When administering MySQL database servers, one of the most common tasks you’ll have to do is to get familiar with the environment. This involves tasks such as listing databases that reside on the server, displaying the tables of a particular database or getting information about user accounts and their privileges.

This tutorial explains how to show all databases in a MySQL or MariaDB server through the command line.

Show MySQL Databases
The most common way to get a list of the MySQL databases is by using the mysql client to connect to the MySQL server and run the SHOW DATABASES command.

Access the MySQL server using the following command and enter your MySQL user password when prompted.

#mysql