--default-auth=plugin

A hint about which client-side authentication plugin to use. See Section 6.2.11, “Pluggable Authentication”.

--host=host_name, -h host_name

The host on which the MySQL server is running. The value can be a host name, IPv4 address, or IPv6 address. The default value is localhost.

--password[=pass_val], -p[pass_val]

The password of the MySQL account used for connecting to the server. The password value is optional. If not given, the program prompts for one. If given, there must be no space between --password= or -p and the password following it. If no password option is specified, the default is to send no password.

Specifying a password on the command line should be considered insecure. To avoid giving the password on the command line, use an option file. See Section 6.1.2.1, “End-User Guidelines for Password Security”.

To explicitly specify that there is no password and that the client program should not prompt for one, use the --skip-password option.

--pipe, -W

On Windows, connect to the server using a named pipe. This option applies only if the server was started with the named_pipe system variable enabled to support named-pipe connections. In addition, the user making the connection must be a member of the Windows group specified by the named_pipe_full_access_group system variable.

--plugin-dir=dir_name

The directory in which to look for plugins. Specify this option if the --default-auth option is used to specify an authentication plugin but the client program does not find it. See Section 6.2.11, “Pluggable Authentication”.

--port=port_num, -P port_num

For TCP/IP connections, the port number to use. The default port number is 3306.

--protocol={TCP|SOCKET|PIPE|MEMORY}

This option explicitly specifies which transport protocol to use for connecting to the server. It is useful when other connection parameters normally result in use of a protocol other than the one you want. For example, connections on Unix to localhost are made using a Unix socket file by default:

mysql --host=localhost

To force TCP/IP transport to be used instead, specify a --protocol option:

mysql --host=localhost --protocol=TCP

The following table shows the permissible --protocol option values and indicates the applicable platforms for each value. The values are not case-sensitive.

See also Section 4.2.5, “Connection Transport Protocols”

--secure-auth

Do not send passwords to the server in old (pre-4.1) format. This prevents connections except for servers that use the newer password format. This option is enabled by default; use --skip-secure-auth to disable it.

--shared-memory-base-name=name

On Windows, the shared-memory name to use for connections made using shared memory to a local server. The default value is MYSQL. The shared-memory name is case-sensitive.

This option applies only if the server was started with the shared_memory system variable enabled to support shared-memory connections.

--socket=path, -S path

On Unix, the name of the Unix socket file to use for connections made using a named pipe to a local server. The default Unix socket file name is /tmp/mysql.sock.

On Windows, the name of the named pipe to use for connections to a local server. The default Windows pipe name is MySQL. The pipe name is not case-sensitive.

On Windows, this option applies only if the server was started with the named_pipe system variable enabled to support named-pipe connections. In addition, the user making the connection must be a member of the Windows group specified by the named_pipe_full_access_group system variable.

--user=user_name, -u user_name

The user name of the MySQL account to use for connecting to the server. The default user name is ODBC on Windows or your Unix login name on Unix.

--server-public-key-path=file_name

The path name to a file in PEM format containing a client-side copy of the public key required by the server for RSA key pair-based password exchange. This option applies to clients that connect to the server with the sha256_password authentication plugin. This option is ignored for accounts that do not authenticate with that plugin. It is also ignored if RSA-based password exchange is not used, as is the case when the client connects to the server using a secure connection.

This option is available only if MySQL was built using OpenSSL.

For information about the sha256_password plugin, see Section 6.4.1.4, “SHA-256 Pluggable Authentication”.

--ssl, --skip-ssl

This option permits but does not require the client to connect to the server using encryption. Therefore, this option is not sufficient in itself to cause an encrypted connection to be used. For example, if you specify this option for a client program but the server has not been configured to support encrypted connections, the client falls back to an unencrypted connection.

--ssl may be implied by other --ssl-xxx options, as indicated in the descriptions for those options.

To specify additional parameters for encrypted connections, consider setting at least the ssl_cert and ssl_key system variables on the server side and the --ssl-ca option on the client side. See Section 6.3.1, “Configuring MySQL to Use Encrypted Connections”.

The --ssl option in negated form indicates that encryption should not be used and overrides other --ssl-xxx options. Specify the option as --skip-ssl or a synonym (--ssl=0, --disable-ssl). For example, you might have options specified in the [client] group of your option file to use encrypted connections by default when you invoke MySQL client programs. To use an unencrypted connection instead, invoke the client program with --ssl=0 on the command line to override the options in the option file.

To require use of encrypted connections by a MySQL account, use a GRANT statement for the account that includes a REQUIRE SSL clause. This causes connection attempts by clients that use the account to be rejected unless MySQL supports encrypted connections and an encrypted connection can be established.

The REQUIRE clause permits other encryption-related options, which can be used to enforce security requirements stricter than REQUIRE SSL. For additional details about which command options may or must be specified by clients that connect using accounts configured using the various REQUIRE options, see the description of REQUIRE in Section 13.7.1.4, “GRANT Statement”.

--ssl-ca=file_name

The path name of the Certificate Authority (CA) certificate file in PEM format. The file contains a list of trusted SSL Certificate Authorities. This option implies --ssl.

To tell the client not to authenticate the server certificate when establishing an encrypted connection to the server, specify neither --ssl-ca nor --ssl-capath. The server still verifies the client according to any applicable requirements established for the client account, and it still uses any ssl_ca or ssl_capath system variable values specified on the server side.

To specify the CA file for the server, set the ssl_ca system variable.

--ssl-capath=dir_name

The path name of the directory that contains trusted SSL certificate authority (CA) certificate files in PEM format. Support for this capability depends on the SSL library used to compile MySQL; see Section 6.3.4, “SSL Library-Dependent Capabilities”. This option implies --ssl.

To tell the client not to authenticate the server certificate when establishing an encrypted connection to the server, specify neither --ssl-ca nor --ssl-capath. The server still verifies the client according to any applicable requirements established for the client account, and it still uses any ssl_ca or ssl_capath system variable values specified on the server side.

To specify the CA directory for the server, set the ssl_capath system variable.

--ssl-cert=file_name

The path name of the client SSL public key certificate file in PEM format. This option implies --ssl.

To specify the server SSL public key certificate file, set the ssl_cert system variable.

--ssl-cipher=cipher_list

The list of permissible ciphers for connection encryption. If no cipher in the list is supported, encrypted connections do not work. This option implies --ssl.

For greatest portability, cipher_list should be a list of one or more cipher names, separated by colons. This format is understood both by OpenSSL and yaSSL. Examples:

--ssl-cipher=AES128-SHA
--ssl-cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:AES128-SHA

OpenSSL supports a more flexible syntax for specifying ciphers, as described in the OpenSSL documentation at https://www.openssl.org/docs/manmaster/man1/ciphers.html. yaSSL does not, so attempts to use that extended syntax fail for a MySQL distribution compiled using yaSSL.

For information about which encryption ciphers MySQL supports, see Section 6.3.2, “Encrypted Connection TLS Protocols and Ciphers”.

To specify the encryption ciphers for the server, set the ssl_cipher system variable.

--ssl-crl=file_name

The path name of the file containing certificate revocation lists in PEM format. Support for revocation-list capability depends on the SSL library used to compile MySQL. See Section 6.3.4, “SSL Library-Dependent Capabilities”. This option implies --ssl.

If neither --ssl-crl nor --ssl-crlpath is given, no CRL checks are performed, even if the CA path contains certificate revocation lists.

To specify the revocation-list file for the server, set the ssl_crl system variable.

--ssl-crlpath=dir_name

The path name of the directory that contains certificate revocation-list files in PEM format. Support for revocation-list capability depends on the SSL library used to compile MySQL. See Section 6.3.4, “SSL Library-Dependent Capabilities”. This option implies --ssl.

If neither --ssl-crl nor --ssl-crlpath is given, no CRL checks are performed, even if the CA path contains certificate revocation lists.

To specify the revocation-list directory for the server, set the ssl_crlpath system variable.

--ssl-key=file_name

The path name of the client SSL private key file in PEM format. For better security, use a certificate with an RSA key size of at least 2048 bits. This option implies --ssl.

If the key file is protected by a passphrase, the client program prompts the user for the passphrase. The password must be given interactively; it cannot be stored in a file. If the passphrase is incorrect, the program continues as if it could not read the key.

To specify the server SSL private key file, set the ssl_key system variable.

--ssl-mode=mode

This option specifies the desired security state of the connection to the server:

The --ssl-mode option was added in MySQL 5.6.30.

--ssl-verify-server-cert

This option causes the client to perform host name identity verification by checking the host name the client uses for connecting to the server against the identity in the certificate that the server sends to the client:

The connection fails if there is a mismatch. For encrypted connections, this option helps prevent man-in-the-middle attacks. Host name identity verification is disabled by default.