[cmpalmer@slowcore ~]$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 3
Server version: 5.0.45-community-log MySQL Community Edition (GPL)

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql> \s
--------------
mysql  Ver 14.12 Distrib 5.0.45, for pc-linux-gnu (i686) using readline 5.0

Connection id:          3
Current database:
Current user:           root@localhost
SSL:                    Not in use
Current pager:          stdout
Using outfile:          ''
Using delimiter:        ;
Server version:         5.0.45-community-log MySQL Community Edition (GPL)
Protocol version:       10
Connection:             Localhost via UNIX socket
Server characterset:    utf8
Db     characterset:    utf8
Client characterset:    utf8
Conn.  characterset:    utf8
UNIX socket:            /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
Uptime:                 15 min 58 sec

Threads: 1  Questions: 16  Slow queries: 0  Opens: 12  Flush tables: 1  Open tables: 6  Queries per second avg: 0.017
--------------

mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set%';
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| Variable_name            | Value                      |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| character_set_client     | utf8                       | 
| character_set_connection | utf8                       | 
| character_set_database   | utf8                       | 
| character_set_filesystem | binary                     | 
| character_set_results    | utf8                       | 
| character_set_server     | utf8                       | 
| character_set_system     | utf8                       | 
| character_sets_dir       | /usr/share/mysql/charsets/ | 
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
8 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%';
+----------------------+-----------------+
| Variable_name        | Value           |
+----------------------+-----------------+
| collation_connection | utf8_general_ci | 
| collation_database   | utf8_general_ci | 
| collation_server     | utf8_general_ci | 
+----------------------+-----------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql>