title: Innodb - Running an INSERT INTO SELECT - do records not show up until the whole thing is done?
body: <p>I have a table of 26 million records, and wanted to add some columns to it, so I made a new table with the added columns then did a 
      <code>INSERT INTO table_new SELECT (field1,field2) FROM table_old</code></p>
  
  <p>I'm told this is quicker than trying to add columns to the existing table.</p>
  
  <p>In any case, with 26 million records, this has taken a long time, and monitoring the process with MySQL Workbench, I see the process still running (40 hours and counting).</p>
  
  <p>However, when I do a <code>SELECT * FROM table_new</code>, I don't see any records yet. With InnoDB, does it wait until the entire transaction is complete before I see any of the 26 million records in the new table? Or should I see the records inserted one-by-one in real time?</p>
  
  <p>I'm looking at the status variable <code>Innodb_rows_inserted</code>, which previously was counting up steadily yesterday, and I think should represent my progress from 0 to 26-million, but now it is stationary at 14-million and not increasing in real time anymore :S, yet my <code>INSERT INTO SELECT</code> process is still running. I'm worried something's wrong.</p>
  
  <p>How can I check that everything is working as expected?</p>