Suppress warning messages using mysql from within Terminal, but password written in bash script

When I tried running the following command on MySQL from within Terminal:

mysql -u $user -p$password -e "statement"

The execution works as expected, but it always issues a warning:

Warning: Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.

However, I have to conduct the statement above using an environment variable ($password) that stores my password, because I want to run the command iteratively in bash script from within Terminal, and I definitely don't like the idea of waiting a prompt showing up and forcing me to input my password 50 or 100 times in a single script. So here's my question:

• Is it feasible to suppress the warning? The command works properly as I stated, but the window becomes pretty messy when I loop over and run the command 50 or 100 times.

• Should I obey the warning message and do NOT write my password in my script? If that's the case, then do I have to type in my password every time the prompt forces me to do so?

Running man mysql doesn't help, saying only

--show-warnings
Cause warnings to be shown after each statement if there are any. This option applies to interactive and batch mode.

and mentions nothing about how to turn off the functionality, if I'm not missing something.

I'm on OS X 10.9.1 Mavericks and use MySQL 5.6 from homebrew.

Solution 1:

If your MySQL client/server version is a 5.6.x a way to avoid the WARNING message are using the mysql_config_editor tools:

mysql_config_editor set --login-path=local --host=localhost --user=username --password

Then you can use in your shell script:

mysql --login-path=local  -e "statement"

Instead of:

mysql -u username -p pass -e "statement"

Solution 2:

I use something like:

mysql --defaults-extra-file=/path/to/config.cnf

or

mysqldump --defaults-extra-file=/path/to/config.cnf 

Where config.cnf contains:

[client]
user = "whatever"
password = "whatever"
host = "whatever"

This allows you to have multiple config files - for different servers/roles/databases. Using ~/.my.cnf will only allow you to have one set of configuration (although it may be a useful set of defaults).

If you're on a Debian based distro, and running as root, you could skip the above and just use /etc/mysql/debian.cnf to get in ... :

mysql --defaults-extra-file=/etc/mysql/debian.cnf

Solution 3:

One method that is convenient (but equally insecure) is to use:

MYSQL_PWD=xxxxxxxx mysql -u root -e "statement"

Note that the official docs recommend against it.
See 6.1.2.1 End-User Guidelines for Password Security (Mysql Manual for Version 5.6):

Storing your password in the MYSQL_PWD environment variable

This method of specifying your MySQL password must be considered extremely insecure and should not be used. Some versions of ps include an option to display the environment of running processes. On some systems, if you set MYSQL_PWD, your password is exposed to any other user who runs ps. Even on systems without such a version of ps, it is unwise to assume that there are no other methods by which users can examine process environments.

Solution 4:

If you wish to use a password in the command line, I've found that this works for filtering out the specific error message:

mysqlcommand 2>&1 | grep -v "Warning: Using a password"

It's basically redirecting standard error to standard output -- and using grep to drop all lines that match "Warning: Using a password".

This way, you can see any other output, including errors. I use this for various shell scripts, etc.