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+.\"     Title: \fBmyisamchk\fR
+.\"    Author: 
+.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.70.1 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
+.\"      Date: 03/31/2009
+.\"    Manual: MySQL Database System
+.\"    Source: MySQL 5.1
+.\"
+.TH "\fBMYISAMCHK\fR" "1" "03/31/2009" "MySQL 5.1" "MySQL Database System"
+.\" disable hyphenation
+.nh
+.\" disable justification (adjust text to left margin only)
+.ad l
+.SH "NAME"
+myisamchk \- MyISAM table\-maintenance utility
+.SH "SYNOPSIS"
+.HP 33
+\fBmyisamchk [\fR\fB\fIoptions\fR\fR\fB] \fR\fB\fItbl_name\fR\fR\fB ...\fR
+.SH "DESCRIPTION"
+.PP
+The
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+utility gets information about your database tables or checks, repairs, or optimizes them.
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+works with
+MyISAM
+tables (tables that have
+\fI.MYD\fR
+and
+\fI.MYI\fR
+files for storing data and indexes).
+.PP
+The use of
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+with partitioned tables is not supported.
+.sp
+.it 1 an-trap
+.nr an-no-space-flag 1
+.nr an-break-flag 1
+.br
+\fBCaution\fR
+.PP
+It is best to make a backup of a table before performing a table repair operation; under some circumstances the operation might cause data loss. Possible causes include but are not limited to file system errors.
+.PP
+Invoke
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+like this:
+.sp
+.RS 3n
+.nf
+shell> \fBmyisamchk [\fR\fB\fIoptions\fR\fR\fB] \fR\fB\fItbl_name\fR\fR\fB ...\fR
+.fi
+.RE
+.PP
+The
+\fIoptions\fR
+specify what you want
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+to do. They are described in the following sections. You can also get a list of options by invoking
+\fBmyisamchk \-\-help\fR.
+.PP
+With no options,
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+simply checks your table as the default operation. To get more information or to tell
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+to take corrective action, specify options as described in the following discussion.
+.PP
+\fItbl_name\fR
+is the database table you want to check or repair. If you run
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+somewhere other than in the database directory, you must specify the path to the database directory, because
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+has no idea where the database is located. In fact,
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+does not actually care whether the files you are working on are located in a database directory. You can copy the files that correspond to a database table into some other location and perform recovery operations on them there.
+.PP
+You can name several tables on the
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+command line if you wish. You can also specify a table by naming its index file (the file with the
+\fI.MYI\fR
+suffix). This allows you to specify all tables in a directory by using the pattern
+\fI*.MYI\fR. For example, if you are in a database directory, you can check all the
+MyISAM
+tables in that directory like this:
+.sp
+.RS 3n
+.nf
+shell> \fBmyisamchk *.MYI\fR
+.fi
+.RE
+.PP
+If you are not in the database directory, you can check all the tables there by specifying the path to the directory:
+.sp
+.RS 3n
+.nf
+shell> \fBmyisamchk \fR\fB\fI/path/to/database_dir/\fR\fR\fB*.MYI\fR
+.fi
+.RE
+.PP
+You can even check all tables in all databases by specifying a wildcard with the path to the MySQL data directory:
+.sp
+.RS 3n
+.nf
+shell> \fBmyisamchk \fR\fB\fI/path/to/datadir/*/*\fR\fR\fB.MYI\fR
+.fi
+.RE
+.PP
+The recommended way to quickly check all
+MyISAM
+tables is:
+.sp
+.RS 3n
+.nf
+shell> \fBmyisamchk \-\-silent \-\-fast \fR\fB\fI/path/to/datadir/*/*\fR\fR\fB.MYI\fR
+.fi
+.RE
+.PP
+If you want to check all
+MyISAM
+tables and repair any that are corrupted, you can use the following command:
+.sp
+.RS 3n
+.nf
+shell> \fBmyisamchk \-\-silent \-\-force \-\-fast \-\-update\-state \\\fR
+          \fB\-\-key_buffer_size=64M \-\-sort_buffer_size=64M \\\fR
+          \fB\-\-read_buffer_size=1M \-\-write_buffer_size=1M \\\fR
+          \fB\fI/path/to/datadir/*/*\fR\fR\fB.MYI\fR
+.fi
+.RE
+.PP
+This command assumes that you have more than 64MB free. For more information about memory allocation with
+\fBmyisamchk\fR, see
+the section called \(lq\fBMYISAMCHK\fR MEMORY USAGE\(rq.
+.sp
+.it 1 an-trap
+.nr an-no-space-flag 1
+.nr an-break-flag 1
+.br
+\fBImportant\fR
+.PP
+\fIYou must ensure that no other program is using the tables while you are running \fR\fI\fBmyisamchk\fR\fR. The most effective means of doing so is to shut down the MySQL server while running
+\fBmyisamchk\fR, or to lock all tables that
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+is being used on.
+.PP
+Otherwise, when you run
+\fBmyisamchk\fR, it may display the following error message:
+.sp
+.RS 3n
+.nf
+warning: clients are using or haven't closed the table properly
+.fi
+.RE
+.PP
+This means that you are trying to check a table that has been updated by another program (such as the
+\fBmysqld\fR
+server) that hasn't yet closed the file or that has died without closing the file properly, which can sometimes lead to the corruption of one or more
+MyISAM
+tables.
+.PP
+If
+\fBmysqld\fR
+is running, you must force it to flush any table modifications that are still buffered in memory by using
+FLUSH TABLES. You should then ensure that no one is using the tables while you are running
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+.PP
+However, the easiest way to avoid this problem is to use
+CHECK TABLE
+instead of
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+to check tables. See
+Section\ 12.5.2.3, \(lqCHECK TABLE Syntax\(rq.
+.PP
+A complete listing of all the
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+options follows.
+.SH "\fBMYISAMCHK\fR GENERAL OPTIONS"
+.PP
+The options described in this section can be used for any type of table maintenance operation performed by
+\fBmyisamchk\fR. The sections following this one describe options that pertain only to specific operations, such as table checking or repairing.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-help\fR,
+\fB\-?\fR
+.sp
+Display a help message and exit. Options are grouped by type of operation.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-HELP\fR,
+\fB\-H\fR
+.sp
+Display a help message and exit. Options are presented in a single list.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-debug=\fR\fB\fIdebug_options\fR\fR\fB, \-# \fR\fB\fIdebug_options\fR\fR
+.sp
+Write a debugging log. The
+\fIdebug_options\fR
+string often is
+\'d:t:o,\fIfile_name\fR'.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-silent\fR,
+\fB\-s\fR
+.sp
+Silent mode. Write output only when errors occur. You can use
+\fB\-s\fR
+twice (\fB\-ss\fR) to make
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+very silent.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-verbose\fR,
+\fB\-v\fR
+.sp
+Verbose mode. Print more information about what the program does. This can be used with
+\fB\-d\fR
+and
+\fB\-e\fR. Use
+\fB\-v\fR
+multiple times (\fB\-vv\fR,
+\fB\-vvv\fR) for even more output.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-version\fR,
+\fB\-V\fR
+.sp
+Display version information and exit.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-wait\fR,
+\fB\-w\fR
+.sp
+Instead of terminating with an error if the table is locked, wait until the table is unlocked before continuing. If you are running
+\fBmysqld\fR
+with external locking disabled, the table can be locked only by another
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+command.
+.sp
+.RE
+.PP
+You can also set the following variables by using
+\fB\-\-\fR\fB\fIvar_name\fR\fR\fB=\fR\fB\fIvalue\fR\fR
+syntax:
+.TS
+allbox tab(:);
+l l
+l l
+l l
+l l
+l l
+l l
+l l
+l l
+l l
+l l
+l l
+l l.
+T{
+\fBVariable\fR
+T}:T{
+\fBDefault Value\fR
+T}
+T{
+sort_key_blocks
+T}:T{
+16
+T}
+T{
+stats_method
+T}:T{
+nulls_unequal
+T}
+T{
+write_buffer_size
+T}:T{
+262136
+T}
+T{
+decode_bits
+T}:T{
+9
+T}
+T{
+ft_max_word_len
+T}:T{
+version\-dependent
+T}
+T{
+ft_min_word_len
+T}:T{
+4
+T}
+T{
+ft_stopword_file
+T}:T{
+built\-in list
+T}
+T{
+key_buffer_size
+T}:T{
+523264
+T}
+T{
+myisam_block_size
+T}:T{
+1024
+T}
+T{
+read_buffer_size
+T}:T{
+262136
+T}
+T{
+sort_buffer_size
+T}:T{
+2097144
+T}
+.TE
+.sp
+.PP
+The possible
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+variables and their default values can be examined with
+\fBmyisamchk \-\-help\fR:
+.PP
+sort_buffer_size
+is used when the keys are repaired by sorting keys, which is the normal case when you use
+\fB\-\-recover\fR.
+.PP
+key_buffer_size
+is used when you are checking the table with
+\fB\-\-extend\-check\fR
+or when the keys are repaired by inserting keys row by row into the table (like when doing normal inserts). Repairing through the key buffer is used in the following cases:
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+You use
+\fB\-\-safe\-recover\fR.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+The temporary files needed to sort the keys would be more than twice as big as when creating the key file directly. This is often the case when you have large key values for
+CHAR,
+VARCHAR, or
+TEXT
+columns, because the sort operation needs to store the complete key values as it proceeds. If you have lots of temporary space and you can force
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+to repair by sorting, you can use the
+\fB\-\-sort\-recover\fR
+option.
+.sp
+.RE
+.PP
+Repairing through the key buffer takes much less disk space than using sorting, but is also much slower.
+.PP
+If you want a faster repair, set the
+key_buffer_size
+and
+sort_buffer_size
+variables to about 25% of your available memory. You can set both variables to large values, because only one of them is used at a time.
+.PP
+myisam_block_size
+is the size used for index blocks.
+.PP
+stats_method
+influences how
+NULL
+values are treated for index statistics collection when the
+\fB\-\-analyze\fR
+option is given. It acts like the
+myisam_stats_method
+system variable. For more information, see the description of
+myisam_stats_method
+in
+Section\ 5.1.3, \(lqServer System Variables\(rq, and
+Section\ 7.4.7, \(lqMyISAM Index Statistics Collection\(rq. For MySQL 5.1,
+stats_method
+was added in MySQL 5.0.14. For older versions, the statistics collection method is equivalent to
+nulls_equal.
+.PP
+The
+ft_min_word_len
+and
+ft_max_word_len
+variables are available as of MySQL 4.0.0.
+ft_stopword_file
+is available as of MySQL 4.0.19.
+.PP
+ft_min_word_len
+and
+ft_max_word_len
+indicate the minimum and maximum word length for
+FULLTEXT
+indexes.
+ft_stopword_file
+names the stopword file. These need to be set under the following circumstances.
+.PP
+If you use
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+to perform an operation that modifies table indexes (such as repair or analyze), the
+FULLTEXT
+indexes are rebuilt using the default full\-text parameter values for minimum and maximum word length and the stopword file unless you specify otherwise. This can result in queries failing.
+.PP
+The problem occurs because these parameters are known only by the server. They are not stored in
+MyISAM
+index files. To avoid the problem if you have modified the minimum or maximum word length or the stopword file in the server, specify the same
+ft_min_word_len,
+ft_max_word_len, and
+ft_stopword_file
+values to
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+that you use for
+\fBmysqld\fR. For example, if you have set the minimum word length to 3, you can repair a table with
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+like this:
+.sp
+.RS 3n
+.nf
+shell> \fBmyisamchk \-\-recover \-\-ft_min_word_len=3 \fR\fB\fItbl_name\fR\fR\fB.MYI\fR
+.fi
+.RE
+.PP
+To ensure that
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+and the server use the same values for full\-text parameters, you can place each one in both the
+[mysqld]
+and
+[myisamchk]
+sections of an option file:
+.sp
+.RS 3n
+.nf
+[mysqld]
+ft_min_word_len=3
+[myisamchk]
+ft_min_word_len=3
+.fi
+.RE
+.PP
+An alternative to using
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+is to use the
+REPAIR TABLE,
+ANALYZE TABLE,
+OPTIMIZE TABLE, or
+ALTER TABLE. These statements are performed by the server, which knows the proper full\-text parameter values to use.
+.SH "\fBMYISAMCHK\fR CHECK OPTIONS"
+.PP
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+supports the following options for table checking operations:
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-check\fR,
+\fB\-c\fR
+.sp
+Check the table for errors. This is the default operation if you specify no option that selects an operation type explicitly.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-check\-only\-changed\fR,
+\fB\-C\fR
+.sp
+Check only tables that have changed since the last check.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-extend\-check\fR,
+\fB\-e\fR
+.sp
+Check the table very thoroughly. This is quite slow if the table has many indexes. This option should only be used in extreme cases. Normally,
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+or
+\fBmyisamchk \-\-medium\-check\fR
+should be able to determine whether there are any errors in the table.
+.sp
+If you are using
+\fB\-\-extend\-check\fR
+and have plenty of memory, setting the
+key_buffer_size
+variable to a large value helps the repair operation run faster.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-fast\fR,
+\fB\-F\fR
+.sp
+Check only tables that haven't been closed properly.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-force\fR,
+\fB\-f\fR
+.sp
+Do a repair operation automatically if
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+finds any errors in the table. The repair type is the same as that specified with the
+\fB\-\-recover\fR
+or
+\fB\-r\fR
+option.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-information\fR,
+\fB\-i\fR
+.sp
+Print informational statistics about the table that is checked.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-medium\-check\fR,
+\fB\-m\fR
+.sp
+Do a check that is faster than an
+\fB\-\-extend\-check\fR
+operation. This finds only 99.99% of all errors, which should be good enough in most cases.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-read\-only\fR,
+\fB\-T\fR
+.sp
+Do not mark the table as checked. This is useful if you use
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+to check a table that is in use by some other application that does not use locking, such as
+\fBmysqld\fR
+when run with external locking disabled.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-update\-state\fR,
+\fB\-U\fR
+.sp
+Store information in the
+\fI.MYI\fR
+file to indicate when the table was checked and whether the table crashed. This should be used to get full benefit of the
+\fB\-\-check\-only\-changed\fR
+option, but you shouldn't use this option if the
+\fBmysqld\fR
+server is using the table and you are running it with external locking disabled.
+.SH "\fBMYISAMCHK\fR REPAIR OPTIONS"
+.PP
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+supports the following options for table repair operations:
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-backup\fR,
+\fB\-B\fR
+.sp
+Make a backup of the
+\fI.MYD\fR
+file as
+\fI\fIfile_name\fR\fR\fI\-\fR\fI\fItime\fR\fR\fI.BAK\fR
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-character\-sets\-dir=\fR\fB\fIpath\fR\fR
+.sp
+The directory where character sets are installed. See
+Section\ 9.2, \(lqThe Character Set Used for Data and Sorting\(rq.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-correct\-checksum\fR
+.sp
+Correct the checksum information for the table.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-data\-file\-length=\fR\fB\fIlen\fR\fR\fB, \-D \fR\fB\fIlen\fR\fR
+.sp
+Maximum length of the data file (when re\-creating data file when it is
+\(lqfull\(rq).
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-extend\-check\fR,
+\fB\-e\fR
+.sp
+Do a repair that tries to recover every possible row from the data file. Normally, this also finds a lot of garbage rows. Do not use this option unless you are desperate.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-force\fR,
+\fB\-f\fR
+.sp
+Overwrite old intermediate files (files with names like
+\fI\fItbl_name\fR\fR\fI.TMD\fR) instead of aborting.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-keys\-used=\fR\fB\fIval\fR\fR,
+\fB\-k \fR\fB\fIval\fR\fR
+.sp
+For
+\fBmyisamchk\fR, the option value is a bit\-value that indicates which indexes to update. Each binary bit of the option value corresponds to a table index, where the first index is bit 0. An option value of 0 disables updates to all indexes, which can be used to get faster inserts. Deactivated indexes can be reactivated by using
+\fBmyisamchk \-r\fR.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-no\-symlinks\fR,
+\fB\-l\fR
+.sp
+Do not follow symbolic links. Normally
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+repairs the table that a symlink points to. This option does not exist as of MySQL 4.0 because versions from 4.0 on do not remove symlinks during repair operations.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-max\-record\-length=\fR\fB\fIlen\fR\fR
+.sp
+Skip rows larger than the given length if
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+cannot allocate memory to hold them.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-parallel\-recover\fR,
+\fB\-p\fR
+.sp
+Uses the same technique as
+\fB\-r\fR
+and
+\fB\-n\fR, but creates all the keys in parallel, using different threads.
+\fIThis is beta\-quality code. Use at your own risk!\fR
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-quick\fR,
+\fB\-q\fR
+.sp
+Achieve a faster repair by not modifying the data file. You can specify this option twice to force
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+to modify the original data file in case of duplicate keys.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-recover\fR,
+\fB\-r\fR
+.sp
+Do a repair that can fix almost any problem except unique keys that are not unique (which is an extremely unlikely error with
+MyISAM
+tables). If you want to recover a table, this is the option to try first. You should try
+\fB\-\-safe\-recover\fR
+only if
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+reports that the table cannot be recovered using
+\fB\-\-recover\fR. (In the unlikely case that
+\fB\-\-recover\fR
+fails, the data file remains intact.)
+.sp
+If you have lots of memory, you should increase the value of
+sort_buffer_size.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-safe\-recover\fR,
+\fB\-o\fR
+.sp
+Do a repair using an old recovery method that reads through all rows in order and updates all index trees based on the rows found. This is an order of magnitude slower than
+\fB\-\-recover\fR, but can handle a couple of very unlikely cases that
+\fB\-\-recover\fR
+cannot. This recovery method also uses much less disk space than
+\fB\-\-recover\fR. Normally, you should repair first using
+\fB\-\-recover\fR, and then with
+\fB\-\-safe\-recover\fR
+only if
+\fB\-\-recover\fR
+fails.
+.sp
+If you have lots of memory, you should increase the value of
+key_buffer_size.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-set\-character\-set=\fR\fB\fIname\fR\fR
+.sp
+Change the character set used by the table indexes. This option was replaced by
+\fB\-\-set\-collation\fR
+in MySQL 5.0.3.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-set\-collation=\fR\fB\fIname\fR\fR
+.sp
+Specify the collation to use for sorting table indexes. The character set name is implied by the first part of the collation name.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-sort\-recover\fR,
+\fB\-n\fR
+.sp
+Force
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+to use sorting to resolve the keys even if the temporary files would be very large.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-tmpdir=\fR\fB\fIpath\fR\fR,
+\fB\-t \fR\fB\fIpath\fR\fR
+.sp
+Path of the directory to be used for storing temporary files. If this is not set,
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+uses the value of the
+TMPDIR
+environment variable.
+tmpdir
+can be set to a list of directory paths that are used successively in round\-robin fashion for creating temporary files. The separator character between directory names is the colon (\(lq:\(rq) on Unix and the semicolon (\(lq;\(rq) on Windows, NetWare, and OS/2.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-unpack\fR,
+\fB\-u\fR
+.sp
+Unpack a table that was packed with
+\fBmyisampack\fR.
+.SH "OTHER MYISAMCHK OPTIONS"
+.PP
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+supports the following options for actions other than table checks and repairs:
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-analyze\fR,
+\fB\-a\fR
+.sp
+Analyze the distribution of key values. This improves join performance by enabling the join optimizer to better choose the order in which to join the tables and which indexes it should use. To obtain information about the key distribution, use a
+\fBmyisamchk \-\-description \-\-verbose \fR\fB\fItbl_name\fR\fR
+command or the
+SHOW INDEX FROM \fItbl_name\fR
+statement.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-block\-search=\fR\fB\fIoffset\fR\fR,
+\fB\-b \fR\fB\fIoffset\fR\fR
+.sp
+Find the record that a block at the given offset belongs to.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-description\fR,
+\fB\-d\fR
+.sp
+Print some descriptive information about the table.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-set\-auto\-increment[=\fR\fB\fIvalue\fR\fR\fB]\fR,
+\fB\-A[\fR\fB\fIvalue\fR\fR\fB]\fR
+.sp
+Force
+AUTO_INCREMENT
+numbering for new records to start at the given value (or higher, if there are existing records with
+AUTO_INCREMENT
+values this large). If
+\fIvalue\fR
+is not specified,
+AUTO_INCREMENT
+numbers for new records begin with the largest value currently in the table, plus one.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-sort\-index\fR,
+\fB\-S\fR
+.sp
+Sort the index tree blocks in high\-low order. This optimizes seeks and makes table scans that use indexes faster.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+\fB\-\-sort\-records=\fR\fB\fIN\fR\fR,
+\fB\-R \fR\fB\fIN\fR\fR
+.sp
+Sort records according to a particular index. This makes your data much more localized and may speed up range\-based
+SELECT
+and
+ORDER BY
+operations that use this index. (The first time you use this option to sort a table, it may be very slow.) To determine a table's index numbers, use
+SHOW INDEX, which displays a table's indexes in the same order that
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+sees them. Indexes are numbered beginning with 1.
+.sp
+If keys are not packed (PACK_KEYS=0), they have the same length, so when
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+sorts and moves records, it just overwrites record offsets in the index. If keys are packed (PACK_KEYS=1),
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+must unpack key blocks first, then re\-create indexes and pack the key blocks again. (In this case, re\-creating indexes is faster than updating offsets for each index.)
+.SH "\fBMYISAMCHK\fR MEMORY USAGE"
+.PP
+Memory allocation is important when you run
+\fBmyisamchk\fR.
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+uses no more memory than its memory\-related variables are set to. If you are going to use
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+on very large tables, you should first decide how much memory you want it to use. The default is to use only about 3MB to perform repairs. By using larger values, you can get
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+to operate faster. For example, if you have more than 32MB RAM, you could use options such as these (in addition to any other options you might specify):
+.sp
+.RS 3n
+.nf
+shell> \fBmyisamchk \-\-sort_buffer_size=16M \-\-key_buffer_size=16M \\\fR
+           \fB\-\-read_buffer_size=1M \-\-write_buffer_size=1M ...\fR
+.fi
+.RE
+.PP
+Using
+\fB\-\-sort_buffer_size=16M\fR
+should probably be enough for most cases.
+.PP
+Be aware that
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+uses temporary files in
+TMPDIR. If
+TMPDIR
+points to a memory file system, you may easily get out of memory errors. If this happens, run
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+with the
+\fB\-\-tmpdir=\fR\fB\fIpath\fR\fR
+option to specify some directory located on a file system that has more space.
+.PP
+When repairing,
+\fBmyisamchk\fR
+also needs a lot of disk space:
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+Double the size of the data file (the original file and a copy). This space is not needed if you do a repair with
+\fB\-\-quick\fR; in this case, only the index file is re\-created.
+\fIThis space must be available on the same file system as the original data file\fR, as the copy is created in the same directory as the original.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+Space for the new index file that replaces the old one. The old index file is truncated at the start of the repair operation, so you usually ignore this space. This space must be available on the same file system as the original data file.
+.TP 3n
+\(bu
+When using
+\fB\-\-recover\fR
+or
+\fB\-\-sort\-recover\fR
+(but not when using
+\fB\-\-safe\-recover\fR), you need space for a sort buffer. The following formula yields the amount of space required:
+.sp
+.RS 3n
+.nf
+(\fIlargest_key\fR + \fIrow_pointer_length\fR) \(mu \fInumber_of_rows\fR \(mu 2
+.fi
+.RE
+You can check the length of the keys and the
+row_pointer_length
+with
+\fBmyisamchk \-dv \fR\fB\fItbl_name\fR\fR. This space is allocated in the temporary directory (specified by
+TMPDIR
+or
+\fB\-\-tmpdir=\fR\fB\fIpath\fR\fR).
+.sp
+.RE
+.PP
+If you have a problem with disk space during repair, you can try
+\fB\-\-safe\-recover\fR
+instead of
+\fB\-\-recover\fR.
+.SH "COPYRIGHT"
+.PP
+Copyright 2007\-2008 MySQL AB, 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
+.PP
+This documentation is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it only under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.
+.PP
+This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
+.PP
+You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with the program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110\-1301 USA or see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
+.SH "SEE ALSO"
+For more information, please refer to the MySQL Reference Manual,
+which may already be installed locally and which is also available
+online at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.
+.SH AUTHOR
+MySQL AB (http://www.mysql.com/).