At 10:44 AM -0600 7/25/01, Michael Nezi wrote: >Saw your post on mysql.com and wondering if you could help me. Working with the Mac OS X Terminal Mac OS X comes with a Terminal application that can be used for issuing instructions to the OS from a command line. You will find it necessary at times to perform some tasks using the Terminal application and so should become a bit familiar with its use. When you open the terminal application it starts a shell specific for your user account. Many of the commands and utilities needed for administrative purposes however require that you open a root shell, in other words, you need to log in as the root administrator. When you install Mac OS X you set up an Administrator user name and password, this OS user account allows you to perform administrative functions but is not the root account that has complete control over all functions of the system. Apple has elected to not enable this account by default. It must be explicitly enabled for it to be available. In my opinion, when administering MySQL on the command line using the terminal program on Mac OS X you are best off not enabling the root account. The reason for this is to lessen the chance that you will create files and install programs that can only be used by root, thus not allowing the system to work for a user account with fewer privileges. It is also common practice in UNIX not to use the root account to perform general tasks and it should only be used when it is necessary. To work with just the Admin user name, prefix any command with "sudo". If a password is required, you will be prompted for it. The sudo program takes as an argument a command line to be executed as root. Your user account must be included in a configuration file to be allowed to utilize this command. This file also specifies the commands you can run, in the case of Mac OS X the user that you set up when installing the OS is included on this list by default and assigned privileges that allow it to perform any task that root is able to. For example, to run the above command use: root% sudo ./mysqladmin -u root password thenewpassword Alternatively, if you will be executing a series of commands as root then start with the "sudo su" or "sudo -s" command to start a new shell as the root user. Use exit to stop issuing commands as root and exit the shell. For example: % sudo su Password: root% ./mysqladmin -u root password thenewpassword root% (another command) root% (another command) root% exit While sudo would require you to enter a password each time: % sudo ./mysqladmin -u root password thenewpassword password: % sudo (another command) password: % sudo (another command) password: % sudo etc password: If you open a root shell to accomplish a series of tasks, there will not be a need to use "sudo" for each command. Note that in this document, lines that begin with % indicate a UNIX command prompt, it may actually look more like: [localhost:~] mcollins% The text that follows is what would be typed into the terminal. In addition, root% at the start of the line indicates that the command needs to be issued while logged in as root or with root permissions. The Root Account If there are any other users with accounts on your server, it is essential that you protect the root account by creating a password for this account. Even if you are the only one with access to the machine, it is prudent to plug any holes that may be exploited by hackers. The key thing to keep in mind is that the OS root is not the same as the MySQL root. You don't need to have root access to the server to attempt to use the MySQL root account. There might be other user accounts to the server that may be able to navigate to the mysql utility and log in as the MySQL root with no password. This can happen even through a remote telnet session, since even though root is set to localhost only, a telnet session allows one to connect and work as a user would on the localhost. Having no root password would mean this intruder could send any SQL command to the databases, and even delete them. The root account created in MySQL uses the name "root" by convention, it is not required that the account use the name "root", it could be changed to any name you want. Setting the MySQL root password is an example of when you will need to use the Mac OS Terminal. The task of setting the root password is accomplished using mysqladmin, one of the utility programs installed by MySQL (and MySQL). The command is as follows: root% cd /usr/local/ root% ./bin/mysqladmin --socket=/tmp/MySQL.sock -u root password thenewpassword Tip: If a password was already set for MySQL root and you want to change the password, you could add the -p option (after root in the above command), you will then be prompted for the existing MySQL root password. Starting and Stopping MySQL Mac OS X has a problem with stopping MySQL, so you need to find the process ID and then kill safe_mysql first and then the mysqld second. To get the process ID: % ps aux (note the PID for safe_mysql and mysqld, in this example it is 290 and 302) % sudo -s root% kill 290 root% kill 302 If you need to restart MySQL for some reason, you can execute the two commands shown above, or execute the startup script as follows: root% cd /Library/StartupItems/ root% ./MySQL Or: root% cd /usr/local/ root% ./safe_mysql & The & instructs that the process run in the background. TIP: In the simplest of terms, Unix commands are files that contain a script and have the execute bit turned on. To use a command that is not in the standard location for commands, precede the command with the shorthand "./" to mean "look in this folder for the command". To view the paths to your commands, use the following: % echo $PATH These paths are what the Unix OS uses to search for any command that is specified on the command line. If not command is found on any of the indicated paths an error occurs. The common location for locating scripts so that they behave like commands is in the directory: /usr/local/bin If you have an executable file in this location you are not required to indicate the path to the file to execute the contents of the file as a script. -- Michael __ ||| Michael Collins ||| ||| Kuwago Web Services ||| mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ||| Seattle, WA, USA ||| http://www.lassodev.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php
