问题
Using MySQL on FreeBSD 8.2. How do I find out the default server character set? Is there some command I can run or file I can check?
UPDATE
Actually I want to know how to find both the default server character set and the current server character set.
回答1:
As documented under Server Character Set and Collation:
Initially, the server character set and collation depend on the options that you use when you start mysqld. You can use --character-set-server for the character set. Along with it, you can add --collation-server for the collation. If you don't specify a character set, that is the same as saying --character-set-server=latin1.
The default server character set is therefore Windows-1252, which MySQL calls latin1, unless your copy of MySQL has been compiled with some other default.
The manual goes on to say:
The current server character set and collation can be determined from the values of the character_set_server and collation_server system variables. These variables can be changed at runtime.
Therefore, to discover the server character set currently in use:
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set_server'
回答2:
According to documentation. This is what you need:
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set%';
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%';
Or even better:
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'c%';
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12327399/how-do-i-find-out-the-default-server-character-set-in-mysql