Add the directory where mysql is installed to your
PATH
setting. Then you’ll be able
to run mysql from any directory easily.
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 a lot
of unnecessary pathname typing. An additional benefit is that because
you can easily run mysql from anywhere, you will
have no need to put your datafiles in the same directory where
mysql is located. When you’re not
operating under the burden of running mysql from a
particular location, you’ll be free to organize your
files in a way that makes sense to you, not in a way imposed by some
artificial necessity. For example, you can create a directory under
your home directory for each database you have and put the files
associated with each database in the appropriate directory.
I’ve pointed out the importance of the search path
here because I receive many questions from people who
aren’t aware of the existence of such a thing, and
who consequently try to do all their MySQL-related work in the
bin
directory where mysql is
installed. This seems particularly common among Windows users.
Perhaps the reason is that, except for Windows NT and its
derivatives, the Windows Help application seems to be silent on the
subject of the command interpreter search path or how to set it.
(Apparently, Windows Help considers it dangerous for people to know
how to do something useful for themselves.)
Another way for Windows users to avoid typing the pathname or
changing into the mysql directory is to create a
shortcut and place it in a more convenient location. That has the
advantage of making it easy to start up mysql just
by opening the shortcut. To specify command-line options or the
startup directory, edit the shortcut’s properties.
If you don’t always invoke mysql
with the same options, it might be useful to create a shortcut
corresponding to each set of options you need—for example, one
shortcut to connect as an ordinary user for general work and another
to connect as the MySQL root
user for
administrative purposes.
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