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MySQL Cookbook
book

MySQL Cookbook

by Paul DuBois
October 2002
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
1024 pages
27h 26m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from MySQL Cookbook

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. Then you’ll 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 may 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 shell 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:\mysql\bin\mysql

Typing long pathnames gets tiresome pretty quickly, though. You can avoid doing so by changing into the directory where mysql is installed before you run it. However, I recommend that you not do that. If you do, the inevitable result is that you’ll end up putting all your datafiles and query 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 PATH environment variable that lists pathnames of directories where the shell looks for commands. (See Recipe 1.9.) Then you can invoke mysql from any directory by entering just its name, and your shell will be able to find it. This eliminates ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596001452Catalog PageErrata