Connection and Authentication Options

--host hostname

Connect to remote MySQL/MariaDB server via TCP/IP hostname or IP address.

--port port

TCP/IP port number to connect to (default: 3306).

--socket socket_path

Path to local UNIX domain socket for database communication.

--user username

Database username for authentication.

--password password, --pass password

Database password for authentication.

--ask-pass

Prompt interactively for database password on the terminal.

--defaults-file path

Path to a custom MySQL configuration file (e.g., "~/.my.cnf").

--defaults-extra-file path

Path to an additional configuration file to read after standard defaults.

--login-path path

Read credentials from MySQL encrypted login path (via "mysql_config_editor").

--mysqlcmd path

Path to custom "mysql" client binary.

--mysqladmin path

Path to custom "mysqladmin" binary.

--tli

Use Transport Layer Interface abstraction.

--ssl-ca path

Path to SSL Certificate Authority (CA) certificate.

--caching-sha2-password

Force caching_sha2_password authentication plugin mode.

Target Environment and Cloud Discovery Options

--container container_name_or_id

Execute diagnostics inside a running Docker or Podman container.

--ssh-host hostname

Execute diagnostics over SSH remote transport.

--ssh-user username

SSH login username.

--ssh-key path

Path to SSH private key file.

--ssh-port port

SSH daemon port (default: 22).

--aws-profile profile

AWS CLI profile for Amazon RDS / Aurora cluster discovery.

--aws-region region

AWS Region for RDS / Aurora discovery.

--aws-cluster-identifier id

Amazon RDS / Aurora cluster identifier.

--aws-instance-identifier id

Amazon RDS instance identifier.

--gcp-project project_id

Google Cloud project ID for Cloud SQL instances.

--gcp-instance instance_id

Google Cloud SQL instance identifier.

--azure-resource-group group

Azure resource group for Azure Database for MySQL.

--azure-server-name name

Azure MySQL flexible/single server name.

Performance and Diagnostic Tuning Options

--forcemem size

Amount of physical RAM installed in host (e.g., "16G", "1024M", "128K").

--forceswap size

Amount of configured swap space on host (e.g., "4G", "2048M").

--skipworkload

Bypass high-cardinality table churn and auto-increment exhaustion checks.

--skippassword

Skip offline dictionary checks for weak user passwords.

--skipsize

Skip table size enumeration queries on "information_schema".

--buffers

Print detailed per-buffer memory allocations.

--cvefile path

Path to custom CVE vulnerabilities CSV database file.

--passwordfile path

Path to custom dictionary file for password audits.

--checkversion

Check for upstream MySQLTuner version updates.

--nondedicated

Adjust tuning formulas assuming the host runs non-database workloads.

--noprocess

Skip OS-level non-mysqld process enumeration.

Output and Export Options

--verbose, -v

Activate full verbose output including storage engines and table statistics.

--silent

Suppress standard console output.

--outputfile path

Save console report to plain text file.

--reportfile [path]

Generate interactive self-contained HTML diagnostic dashboard.

--json

Output raw diagnostic results as a JSON string.

--prettyjson

Output diagnostic results as formatted, indented JSON.

--agent-json

Output actionable AI remediation schema with SQL/config fixes and rollback statements.

--yaml

Output diagnostic metrics in YAML format.

--dumpdir path

Dump diagnostic data files and Markdown schema summaries to target directory.

--schemadir path

Export individual Markdown documentation files with Mermaid ER diagrams per schema.

--nocolor

Disable ANSI color codes in terminal output.

--noprettyicon

Use plain text markers ([OK], [!!], [--]) instead of Unicode icons.

--stage-timings

Display execution duration for each analysis stage.

Debugging and Filtering Options

--debug

Print internal debug traces and SQL query payloads.

--dbgpattern regex

Filter debug messages by regular expression pattern.

--nobad

Suppress negative findings and warning recommendations.

--nogood

Suppress positive / passing health checks.

--noinfo

Suppress informational messages.

INTERNALS

<https://github.com/jmrenouard/MySQLTuner-perl/blob/master/INTERNALS.md>

 Internal documentation