If you run multiple MySQL environments on multiple servers it’s a good habit to set your MySQL prompt to double check which server you are on.
however, using the MYSQL_PS1 environment variable I found this does not work under sudo (the normal way people run sudo).
I.e., the following syntax’s work.
$ mysql $ sudo su - -c mysql $ sudo su - ; mysql
but the following does not.
$ sudo mysql
The trick is actually to ensure via /etc/sudoers you inherit the MySQL_PS1 environment variable.
echo "export MYSQL_PS1="`hostname` [d]> "" | sudo tee /etc/profile.d/mysql.sh echo 'Defaults env_keep += "MYSQL_PS1"' | sudo tee /tmp/mysql sudo chmod 400 /tmp/mysql sudo mv /tmp/mysql /etc/sudoers.d
1. “sudo su -” is a bad practice. Either use sudo OR su.
‘su – mysql’ or ‘su -‘ are fine if you have the root or mysql user’s password.
‘sudo su -‘ works, so does ‘sudo su – mysql’. But for BOTH root permissions are needed.
It’s better to use ‘sudo -i’ or ‘sudo -i -u mysql’ as then you only need permissions for the user you specifying.
I’ve seen setup on which a user is only allowed to do ‘sudo su – ‘ instead of permissions to run all or certain commands as that user. Then things as ‘sudo -u mysql some_script’ are denied.
2. You could use the global /etc/my.cnf to set the prompt:
[mysql]
prompt=’u@h [d] > ‘
Then it doesn’t matter if you reach the root user via sudo or a direct login. But then you’re forced to have the same (default) prompt for all users.
But other than that: Using MYSQL_PS1 and adding it to the env_keep in sudo are nice solutions. Also good to see /etc/sudoers.d instead of merging everything in the sudoers file directly.