Mysqldump password issue

[Matthew Seaman]

Andrei Brezan wrote:
> Hello list,
> 
> I wanna do a
> mysqldump -u user -ppasswd --all-databases > backup.sql
> 
> and all I get is
> mysqldump: No match.
> 
> This happens either i put --all-databases or I specify any of the
> databases. I want to do a backup as user root, that's why I use
> all-databases opt.
> 
> If I use the command:
> mysqldump -u root -p --all-databases >backup.sql
> I get the password prompt, I type the passwd and everythig works great.
> It seems that there is a problem with -p, i've tried --password with
> same result.
> 
> If anyone has any ideea please let me know about it.
> I mention that i use Freebsd 7_0 and mysql 5.0.67
> 

My guess is that the password (which you've obviously elided) contains
characters of syntactic significance to the shell.  Any of the following
will lead to wailing and gnashing of teeth:

  * ? [ < > & ; ! | $

Probably others as well.  The general way to get round this is to
put 'quote' marks around your password -- but this will only work if
the password is a separate word on the command line -- ie. whitespace
between it and any other tokens.  I believe that the '-p' flag to MySQL
is a bit painful in that regard as it doesn't allow whitespace between
itself and the password.  Hmmm... untested, but it should work if you
just quote around the -p like so: '-ppassword'.

Alternatively, just change the password to one containing less
troublesome characters: a-zA-Z0-9:@#~+=-_^%., I recommend use of
'apg' to generate randomised but strangely memorable passwords.  Oh,
and simply making the password longer makes it much more secure even
if you're limited to a relatively small alphabet.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
                                                  Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
                                                  Kent, CT11 9PW

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