently invoked function that can succeed or fail, allowing you to determine when an error occurred and what it was.

In the descriptions here, a parameter or return value of NULL means NULL in the sense of the C programming language, not a MySQL NULL value.

Functions that return a value generally return a pointer or an integer. Unless specified otherwise, functions returning a pointer return a non-NULL value to indicate success or a NULL value to indicate an error, and functions returning an integer return zero to indicate success or non-zero to indicate an error. Note that “non-zero” means just that. Unless the function description says otherwise, do not test against a value other than zero:

if (result)                   /* correct */
    ... error ...

if (result < 0)               /* incorrect */
    ... error ...

if (result == -1)             /* incorrect */
    ... error ...

When a function returns an error, the Errors subsection of the function description lists the possible types of errors. You can find out which of these occurred by calling mysql_errno(). A string representation of the error may be obtained by calling mysql_error().

char *stmt = "UPDATE products SET cost=cost*1.25 WHERE group=10";
mysql_query(&mysql,stmt);
printf("%ld products updated",
       (long) mysql_affected_rows(&mysql));

if (mysql_change_user(&mysql, "user", "password", "new_database"))
{
   fprintf(stderr, "Failed to change user.  Error: %s\n",
           mysql_error(&mysql));
}

if(mysql_create_db(&mysql, "my_database"))
{
   fprintf(stderr, "Failed to create new database.  Error: %s\n",
           mysql_error(&mysql));
}

mysql_debug("d:t:O,/tmp/client.trace");

if(mysql_drop_db(&mysql, "my_database"))
  fprintf(stderr, "Failed to drop the database: Error: %s\n",
          mysql_error(&mysql));

mysql_query(&mysql,"SELECT * FROM some_table");
result = mysql_use_result(&mysql);
while((row = mysql_fetch_row(result)))
{
    // do something with data
}
if(!mysql_eof(result))  // mysql_fetch_row() failed due to an error
{
    fprintf(stderr, "Error: %s\n", mysql_error(&mysql));
}

mysql_query(&mysql,"SELECT * FROM some_table");
result = mysql_use_result(&mysql);
while((row = mysql_fetch_row(result)))
{
    // do something with data
}
if(mysql_errno(&mysql))  // mysql_fetch_row() failed due to an error
{
    fprintf(stderr, "Error: %s\n", mysql_error(&mysql));
}

shell> SELECT * FROM no_such_table;
ERROR 1146 (42S02): Table 'test.no_such_table' doesn't exist

if(*mysql_error(&mysql))
{
  // an error occurred
}

if(mysql_error(&mysql)[0])
{
  // an error occurred
}

MYSQL_FIELD *field;

while((field = mysql_fetch_field(result)))
{
    printf("field name %s\n", field->name);
}