Deleting MySQL tables via FTP

[GoWilkes]

I have dozens of tables that I would like to just delete entirely; they're just old log files that I have backed up a dozen times, anyway, so they're just taking up space for nothing.

Do I absolutely HAVE to drop them one at a time manually (which is going to take foreeeeever), or is there a reason that I can't just FTP to /var/lib/mysql/[user] and delete them all at once?

 

[kodeslogic]

It will be better to truncate such tables from PhpMyAdmin. Ensure you take a complete backup of the database before taking such action so you can recover if anything goes wrong.

 

[cPRex]

I also would not recommend doing any MySQL work over FTP. Those databases would be present on the system, and then suddenly they won't be there, so MySQL would likely interpret that as a problem.