mysql_config_editor

MYSQL_CONFIG_EDITOR(1)       MySQL Database System      MYSQL_CONFIG_EDITOR(1)

NAME
       mysql_config_editor - configure authentication information for
       connecting to MySQL server

SYNOPSIS
       mysql_config_editor options command

DESCRIPTION
       The mysql_config_editor utility enables you to store authentication
       credentials in an obfuscated login path file named .mylogin.cnf. The
       file location is the %APPDATA%\MySQL directory on Windows and the
       current user's home directory on non-Windows systems. The file can be
       read later by MySQL client programs to obtain authentication
       credentials for connecting to MySQL Server.

       The unobfuscated format of the .mylogin.cnf login path file consists of
       option groups, similar to other option files. Each option group in
       .mylogin.cnf is called a "login path," which is a group that permits
       only certain options: host, user, password, port and socket. Think of a
       login path option group as a set of options that specify which MySQL
       server to connect to and which account to authenticate as. Here is an
       unobfuscated example:

           [client]
           user = mydefaultname
           password = mydefaultpass
           host = 127.0.0.1
           [mypath]
           user = myothername
           password = myotherpass
           host = localhost

       When you invoke a client program to connect to the server, the client
       uses .mylogin.cnf in conjunction with other option files. Its
       precedence is higher than other option files, but less than options
       specified explicitly on the client command line. For information about
       the order in which option files are used, see Section 4.2.2.2, "Using
       Option Files".

       To specify an alternate login path file name, set the
       MYSQL_TEST_LOGIN_FILE environment variable. This variable is recognized
       by mysql_config_editor, by standard MySQL clients (mysql, mysqladmin,
       and so forth), and by the mysql-test-run.pl testing utility.

       Programs use groups in the login path file as follows:

       o   mysql_config_editor operates on the client login path by default if
           you specify no --login-path=name option to indicate explicitly
           which login path to use.

       o   Without a --login-path option, client programs read the same option
           groups from the login path file that they read from other option
           files. Consider this command:

               mysql

           By default, the mysql client reads the [client] and [mysql] groups
           from other option files, so it reads them from the login path file
           as well.

       o   With a --login-path option, client programs additionally read the
           named login path from the login path file. The option groups read
           from other option files remain the same. Consider this command:

               mysql --login-path=mypath

           The mysql client reads [client] and [mysql] from other option
           files, and [client], [mysql], and [mypath] from the login path
           file.

       o   Client programs read the login path file even when the
           --no-defaults option is used. This permits passwords to be
           specified in a safer way than on the command line even if
           --no-defaults is present.

       mysql_config_editor obfuscates the .mylogin.cnf file so it cannot be
       read as cleartext, and its contents when unobfuscated by client
       programs are used only in memory. In this way, passwords can be stored
       in a file in non-cleartext format and used later without ever needing
       to be exposed on the command line or in an environment variable.
       mysql_config_editor provides a print command for displaying the login
       path file contents, but even in this case, password values are masked
       so as never to appear in a way that other users can see them.

       The obfuscation used by mysql_config_editor prevents passwords from
       appearing in .mylogin.cnf as cleartext and provides a measure of
       security by preventing inadvertent password exposure. For example, if
       you display a regular unobfuscated my.cnf option file on the screen,
       any passwords it contains are visible for anyone to see. With
       .mylogin.cnf, that is not true, but the obfuscation used is not likely
       to deter a determined attacker and you should not consider it
       unbreakable. A user who can gain system administration privileges on
       your machine to access your files could unobfuscate the .mylogin.cnf
       file with some effort.

       The login path file must be readable and writable to the current user,
       and inaccessible to other users. Otherwise, mysql_config_editor ignores
       it, and client programs do not use it, either.

       Invoke mysql_config_editor like this:

           mysql_config_editor [program_options] command [command_options]

       If the login path file does not exist, mysql_config_editor creates it.

       Command arguments are given as follows:

       o   program_options consists of general mysql_config_editor options.

       o   command indicates what action to perform on the .mylogin.cnf login
           path file. For example, set writes a login path to the file, remove
           removes a login path, and print displays login path contents.

       o   command_options indicates any additional options specific to the
           command, such as the login path name and the values to use in the
           login path.

       The position of the command name within the set of program arguments is
       significant. For example, these command lines have the same arguments,
       but produce different results:

           mysql_config_editor --help set
           mysql_config_editor set --help

       The first command line displays a general mysql_config_editor help
       message, and ignores the set command. The second command line displays
       a help message specific to the set command.

       Suppose that you want to establish a client login path that defines
       your default connection parameters, and an additional login path named
       remote for connecting to the MySQL server the host remote.example.com.
       You want to log in as follows:

       o   By default, to the local server with a user name and password of
           localuser and localpass

       o   To the remote server with a user name and password of remoteuser
           and remotepass

       To set up the login paths in the .mylogin.cnf file, use the following
       set commands. Enter each command on a single line, and enter the
       appropriate passwords when prompted:

           $> mysql_config_editor set --login-path=client
                    --host=localhost --user=localuser --password
           Enter password: enter password "localpass" here
           $> mysql_config_editor set --login-path=remote
                    --host=remote.example.com --user=remoteuser --password
           Enter password: enter password "remotepass" here

       mysql_config_editor uses the client login path by default, so the
       --login-path=client option can be omitted from the first command
       without changing its effect.

       To see what mysql_config_editor writes to the .mylogin.cnf file, use
       the print command:

           $> mysql_config_editor print --all
           [client]
           user = localuser
           password = *****
           host = localhost
           [remote]
           user = remoteuser
           password = *****
           host = remote.example.com

       The print command displays each login path as a set of lines beginning
       with a group header indicating the login path name in square brackets,
       followed by the option values for the login path. Password values are
       masked and do not appear as cleartext.

       If you do not specify --all to display all login paths or
       --login-path=name to display a named login path, the print command
       displays the client login path by default, if there is one.

       As shown by the preceding example, the login path file can contain
       multiple login paths. In this way, mysql_config_editor makes it easy to
       set up multiple "personalities" for connecting to different MySQL
       servers, or for connecting to a given server using different accounts.
       Any of these can be selected by name later using the --login-path
       option when you invoke a client program. For example, to connect to the
       remote server, use this command:

           mysql --login-path=remote

       Here, mysql reads the [client] and [mysql] option groups from other
       option files, and the [client], [mysql], and [remote] groups from the
       login path file.

       To connect to the local server, use this command:

           mysql --login-path=client

       Because mysql reads the client and mysql login paths by default, the
       --login-path option does not add anything in this case. That command is
       equivalent to this one:

           mysql

       Options read from the login path file take precedence over options read
       from other option files. Options read from login path groups appearing
       later in the login path file take precedence over options read from
       groups appearing earlier in the file.

       mysql_config_editor adds login paths to the login path file in the
       order you create them, so you should create more general login paths
       first and more specific paths later. If you need to move a login path
       within the file, you can remove it, then recreate it to add it to the
       end. For example, a client login path is more general because it is
       read by all client programs, whereas a mysqldump login path is read
       only by mysqldump. Options specified later override options specified
       earlier, so putting the login paths in the order client, mysqldump
       enables mysqldump-specific options to override client options.

       When you use the set command with mysql_config_editor to create a login
       path, you need not specify all possible option values (host name, user
       name, password, port, socket). Only those values given are written to
       the path. Any missing values required later can be specified when you
       invoke a client path to connect to the MySQL server, either in other
       option files or on the command line. Any options specified on the
       command line override those specified in the login path file or other
       option files. For example, if the credentials in the remote login path
       also apply for the host remote2.example.com, connect to the server on
       that host like this:

           mysql --login-path=remote --host=remote2.example.com

       mysql_config_editor General Options

       mysql_config_editor supports the following general options, which may
       be used preceding any command named on the command line. For
       descriptions of command-specific options, see mysql_config_editor
       Commands and Command-Specific Options.

       o   --help, -?  Display a general help message and exit.

           To see a command-specific help message, invoke mysql_config_editor
           as follows, where command is a command other than help:

               mysql_config_editor command --help

       o   --debug[=debug_options], -# debug_options Write a debugging log. A
           typical debug_options string is d:t:o,file_name. The default is
           d:t:o,/tmp/mysql_config_editor.trace.

           This option is available only if MySQL was built using WITH_DEBUG.
           MySQL release binaries provided by Oracle are not built using this
           option.

       o   --verbose, -v Verbose mode. Print more information about what the
           program does. This option may be helpful in diagnosing problems if
           an operation does not have the effect you expect.

       o   --version, -V Display version information and exit.
       mysql_config_editor Commands and Command-Specific Options

       This section describes the permitted mysql_config_editor commands, and,
       for each one, the command-specific options permitted following the
       command name on the command line.

       In addition, mysql_config_editor supports general options that can be
       used preceding any command. For descriptions of these options, see
       mysql_config_editor General Options.

       mysql_config_editor supports these commands:

       o   help

           Display a general help message and exit. This command takes no
           following options.

           To see a command-specific help message, invoke mysql_config_editor
           as follows, where command is a command other than help:

               mysql_config_editor command --help

       o   print [options]

           Print the contents of the login path file in unobfuscated form,
           with the exception that passwords are displayed as *****.

           The default login path name is client if no login path is named. If
           both --all and --login-path are given, --all takes precedence.

           The print command permits these options following the command name:

           o   --help, -?

               Display a help message for the print command and exit.

               To see a general help message, use mysql_config_editor --help.

           o   --all

               Print the contents of all login paths in the login path file.

           o   --login-path=name, -G name

               Print the contents of the named login path.

       o   remove [options]

           Remove a login path from the login path file, or modify a login
           path by removing options from it.

           This command removes from the login path only such options as are
           specified with the --host, --password, --port, --socket, and --user
           options. If none of those options are given, remove removes the
           entire login path. For example, this command removes only the user
           option from the mypath login path rather than the entire mypath
           login path:

               mysql_config_editor remove --login-path=mypath --user

           This command removes the entire mypath login path:

               mysql_config_editor remove --login-path=mypath

           The remove command permits these options following the command
           name:

           o   --help, -?

               Display a help message for the remove command and exit.

               To see a general help message, use mysql_config_editor --help.

           o   --host, -h

               Remove the host name from the login path.

           o   --login-path=name, -G name

               The login path to remove or modify. The default login path name
               is client if this option is not given.

           o   --password, -p

               Remove the password from the login path.

           o   --port, -P

               Remove the TCP/IP port number from the login path.

           o   --socket, -S

               Remove the Unix socket file name from the login path.

           o   --user, -u

               Remove the user name from the login path.

           o   --warn, -w

               Warn and prompt the user for confirmation if the command
               attempts to remove the default login path (client) and
               --login-path=client was not specified. This option is enabled
               by default; use --skip-warn to disable it.

       o   reset [options]

           Empty the contents of the login path file.

           The reset command permits these options following the command name:

           o   --help, -?

               Display a help message for the reset command and exit.

               To see a general help message, use mysql_config_editor --help.

       o   set [options]

           Write a login path to the login path file.

           This command writes to the login path only such options as are
           specified with the --host, --password, --port, --socket, and --user
           options. If none of those options are given, mysql_config_editor
           writes the login path as an empty group.

           The set command permits these options following the command name:

           o   --help, -?

               Display a help message for the set command and exit.

               To see a general help message, use mysql_config_editor --help.

           o   --host=host_name, -h host_name

               The host name to write to the login path.

           o   --login-path=name, -G name

               The login path to create. The default login path name is client
               if this option is not given.

           o   --password, -p

               Prompt for a password to write to the login path. After
               mysql_config_editor displays the prompt, type the password and
               press Enter. To prevent other users from seeing the password,
               mysql_config_editor does not echo it.

               To specify an empty password, press Enter at the password
               prompt. The resulting login path written to the login path file
               includes a line like this:

                   password =

           o   --port=port_num, -P port_num

               The TCP/IP port number to write to the login path.

           o   --socket=file_name, -S file_name

               The Unix socket file name to write to the login path.

           o   --user=user_name, -u user_name

               The user name to write to the login path.

           o   --warn, -w

               Warn and prompt the user for confirmation if the command
               attempts to overwrite an existing login path. This option is
               enabled by default; use --skip-warn to disable it.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 1997, 2023, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

       This documentation is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
       modify it only under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
       published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.

       This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
       but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
       General Public License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
       with the program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
       51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA or see
       http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

SEE ALSO
       For more information, please refer to the MySQL Reference Manual, which
       may already be installed locally and which is also available online at
       http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.

AUTHOR
       Oracle Corporation (http://dev.mysql.com/).

MySQL 8.0                         08/31/2023            MYSQL_CONFIG_EDITOR(1)