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mysqlbinlog

The server's binary log consists of files containing “events” that describe modifications to database contents. The server writes these files in binary format. To display their contents in text format, use the mysqlbinlog utility. You can also use mysqlbinlog to display the contents of relay log files written by a replica server in a replication setup because relay logs have the same format as binary logs.

6.6.9 mysqlbinlog — Utility for Processing Binary Log Files

7.4.4.2 Setting The Binary Log Format​

You can select the binary logging format explicitly by starting the MySQL server with --binlog-format=_`type`_. The supported values for type are:

  • STATEMENT causes logging to be statement based.
  • ROW causes logging to be row based. This is the default.
  • MIXED causes logging to use mixed format.

7.4.4.2 Setting The Binary Log Format

Difference between Row, Statement and Mixed binlog format​

Statement-based replication is the fastest and most compact, but in some circumstances it can produce different (non-deterministic) results on slaves than on the master, resulting in inconsistency. An example might be:

UPDATE mytable SET a = a + 1 LIMIT 1;

There's no way to guarantee which row will get updated as there is no sort order on it and order on disk is not predictable or consistent.

Row based replication avoids this problem by replicating the changed data rather than the queries, but whereas a statement like:

UPDATE mytable SET a = a + 1;

requires replicating just a few bytes for statement-based replication no matter how many rows it affects: if it updates 1 million rows, row-based replication will replicate all 1 million rows, which will be much slower and create much bigger binary logs.

Mixed mode switches between the two, using whichever is most efficient or safe (for example, simple inserts are probably best done by row-based replication - using statements may be slower). The opportunity for problems comes in recognising which statements are non-deterministic, which is a non-trivial problem.

In summary:

  • Row-based: always safe, possibly very slow and inefficient in time and space
  • Statement-based: not always safe, but may be much faster
  • Mixed-mode: best of both worlds in theory, but could possibly get it wrong resulting in either slow performance, or wrong data depending on which way it gets it wrong!

database - Which binlog format to use for MySQL Replication? - Server Fault

19.2.1.3 Determination of Safe and Unsafe Statements in Binary Logging

Difference between row-based and statement-based replication in MySQL? - Database Administrators Stack Exchange

Comparing MySQL Statement-Based and Row-Based Replication | Database Journal

Is MySQL Statement-Based / Mixed Replication Really Safe?

Statement​

With statement-based binary logging, the source server writes the executed queries to the binary log. This is a very fast, compact, and efficient logging method that works perfectly in most cases. However, it is possible for the data on the source and replica to become different if a query is designed in such a way that the data modification is nondeterministic (generally not a recommended practice, even outside of replication).