MySQL/MariaDB: Run SQL Queries From A Shell Prompt / Command Line

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How do I specify or run MySQL or MariaDB SQL queries on the UNIX or Linux command line?

The mysql command line has option to execute the SQL statement and quit. This is also useful for running sql queries from a shell script or the bash prompt.

Syntax

The syntax is as follows for both MariaDB and MySQL client:

mysql -u user -p -e 'Your SQL Query Here' database-name

OR

mysql -u USER -p PASSWORD -h MYSQLSERVERNAME -e 'select * from foo...' database-name

Where,

  • -u : Specify mysql database user name
  • -p : Prompt for password
  • -e : Execute sql query
  • database : Specify database name

Examples

To list all database, enter:
$ mysql -u vivek -p -e 'show databases;'
To list count all rows, enter:
$ mysql -u vivek -p -e 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM quotes' cbzquotes
Sample output:

Enter password: 
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|      471 | 
+----------+

Tell mysql to display output a page at a time, by using more or less pager:
$ mysql --pager=/usr/bin/less -u vivek -p -e 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM quotes' cbzquotes
Redirect out to a file:
$ mysql -u vivek -p 'PassWord' -e 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM quotes' cbzquotes > sql.output.txt

Say hello to MYSQL configuration file

To avoid password prompt just create ~/.my.cnf file as follows:

[client]
# for local server use localhost
#host=localhost
host=10.0.1.100
user=vivek
password=myPassword
 
[mysql]
pager=/usr/bin/less

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin, DevOps engineer, and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin, Linux/Unix and open source topics via RSS/XML feed or weekly email newsletter.

21 comment

  3. Very helpful, but any idea how to get a statement line:

    select * from users where fname=’Dave’

    to work? I just cannot find a way to eacape the quote characters and it’s driving me nuts!!

  5. Try using double quotes for the SQL statement – worked for me.
    i.e. mysql -e “select * from users where fname=’Dave’” dbname

  7. I wish I had read these comments earlier, that double quote requirement wasted about 30 minutes of my time today..lol

    Oh well… and thanks for the article… I’m using it in a perl script via a system call :)

  11. Great post thanks for sharing. Should really be updated to include Andrew McGregor’s correction.

  13. This post saved my butt. I had to edit about 1500 records between 2 databases and this made it happen in a hour instead of about 2 weeks.

  14. This could help to avoid password prompt
    mysql –user=dbuser –password=’mypassword’ asterisk -e ‘SELECT * FROM cdr’;

  15. Very useful, especially with double quote (if you want to pass variables from bash to
    mysql, for example). Thank you very much.

  16. i used the history command to see the previously executed commands how can i remove all the contents without actually deleting the file or without using rm command

  17. work for me (centos 6):
    mysql -u $rootusr -p$rootpw -e “INSERT INTO db_site (name, domain) VALUES (‘$domain’, ‘$domain’)” db_session;

    note: remove chracter: “`” in sql string

  18. This does not work…
    mysql -uUSER -pPASSWORD -e “select * from this-test” dbname

    …because of the “-” in the query. Is there an escape character to allow for dashes in a query? The same query works fine if I log in to mysql and enter it at the mysql prompt but it doesn’t work from a Linus prompt.

    1. Try single quotes and –?
      mysql -uUSER -pPASSWORD -e 'select * from this-test' dbname
      OR
      mysql -uUSER -pPASSWORD -e -- 'select * from this-test' dbname

  20. If I’m getting the count(*), is there any way to have it written to a variable in my shell script or does it have to go to a file and then be parsed?

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