# Error: symbol mysql\_get\_server\_name, version libmysqlclient\_16 not defined

If you see the error message:

```bash
symbol mysql_get_server_name, version libmysqlclient_16 not defined in file libmysqlclient.so.16 with link time reference
```

...then you are probably trying to use the mysql command-line client from MariaDB with `libmysqlclient.so` from MySQL.

The symbol `mysql_get_server_name()` is something present in the MariaDB source tree and not in the MySQL tree.

If you have both the MariaDB client package and the MySQL client packages installed this error will happen if your system finds the MySQL version of`libmysqlclient.so` first.

To figure out which library is being linked in dynamically (for instance, the wrong one) use the 'ldd' tool.

```bash
ldd $(which mysql) | grep mysql
```

or

```bash
ldd /path/to/the/binary | grep mysql
```

For example:

```bash
me@mybox:~$ ldd $(which mysql)|grep mysql
        libmysqlclient.so.16 => /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.so.16 (0xb74df000)
```

You can then use your package manager's tools to find out which package the library belongs to.

On CentOS the command to find out which package installed a specific file is:

```bash
rpm -qf /path/to/file
```

On Debian-based systems, the command is:

```bash
dpkg -S /path/to/file
```

Here's an example of locating the library and finding out which package it belongs to on an Ubuntu system:

```bash
me@mybox:~$ ldd $(which mysql)|grep mysql
	libmysqlclient.so.16 => /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.so.16 (0xb75f8000)
me@mybox:~$ dpkg -S /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.so.16
libmariadbclient16: /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.so.16
```

The above shows that the mysql command-line client is using the library `/usr/lib/libmysqlclient.so.16` and that library is part of the `libmariadbclient16` Ubuntu package. Unsurprisingly, the mysql command-line client works perfectly on this system.

If the answer that came back had been something other than a MariaDB package, then it is likely there would have been issues with running the MariaDB mysql client application.

If the library that the system tries to use is not from a MariaDB package, the remedy is to remove the offending package (and possibly install or re-install the correct package) so that the correct library can be used.

<sub>*This page is licensed: CC BY-SA / Gnu FDL*</sub>

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