Shell script password with special chars

command-line bash scripts password mysql

5,862

Solution 1

Your password needs to have the special characters escaped. So if your original password is xgT{uic[Is?uJ+it will have to become xgT\{uic\[Is\?uJ\+ (A slash before the special characters).

You might also want to look at something already written to do this such as AutoMySQLBackup, but I'm not sure if you need daily, weekly or monthly backup rotations. However the same rule applies, if the password has special characters those special characters need to be escaped.

Hope that helps!

Solution 2

Yes. It helped to escape special chars:

MPASS=$(printf "%q\n" "$DB_PASS")

But there was still a problem with mysqldump. I finally found out, that mysqldump only worked for me with passwords with special characters when I don't tell mysqldump the host (-h hostname). This seems to be a bug. Or isn't it?

Unfortunately I also have sites where the mysql server is an other host. So this solution isn't perfect.

5,862

HHGK

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

HHGK over 1 year
I've build a shell mysql backup script which works very well.

It only has problems with passwords with special chars like this: xgT{uic[Is?uJ+.

Here is the important part of the script:
```
#!/bin/sh
FILE=mysql-$db.$DATE.sql.gz
ssh $SUSER@$SHOST "mysqldump -q -u $MUSER -h $MHOST -p$MPASS $db --no-create-db | gzip -9 > $FILE" 2> $ERROR
```
I've changed it to:
```
ssh $SUSER@$SHOST 'mysqldump -q -u $MUSER -h $MHOST -p'\''$MPASS'\'' $db --no-create-db | gzip -9 > $FILE' 2> $ERROR
```
As you can see I've already tried double quotes. But now I get the error:
```
bash: $FILE: ambiguous redirect
```
I'm getting the password and other info from an external file:
```
DB_HOST=000.000.000.000
DB_DATABASE=dbdame
DB_USER=db user
DB_PASS="xgT{uic[Is?uJ+"
```
Within my script it take the info from the external file:
```
Source dbserver.conf
MUSER=$DB_USER
MPASS=$DB_PASS
MHOST=$DB_HOST
DBS=$DB_DATABASE
```
- HHGK almost 8 years
  
  It was: "mysqldump: Got error: 1045: Access denied for user '...'@'...' (using password: YES) when trying to connect
- Admin almost 8 years
  
  That's exactly the error '...'@'...' or did you mask that? Obviously keep your username and password secret, but did it omit some characters, or the entire string?
- HHGK almost 8 years
  
  I've masked it. The original error was with the correct user and address.
- HHGK almost 8 years
  
  Could be the problem that I'm getting the password from an external file?:
- muru almost 8 years
  
  If it is mysql, consider using a ~/.my.cnf file in the server: stackoverflow.com/questions/16299603/…
- HHGK almost 8 years
  
  That could be a way. But I prefer having all configuration data on my backup target server. So what do I have to change to to be able to transfer the correct password?