How can I pass a password from a bash script to aptitude for installing mysql?

Question

I am writing a simple bash script to install MySQL on Ubuntu.

#!/bin/bash
apt-get update

# Install MySQL5 
aptitude -y install mysql-server mysql-client libmysqlclient15-dev

However MySQL prompts for a password and confirmation. How do I pass along a root password. Is there an echo I can use?

Answer 1

This is so much easier ..

install mysql on ubuntu without password prompt

sudo debconf-set-selections <<< 'mysql-server-5.1 mysql-server/root_password password your_password'
sudo debconf-set-selections <<< 'mysql-server-5.1 mysql-server/root_password_again password your_password'
sudo apt-get -y install mysql-server

If your shell doesn't support here-strings (zsh, ksh93 and bash support them), use:

echo ... | sudo debconf-set-selections 

Answer 2

Thank you for the tip on expect. I couldn't find anything by searching Ubuntu admin forums so I went with expect. As you can see by the timestamp of this post, it took me 3 hours to get it working. Here is the code, I hope it can help someone:

#!/bin/bash
apt-get update
apt-get install expect

VAR=$(expect -c '
spawn apt-get -y install mysql-server
expect "New password for the MySQL \"root\" user:"
send "PasswordHere\r"
expect "Repeat password for the MySQL \"root\" user:"
send "PasswordHere\r"
expect eof
')

echo "$VAR"

apt-get -y install mysql-client libmysqlclient15-dev   

#For some reason important to restart - otherwise possible errors

/etc/init.d/mysql stop
/etc/init.d/mysql start

Answer 3

This is an excerpt from my setup script for new servers. You should be able to copy it word-for-word except for the password.

You'll need to run this using sudo if you're not already root.

#!/bin/bash
export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
apt-get -q -y install mysql-server
echo "Give mysql server time to start up before we try to set a password..."
sleep 5
mysql -uroot -e <<EOSQL "UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('yourpasswordhere') WHERE User='root'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"
EOSQL
echo "Done setting mysql password."

Other answers have used the -y which makes apt-get always answer yes to questions. The -q hides some progress indicators so you can send the output to a log. You could also use -qq, which automatically gives you a -y. This is in the man page for apt-get.

The <<EOSQL is a bash heredoc syntax for readability.

I got the heredoc part of this solution from this guy: http://padwasabimasala.posterous.com/non-interactive-scripted-mysql-install-on-ubu

The thing to remember with the heredoc is that whitespace before the closing string breaks it. So don't indent that line. Here is a page about the heredoc syntax: http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/here-docs.html

Answer 4

The easiest way to do this is to use the DEBIAN_FRONTEND environment variable and the aptitude -q and -y flags:

sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive aptitude install -q -y mysql-server

Or more generically, assuming sudo password has been catered for some-how:

#!/bin/bash
INSTALLER_LOG=/var/log/my-installer.log

installnoninteractive(){
  sudo bash -c "DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive aptitude install -q -y $* >> $INSTALLER_LOG"
}

installnoninteractive mysql-server

Answer 5

look into using expect

It can be used to automate most interactive sessions, although I wouldn't use a root password

Answer 6

This script was successful when launched as superuser:

#!/bin/bash

export temp_mysql_password="**********"
export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive 

debconf-set-selections <<< "mysql-server mysql-server/root_password password $temp_mysql_password"
debconf-set-selections <<< "mysql-server mysql-server/root_password_again password $temp_mysql_password"
debconf-set-selections <<< "mysql-server-5.6 mysql-server/root_password password $temp_mysql_password"
debconf-set-selections <<< "mysql-server-5.6 mysql-server/root_password_again password $temp_mysql_password"

apt-get update
apt-get -y upgrade
apt-get -y install mysql-server

Answer 7

Expect is probably overkill. Look on one of the Debian or Ubuntu admin forums -- things like FAI et al have long used preseeding for debconf questions. You should be able to use that here too.

Lastly, you could probably also use apt-get itself or other frontends.