MySQL Cookbook

Mixing Command-Line and Option File Parameters

Problem

You’d rather not store your MySQL password in an option file, but you don’t want to enter your username and server host manually.

Solution

Put the username and host in the option file, and specify the password interactively when you invoke mysql; it looks both in the option file and on the command line for connection parameters. If an option is specified in both places, the one on the command line takes precedence.

Discussion

mysql first reads your option file to see what connection parameters are listed there, then checks the command line for additional parameters. This means you can specify some options one way, and some the other way.

Command-line parameters take precedence over parameters found in your option file, so if for some reason you need to override an option file parameter, just specify it on the command line. For example, you might list your regular MySQL username and password in the option file for general purpose use. If you need to connect on occasion as the MySQL root user, specify the user and password options on the command line to override the option file values:

% mysql -p -u root

To explicitly specify “no password” when there is a non-empty password in the option file, use -p on the command line, and then just press Return when mysql prompts you for the password:

% mysql -pEnter password: ← press Return here