Connecting to the Server Using URI-Like Strings or Key-Value Pairs You can specify a port number for connections to a local server, too. However, as indicated previously, connections to  localhost  on Unix use a socket file by default, so unless you force a TCP/IP connection as previously described, any option that specifies a port number is ignored. For this command, the program uses a socket file on Unix and the  --port  option is ignored: mysql --port=13306 --host=localhost To cause the port number to be used, force a TCP/IP connection. For example, invoke the program in either of these ways: mysql --port=13306 --host=127.0.0.1 mysql --port=13306 --protocol=TCP For additional information about options that control how client programs establish connections to the server, see Section 4.2.3, “Command Options for Connecting to the Server” . It is possible to specify connection parameters without entering them on the command line each time you invoke a client program: •Specify the connection parameters in the  [client]  section of an option file. The relevant section of the file might look like this: For more information, see Section 4.2.2.2, “Using Option Files” . •Some connection parameters can be specified using environment variables. Examples: •To specify the host for  mysql , use  MYSQL_HOST . •On Windows, to specify the MySQL user name, use  USER . For a list of supported environment variables, see Section 4.9, “Environment Variables” . This section describes use of URI-like connection strings or key-value pairs to specify how to establish connections to the MySQL server, for clients such as MySQL Shell. For information on establishing connections using command-line options, for clients such as  mysql  or  mysqldump , see Section 4.2.4, “Connecting to the MySQL Server Using Command Options” . For additional information if you are unable to connect, see Section 6.2.21, “Troubleshooting Problems Connecting to MySQL” . [client] host= host_name user= user_name password= password 4.2.5 Connecting to the Server Using URI-Like Strings or Key-Value Pairs The term “URI-like”  signifies connection-string syntax that is similar to but not identical to the URI (uniform resource identifier) syntax defined by RFC 3986. Note The following MySQL clients support connecting to a MySQL server using a URI-like connection string or key-value pairs: •MySQL Shell •MySQL Connectors which implement X DevAPI This section documents all valid URI-like string and key-value pair connection parameters, many of which are similar to those specified with command-line options: 367