MySQL Reference Manual :: 13.5.4.8 SHOW ENGINES Syntax

SHOW [STORAGE] ENGINES

SHOW ENGINES shows you status information about the storage engines. This is particularly useful for checking whether a storage engine is supported, or to see what the default engine is. This statement is implemented in MySQL 4.1.2. SHOW TABLE TYPES is a deprecated synonym.

mysql> SHOW ENGINES\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
 Engine: MyISAM
Support: DEFAULT
Comment: Default engine as of MySQL 3.23 with great performance
*************************** 2. row ***************************
 Engine: HEAP
Support: YES
Comment: Alias for MEMORY
*************************** 3. row ***************************
 Engine: MEMORY
Support: YES
Comment: Hash based, stored in memory, useful for temporary tables
*************************** 4. row ***************************
 Engine: MERGE
Support: YES
Comment: Collection of identical MyISAM tables
*************************** 5. row ***************************
 Engine: MRG_MYISAM
Support: YES
Comment: Alias for MERGE
*************************** 6. row ***************************
 Engine: ISAM
Support: NO
Comment: Obsolete storage engine, now replaced by MyISAM
*************************** 7. row ***************************
 Engine: MRG_ISAM
Support: NO
Comment: Obsolete storage engine, now replaced by MERGE
*************************** 8. row ***************************
 Engine: InnoDB
Support: YES
Comment: Supports transactions, row-level locking, and foreign keys
*************************** 9. row ***************************
 Engine: INNOBASE
Support: YES
Comment: Alias for INNODB
*************************** 10. row ***************************
 Engine: BDB
Support: YES
Comment: Supports transactions and page-level locking
*************************** 11. row ***************************
 Engine: BERKELEYDB
Support: YES
Comment: Alias for BDB
*************************** 12. row ***************************
 Engine: NDBCLUSTER
Support: YES
Comment: Clustered, fault-tolerant, memory-based tables
*************************** 13. row ***************************
 Engine: NDB
Support: YES
Comment: Alias for NDBCLUSTER
*************************** 14. row ***************************
 Engine: EXAMPLE
Support: YES
Comment: Example storage engine
*************************** 15. row ***************************
 Engine: ARCHIVE
Support: YES
Comment: Archive storage engine
*************************** 16. row ***************************
 Engine: CSV
Support: YES
Comment: CSV storage engine
*************************** 17. row ***************************
 Engine: FEDERATED
Support: YES
Comment: Federated MySQL storage engine

A Support value indicates whether the particular storage engine is supported, and which is the default engine. For example, if the server is started with the --default-table-type=InnoDB option, then the Support value for the InnoDB row has the value DEFAULT.