Upsert data from CSV to MySQL table via command line on Linux

Want to upsert data from CSV file to existing MySQL table via command line on Linux (Ubuntu/RedHat/CentOS…)?

Using my-cmd, a Command-Line client for MySQL, you can upsert(merge) CSV/TSV/TXT data to MySQL (MariaDB, Percona) table easily and fast.

Support Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

Download my-cmd Linux version
my-cmd.linux-386.zip
my-cmd.linux-amd64.zip
my-cmd.linux-arm64.zip

No need to install MySQL client library.

Convenient to deploy to cloud. No need to run installation file, just uncompress and run, immediately.

Upsert/Merge CSV/TSV/TXT data into MySQL (MariaDB, Percona) table via command line on Linux

1. In interactive mode:

my-cmd> load loadtype=upsert
      > updatekey=id
      > table=media_messages 
      > datafile=/data/media_messages.csv 
      > delimiter=, 
      > quote=" 
      > header=y;

2. In batch mode:

my-cmd dsn="pan:withdata@192.168.0.102/test" task=load loadtype=upsert updatekey=id table=media_messages datafile=/data/media_messages.csv delimiter=, quote=" header=y quit=y

“loadtype=upsert” will update row in table if “updatekey” id exists, or insert new row.

See parameters detail.

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More about my-cmd – Command-Line client for MySQL

CSV → MySQL reference

Type mapping

Value kind	in CSV	in MySQL
Int	1234	INT
Bigint	9007199254740993	BIGINT
Decimal	1234.56	DECIMAL(p,s)
Float	1.234e+10	DOUBLE
Text	quoted only when it contains a comma or a quote	VARCHAR(n)
Long text	must be quoted; line breaks inside force multi-line records	LONGTEXT
Date	2026-09-18	DATE
Datetime	2026-09-18 14:30:00	DATETIME
Binary	not representable - base64 or hex string	LONGBLOB
Boolean	TRUE / FALSE, or 1 / 0 depending on the writer	TINYINT(1)
JSON	the whole JSON value quoted, with internal quotes doubled	JSON

Dialect differences

CSV is a file format and MySQL is a database server, so the target has to be told the types the file never carried - the rows below are where the two sides diverge.

Property	in CSV	in MySQL
port	—	3306
identifiers	Double quotes; a literal quote is doubled ("" )	`backtick`
row limit	—	LIMIT n
dates	Conventional text: 2026-09-18 or 2026-09-18 14:30:00	DATETIME, TIMESTAMP, DATE, TIME
long text	—	TINYTEXT / TEXT / MEDIUMTEXT / LONGTEXT
binary	Not supported	BLOB / TINYBLOB / LONGBLOB
separator	Comma ","	—
encoding	No declaration - UTF-8 works only with a BOM	—
typing	None - every field is text	—
shape	Flat table, optional header row	Tables of rows and columns
ceiling	No formal limit; row count bounded by memory	—

Command line

Side	Command
MySQL	mysqldump, or mysql -e "SELECT ..." > out.csv
MySQL (load)	mysqlimport, or LOAD DATA INFILE

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