Hello chaps,

ok im trying to make an automated setup script to setup a server.

Now when trying to execeute a mysql command i keep getting errors due to one of the values needed backquotes.

for example:
mysql -D WS --password="whatever" -u root -e "CREATE TABLE example (`sqlquery` text NOT NULL);"

sqlquery needs to be inside backquotes because of its name, its the only mysql command thats doing it and its driving me mad! so, how can i get this to work? if i run the about i get "sqlquery command not found" iv tried using \`sqlquery\` but no joy.

can anyone help me with this?

thanks

try single quotes?

mysql -D WS --password="whatever" -u root -e 'CREATE TABLE example (`sqlquery` text NOT NULL);'

from the bash man page:

What if you put single quotes around the argument of -e?
They should protect back quotes from command substitution in bash.

Edit: beaten by grepmasterd for a bunch of seconds!

The single quotes variant did work on my Linux box:
mysql -D test --password="" -uroot -e 'CREATE TABLE example (`sqlquery` text NOT NULL);'
Though I don't understand why sqlquery needs backticks at all. On my system it becomes simply the fieldname. Am I missing something peculiar to mySQL?

Linux Archive

Can you please cut paste the entire command AND the error from console.

The general is you only need backticks for a col name if it is also an SQL reserved word or has spaces in it or other special chars.
Personally I avoid those like the plague, as I also avoid spaces etc in filenames... more trouble than they're worth.

The only reason you would include backticks on a shell command is to substitute the output. E.g.:

I thought the reason you used backticks i.e. `sqlquery` was that it was some sort of script which would return the column name. That doesn't seem to be the case (and thats why you got the "sqlquery command not found").

I can't see why enclosing it in single-quote/double-quote/backticks is needed because "sqlquery" is not a mysql reserved word (as per this) and its not a reserved word for the shell.

What happens if you simply run it like this?

Not an answer to the question but you can also put all SQL commands in one file and use
This might be more efficient than running a number of individual SQL statements through bash (and I personally consider it cleaner).

If there is no need for username and/or password, you can leave the relevant options out. I would anyway not put the password in the script for security reasons but use -p instead of -pxxx.