When working with MySQL it is often necessary to execute SQL statements or scripts programmatically from the command line. SQL statements can be included in a SQL script (text) file and executed by the MySQL Client. This can be done in a few different ways.

Execute MySQL Script File from Standard Input

Statements in a SQL scripts can be read from standard input on a Unix/Linux command line and executed. Two examples of doing this can be seen below.

#!/bin/bash

# redirect standard input from sql script
mysql < sample_script.sql

# cat mysql script and pipe output to mysql client
cat sample_script.sql | mysql

Execute MySQL Script File from MySQL Shell

While running the MySQL shell, SQL scripts can be executed using the source or \. commands.

mysql> source sample_script.sql
mysql> \. sample_script.sql

Using the --verbose Option

Using the --verbose option when executing MySQL scripts on the command line will print the individual SQL statements before the are executed.

#!/bin/bash

# redirect standard input from sql script
mysql --verbose < sample_script.sql

# cat mysql script and pipe output to mysql client
cat sample_script.sql | mysql --verbose