18.4 How to run SQL commands from a text file

The mysql client typically is used interactively, like this:

shell> mysql database

However, it's also possible to put your SQL commands in a file and tell mysql to read its input from that file. To do so, create a text file `text_file' that contains the commands you wish to execute. Then invoke mysql as shown below:

shell> mysql database < text_file

You can also start your text file with a USE db_name statement. In this case, it is unnecessary to specify the database name on the command line:

shell> mysql < text_file

12.1 Overview of the different MySQL programs.