How to Use MySQL GRANT to Grant Privileges to Account

MySQL GRANT Statement Explained

In order to give access privileges to an account, you use the MySQL GRANT statement with the syntax as follows:

GRANT privileges (column_list)
ON [object_type] privilege_level
TO account [IDENTIFIED BY 'password']
[REQUIRE encryption]
WITH with_options

If the account exists, MySQL modifies its privileges. If account does not exist, GRANT statement creates a new account with the specified privileges. Besides granting privileges to the account, the GRANT statement also sets other account's characteristics such as limit on access to the database server resources and use secure connection. If you want to grant a privilege to an account, you must have that privilege and GRANT OPTION privilege. We will examine the MySQL GRANT statement in detail as follows:

privileges indicates the privileges to assign to the account. For example the CREATE privilege allows user to create database and tables. You can assign multiple privileges at a time. Each privilege is separated by a comma. You can use the privileges in the table 1.1 below.
column_list specifies the columns to which a privilege applies. Each column is separated by commas and listed within parentheses. The column_list is optional.
privilege_level specifies the level at which the privileges apply. You can use global privileges, database-specific privileges, table-specific privileges, column-specific privileges…
account specifies which account is being granted the privileges.
password specifies the password to assign to the account. If the account exists, the GRANT statement replaces the old password. Like the CREATE USER statement, you use plaintext password followed by the IDENTIFIED BY. The IDENTIFIED BY clause is optional.
After the REQUIRE clause, you specifies whether the user has to connect to the database server over secure connection using SSL.
If you want the account to have the privilege to grant its own privileges to other accounts, you need to use WITH with GRANT OPTION. In addition, WITH clause is used to allocate the database server's resource that enable you to set how many connections or statements an account can use per hour.

The MySQL GRANT statement is normally used with the CREATE USER statement. You create a new user first before granting privileges to that user.

Examples with MySQL GRANT

Let's practice with some examples to have a better understanding of MySQL GRANT statement. If you want to create a superuser account that can do anything including being able to grant privileges to other user you can use the following queries:

CREATE USER 'super'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'SecurePass1';

GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'super'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

The ON *.* clause means all databases and all objects in them. The only limit here is that super can only connect to the database server from localhost, which makes the server more secured. To create a user that has all access in our sample database classicmodels and can connect from any host you use the following queries:

CREATE USER 'super2'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'SecurePass2';

GRANT ALL classicmodels.* TO 'super2'@'%' WITH GRANT OPTION;

You can grant multiple privileges at a time; a comma separates each privilege. For example, you can create a user to use SELECT, INSERT and UPDATE statements on our sample database classicmodels, you can use the following queries:

CREATE USER 'rfc'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'SecurePass3';

GRANT SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE ON  classicmodels.* TO 'rfc'@'%';

Available privileges to use with MySQL GRANT

Here is the table that lists all the available privileges in MySQL

Privilege	Description
ALL [PRIVILEGES]	Grant all privileges at specified access level except GRANT OPTION
ALTER	Allow to use of ALTER TABLE statement
ALTER ROUTINE	Allow user to alter or drop stored routine
CREATE	Allow user to create database and table
CREATE ROUTINE	Allow user to create stored routine
CREATE TABLESPACE	Allow user to create, alter or drop tablespaces and log file groups
CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES	Allow user to create temporary table by using CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE
CREATE USER	Allow user to use the CREATE USER, DROP USER, RENAME USER, and REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES statements.
CREATE VIEW	Allow user to create or modify view
DELETE	Allow user to use DELETE
DROP	Allow user to drop database, table and view
EVENT	Allow user to schedule events in Event Scheduler
EXECUTE	Allow user to execute stored routines
FILE	Allow user to read any file in the database directory.
GRANT OPTION	Allow user to have privileges to grant or revoke privileges from other accounts
INDEX	Allow user to create or remove indexes.
INSERT	Allow user to use INSERT statement
LOCK TABLES	Allow user to use LOCK TABLES on tables for which you have the SELECT privilege
PROCESS	Allow user to see all processes with SHOW PROCESSLIST statement.
PROXY	Enable user proxying
REFERENCES	Not implemented
RELOAD	Allow user to use FLUSH operations
REPLICATION CLIENT	Allow user to query to see where master or slave servers are
REPLICATION SLAVE	Allow user to use replicate slaves to read binary log events from the master.
SELECT	Allow user to use SELECT statement
SHOW DATABASES	Allow user to show all databases
SHOW VIEW	Allow user to use SHOW CREATE VIEW statement
SHUTDOWN	Allow user to use mysqladmin shutdown command
SUPER	Allow user to use other administrative operations such as CHANGE MASTER TO, KILL, PURGE BINARY LOGS, SET GLOBAL, and mysqladmin command
TRIGGER	Allow user to use TRIGGER operations.
UPDATE	Allow user to use UPDATE statement
USAGE	Equivalent to “no privileges”

Table 1.1

In this tutorial, you've learned how to use MySQL GRANT statement to grant various privileges to users with different options.

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How to Use MySQL GRANT to Grant Privileges to Account

MySQL GRANT Statement Explained

Examples with MySQL GRANT

Available privileges to use with MySQL GRANT

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