title: How do I rename an Index in MySQL
body: <p>I would like to rename an index.  I've looked at the <a href="http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/alter-table.html" rel="noreferrer">alter table</a> documentation, but I can't figure out the syntax to simply rename an index.  When doing it through the MySQL GUI, it drops the index, and creates a new one.  While this works, I would like to avoid rebuilding the entire index just to change the name of an index.</p>
  
  <p>[ADDITIONAL INFO]</p>
  
  <p>In the alter table documentation it states</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Alterations that modify only table
    metadata and not table data can be
    made immediately by altering the
    table's .frm file and not touching
    table contents. The following changes
    are fast alterations that can be made
    this way:</p>
  
  <pre><code>* Renaming a column or index.
  </code></pre>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>However, when I tried to rename the index by editing the .frm file (on a test database) and restarting the server, it now states "Could not fetch columns" in the UI when trying to list the columns, and when trying to run a query, it returns the error "Unknown table engine ''".  The .frm file has a lot of binary content.  Is there a good tool for editing the binary info.</p>