MySQL Cookbook, 2nd Edition

What to Do if mysql Cannot Be Found

Problem

When you invoke mysql from the command line, your command interpreter can’t find it.

Solution

Add the directory where mysql is installed to your PATH setting. You’ll then be able to run mysql from any directory easily.

Discussion

If your shell or command interpreter can’t find mysql when you invoke it, you’ll see some sort of error message. It might look like this under Unix:

%mysql
mysql: Command not found.

Or like this under Windows:

C:\>mysql
Bad command or invalid filename

One way to tell your command interpreter where to find mysql is to type its full pathname each time you run it. The command might look like this under Unix:

%/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql

Or like this under Windows:

C:\>"C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin\mysql"

Typing long pathnames gets tiresome pretty quickly. You can avoid the need to do so by changing location into the directory where mysql is installed before you run it. However, I recommend that you not do that. If you do, you’ll be tempted to put all your datafiles and SQL batch files in the same directory as mysql, thus unnecessarily cluttering up what should be a location intended only for programs.

A better solution is to make sure that the directory where mysql is installed is included in the value of the PATH environment variable that lists pathnames of directories where the command interpreter looks for commands. You can then invoke mysql from any directory by entering just its name, and your command interpreter ...