How can I get a list of user accounts using the command line in MySQL?

Solution 1:

Use this query:

SELECT User FROM mysql.user;

Which will output a table like this:

+-------+
| User  |
+-------+
| root  |
+-------+
| user2 |
+-------+

As Matthew Scharley points out in the comments on this answer, you can group by the User column if you'd only like to see unique usernames.

I find this format the most useful as it includes the host field which is important in MySQL to distinguish between user records.

select User,Host from mysql.user;

A user account comprises the username and the host level access.

Therefore, this is the query that gives all user accounts

SELECT CONCAT(QUOTE(user),'@',QUOTE(host)) UserAccount FROM mysql.user;

To avoid repetitions of users when they connect from a different origin:

select distinct User from mysql.user;