Specifying Program Options Note +------------+ | 8.0.19 | +------------+ +---------------------+ | NOW() | +---------------------+ | 2019-09-03 10:36:48 | +---------------------+ shell> The long form ( --execute ) is followed by an equal sign ( = ). To use quoted values within a statement, you must either escape the inner quotation marks, or use a different type of quotation marks within the statement from those used to quote the statement itself. The capabilities of your command processor dictate your choices for whether you can use single or double quotation marks and the syntax for escaping quote characters. For example, if your command processor supports quoting with single or double quotation marks, you can use double quotation marks around the statement, and single quotation marks for any quoted values within the statement. Most MySQL programs can read startup options from option files (sometimes called configuration files). Option files provide a convenient way to specify commonly used options so that they need not be entered on the command line each time you run a program. To determine whether a program reads option files, invoke it with the  --help  option. (For  mysqld , use  -- verbose  and  --help .) If the program reads option files, the help message indicates which files it looks for and which option groups it recognizes. A MySQL program started with the  --no-defaults  option reads no option files other than  .mylogin.cnf . A server started with the  persisted_globals_load  system variable disabled does not read  mysqld-auto.cnf . Many option files are plain text files, created using any text editor. The exceptions are: To specify an alternative login path file name, set the  MYSQL_TEST_LOGIN_FILE  environment variable. This variable is used by the  mysql-test-run.pl  testing utility, but also is recognized by mysql_config_editor  and by MySQL clients such as  mysql ,  mysqladmin , and so forth. •Option File Processing Order •The  mysqld-auto.cnf  file in the data directory. This JSON-format file contains persisted system variable settings. It is created by the server upon execution of  SET PERSIST  or  SET PERSIST_ONLY statements. See Section 5.1.9.3, “Persisted System Variables” . Management of  mysqld-auto.cnf should be left to the server and not performed manually. •The  .mylogin.cnf  file that contains login path options. This is an encrypted file created by the mysql_config_editor  utility. See Section 4.6.7, “mysql_config_editor — MySQL Configuration Utility” . A “login path”  is an option group that permits only certain options:  host ,  user ,  password , port  and  socket . Client programs specify which login path to read from  .mylogin.cnf  using the  -- login-path  option. Note 4.2.2.2 Using Option Files 345