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Developer ToolsAlternative to pt-online-schema-changeAlternative to FlywayAlternative to AWS DMS

gh-ost

Triggerless online schema migration tool for MySQL developed by GitHub engineering.

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LicenseMIT
GitHub stars12.5k
Last commit1 weeks ago
Tags6 topics
Mysql MigrationsZero Downtime DbGithub OssDevopsOnline Schema ChangeGolang
Overview

Why consider gh-ost?

gh-ost is GitHub’s triggerless online schema migration tool for MySQL. Written in Go, it inspects MySQL binary logs (binlog stream) to replicate row mutations to ghost tables asynchronously, enabling large-scale schema changes on live multi-terabyte production databases without table locks.

Guided learning

Learn gh-ost by building

Practical setup notes, real use cases, and copy-ready examples in one focused guide.

1 min read 2 sections
In this guide2 sections

Overview of gh-ost

gh-ost executes non-blocking MySQL ALTER TABLE statements with pause, throttle, and panic rollback controls.

Quickstart

bash
1gh-ost --user=root --password=secret --host=127.0.0.1 --database=prod --table=users --alter="ADD COLUMN phone VARCHAR(20)" --execute

gh-ost is licensed under the permissive MIT License.

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gh-ost FAQs

gh-ost is listed as a Developer Tools tool on TiloBox. Review the overview, features, and official documentation on this page to decide whether it solves your specific workflow.

Start with the project's GitHub repository and official website for supported installation and deployment instructions. Test the setup with representative data or a small project before rolling it out more widely.

gh-ost is listed under the MIT license. Read the complete license text and the project's notices before using, modifying, or distributing the software.

Production readiness depends on your requirements. Review maintenance activity, security practices, documentation, backup and upgrade procedures, and compatibility with your stack; then validate it in a non-production environment.

gh-ost is listed as an alternative to pt-online-schema-change. Compare the core workflow, deployment model, integrations, and licensing against your must-have requirements before switching.