EC
1402
MariaDBerrorserverhigh confidence

Help database is corrupt or does not exist

Production Risk

Low — only HELP command is affected; no data risk.

What this means

The HELP command could not retrieve information because the mysql.help_* tables are missing or corrupt.

Why it happens
  1. 1MySQL was installed without loading the help tables
  2. 2mysql.help_* tables were accidentally dropped
  3. 3Incomplete upgrade left help tables out of sync
How to reproduce
trigger — this will error
trigger — this will error
HELP 'SELECT';

expected output

ERROR 1402 (HY000): Help database is corrupt or does not exist

Fix

Reload help tables

Why this works

Run: mysql --user=root mysql < /usr/share/mysql/fill_help_tables.sql

Sources
Official documentation ↗

MySQL 8.0 — 1402 ER_CORRUPT_HELP_DB

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