The TiDB System Database

The TiDB System Database is similar to MySQL, which contains tables that store information required by the server when it runs.

Grant system tables

These system tables contain grant information about user accounts and their privileges:

user: user accounts, global privileges, and other non-privilege columns
db: database-level privileges
tables_priv: table-level privileges
columns_priv: column-level privileges

Server-side help system tables

Currently, the help_topic is NULL.

Statistics system tables

stats_buckets: the buckets of statistics
stats_histograms: the histograms of statistics
stats_meta: the meta information of tables, such as the total number of rows and updated rows

GC worker system tables

gc_delete_range: to record the data to be deleted

Miscellaneous system tables

GLOBAL_VARIABLES: global system variable table
tidb: to record the version information when TiDB executes bootstrap

INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables

To be compatible with MySQL, TiDB supports INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables. Some third-party software queries information in these tables. Currently, most INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables in TiDB are NULL.

CHARACTER_SETS table

The CHARACTER_SETS table provides information about character sets. The default character set in TiDB is utf8, which behaves similar to utf8mb4 in MySQL. Additional character sets in this table are included for compatibility with MySQL:

mysql> SELECT * FROM character_sets;
+--------------------+----------------------+---------------+--------+
| CHARACTER_SET_NAME | DEFAULT_COLLATE_NAME | DESCRIPTION   | MAXLEN |
+--------------------+----------------------+---------------+--------+
| utf8               | utf8_bin             | UTF-8 Unicode |      3 |
| utf8mb4            | utf8mb4_bin          | UTF-8 Unicode |      4 |
| ascii              | ascii_bin            | US ASCII      |      1 |
| latin1             | latin1_bin           | Latin1        |      1 |
| binary             | binary               | binary        |      1 |
+--------------------+----------------------+---------------+--------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

COLLATIONS table

The COLLATIONS table provides a list of collations that correspond to character sets in the CHARACTER_SETS table. Currently this table is included only for compatibility with MySQL, as TiDB only supports binary collation.

COLLATION_CHARACTER_SET_APPLICABILITY table

This table maps collations to the applicable character set name. Similar to the collations table, it is included only for compatibility with MySQL.

COLUMNS table

The COLUMNS table provides information about columns in tables. The information in this table is not accurate. To query information, it is recommended to use the SHOW statement:

SHOW COLUMNS FROM table_name [FROM db_name] [LIKE 'wild']

COLUMN_PRIVILEGES table

NULL.

ENGINES table

The ENGINES table provides information about storage engines. But it contains dummy data only. In the production environment, use the TiKV engine for TiDB.

EVENTS table

NULL.

FILES table

NULL.

GLOBAL_STATUS table

NULL.

GLOBAL_VARIABLES table

NULL.

KEY_COLUMN_USAGE table

The KEY_COLUMN_USAGE table describes the key constraints of the columns, such as the primary key constraint.

OPTIMIZER_TRACE table

NULL.

PARAMETERS table

NULL.

PARTITIONS table

NULL.

PLUGINS table

NULL.

PROFILING table

NULL.

REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS table

NULL.

ROUTINES table

NULL.

SCHEMATA table

The SCHEMATA table provides information about databases. The table data is equivalent to the result of the SHOW DATABASES statement.

mysql> select * from SCHEMATA;
+--------------|--------------------|----------------------------|------------------------|----------+
| CATALOG_NAME | SCHEMA_NAME        | DEFAULT_CHARACTER_SET_NAME | DEFAULT_COLLATION_NAME | SQL_PATH |
+--------------|--------------------|----------------------------|------------------------|----------+
| def          | INFORMATION_SCHEMA | utf8                       | utf8_bin               | NULL     |
| def          | mysql              | utf8                       | utf8_bin               | NULL     |
| def          | PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA | utf8                       | utf8_bin               | NULL     |
| def          | test               | utf8                       | utf8_bin               | NULL     |
+--------------|--------------------|----------------------------|------------------------|----------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

SCHEMA_PRIVILEGES table

NULL.

SESSION_STATUS table

NULL.

SESSION_VARIABLES table

The SESSION_VARIABLES table provides information about session variables. The table data is similar to the result of the SHOW SESSION VARIABLES statement.

STATISTICS table

The STATISTICS table provides information about table indexes.

mysql> desc statistics;
+---------------|---------------------|------|------|---------|-------+
| Field         | Type                | Null | Key  | Default | Extra |
+---------------|---------------------|------|------|---------|-------+
| TABLE_CATALOG | varchar(512)        | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| TABLE_SCHEMA  | varchar(64)         | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| TABLE_NAME    | varchar(64)         | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| NON_UNIQUE    | varchar(1)          | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| INDEX_SCHEMA  | varchar(64)         | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| INDEX_NAME    | varchar(64)         | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| SEQ_IN_INDEX  | bigint(2) UNSIGNED  | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| COLUMN_NAME   | varchar(21)         | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| COLLATION     | varchar(1)          | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| CARDINALITY   | bigint(21) UNSIGNED | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| SUB_PART      | bigint(3) UNSIGNED  | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| PACKED        | varchar(10)         | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| NULLABLE      | varchar(3)          | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| INDEX_TYPE    | varchar(16)         | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| COMMENT       | varchar(16)         | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| INDEX_COMMENT | varchar(1024)       | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
+---------------|---------------------|------|------|---------|-------+

The following statements are equivalent:

SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.STATISTICS
  WHERE table_name = 'tbl_name'
  AND table_schema = 'db_name'

SHOW INDEX
  FROM tbl_name
  FROM db_name

TABLES table

The TABLES table provides information about tables in databases.

The following statements are equivalent:

SELECT table_name FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
  WHERE table_schema = 'db_name'
  [AND table_name LIKE 'wild']

SHOW TABLES
  FROM db_name
  [LIKE 'wild']

TABLESPACES table

NULL.

TABLE_CONSTRAINTS table

The TABLE_CONSTRAINTS table describes which tables have constraints.

The CONSTRAINT_TYPE value can be UNIQUE, PRIMARY KEY, or FOREIGN KEY.
The UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY information is similar to the result of the SHOW INDEX statement.

TABLE_PRIVILEGES table

NULL.

TRIGGERS table

NULL.

USER_PRIVILEGES table

The USER_PRIVILEGES table provides information about global privileges. This information comes from the mysql.user grant table.

mysql> desc USER_PRIVILEGES;
+----------------|--------------|------|------|---------|-------+
| Field          | Type         | Null | Key  | Default | Extra |
+----------------|--------------|------|------|---------|-------+
| GRANTEE        | varchar(81)  | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| TABLE_CATALOG  | varchar(512) | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| PRIVILEGE_TYPE | varchar(64)  | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| IS_GRANTABLE   | varchar(3)   | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
+----------------|--------------|------|------|---------|-------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

VIEWS table

NULL. Currently, TiDB does not support views.