Scheduled MySQL optimization

Question

I am looking for a way to schedule a database table optimisation on all MySQL data.

Currently I can do it by using the mysqlcheck -o --all-databases command, and I thought about scheduling it with cron, but the problem is that the password would remain cleartext inside /etc/crontab.

There is a scheduling feature in MySQL, but I don't know how it could fit the need, it sends MySQL commands, it doesn't launch shell programs.

Any tips?

Answer 1

Can use cron, use the --defaults-extra-file option to specify a file, in my.cnf format. It can contain the username/password needed.

Use standard linux permissions to make it only readable to the user running the cron task.

See third bullet-point here: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/password-security-user.html