Why is DROP DATABASE taking so long? (MySQL)

Rather than killing the process, it would be safer if you did it within MySQL:

$ mysqladmin processlist -u root -p
Enter password: 
+-----+------+-----------+-------------------+---------+------+-------+------------------+
| Id  | User | Host      | db                | Command | Time | State | Info             |
+-----+------+-----------+-------------------+---------+------+-------+------------------+
| 174 | root | localhost | example           | Sleep   | 297  |       |                  |
| 407 | root | localhost |                   | Query   | 0    |       | show processlist |
+-----+------+-----------+-------------------+---------+------+-------+------------------+

The query with id 174 is the one blocking deletion of the 'example' database, so before you kill any processes first let MySQL try to terminate the query:

$ mysqladmin kill 174

Run the processlist command above again to confirm that it was killed.

If this doesn't work, then you could perhaps look at killing the errant process, but before that you might try restarting the MySQL server.

You can also run commands like 'SHOW FULL PROCESSLIST' and 'KILL 174' in the MySQL shell, for example if you only have the MySQL client installed. The main point is to avoid killing the process using 'kill' in the shell unless absolutely necessary.

Generally speaking you can use either mysql or mysqladmin. You shouldn't need to be running commands like this that often though; once you start killing queries regularly something is definitely wrong and you'd be better off fixing that problem (killing the query process is just treating the symptom).

Though I thought that the import process had died, it was probably still running.

The DROP DATABASE command probably waited for the database to finish importing before it ran.

So, rather than DROP DATABASE taking a long time, it was probably just the import.

1.)

If anyone else reads this and is trying to cancel a database import and drop the database, I recommend you first find the PID (process id) for the import and run this from a different terminal:

$ kill [PID]

...where [PID] would be the actual PID for the process.

You should see the import halt immediately if the other terminal is still connected.

2.)

You could also run SHOW PROCESSLIST in the phpMyAdmin SQL tab. The resulting table shows running processes, and clicking the 'x' next to the row you want to kill should do the trick. This would be the same effect as the accepted answer or killing the mysql process from the mysql command line.

Then run

DROP DATABASE `database_name`;

And everything should be clean.

---

Another answer suggested that killing the process within mysql is better than doing it from outside. I have not tested that answer, but it sounds very plausible. So I have marked it as the "accepted answer" instead of this one.

I faced the same problem . But this time I checked show processlist; it said checking for permissions for longer time. Then I found that mysqld_safe was running as root whereas folder level permissions was only for mysql user. Hence I killed the query, ofcourse it took long time saying its in killed state but I waited for it to react then it killed the query and changed the folder level permissions to root also by adding it to group and chmod to 770. Then I executed the same drop database blah; it did work for me in 2 secs for 20GB database.