mysql> use information_schema Reading table information for completion of table and column names You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A Database changed mysql> show tables; +---------------------------------------+ | Tables_in_information_schema | +---------------------------------------+ | CHARACTER_SETS | | COLLATIONS | | COLLATION_CHARACTER_SET_APPLICABILITY | | COLUMNS | | COLUMN_PRIVILEGES | | ENGINES | | EVENTS | | FILES | | GLOBAL_STATUS | | GLOBAL_VARIABLES | | KEY_COLUMN_USAGE | | PARTITIONS | | PLUGINS | | PROCESSLIST | | PROFILING | | REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS | | ROUTINES | | SCHEMATA | | SCHEMA_PRIVILEGES | | SESSION_STATUS | | SESSION_VARIABLES | | STATISTICS | | TABLES | | TABLE_CONSTRAINTS | | TABLE_PRIVILEGES | | TRIGGERS | | USER_PRIVILEGES | | VIEWS | +---------------------------------------+ 28 rows in set (0.00 sec)