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I have a .my.cnf file in my home directory on my desktop that includes:
[dbid]
user = myusername
password = mypassword
database = dbname
host = server.location.com
If I recall correctly, before upgrading from Ubuntu 10.04 to 11.04, I was able to use the command
mysql dbid
To connect directly to the database
But today I get this error:
ERROR 1049 (42000): Unknown database 'dbname'
Have I done something wrong?
I'm not sure how your previous .my.cnf used to work, and I actually have never used these files before (mainly because I didn't know about them). So after a bit of research, I found this link and came up with the following ~/.my.cnf that worked for me:
[clientdbid]
password = mypass
database = dbname
host = server.location.com
and the command that reads it:
mysql --defaults-group-suffix=dbid
A couple things to point out (highlights from the article linked):
I tested this on mysql 5.5 on a Mac, worked great. And now that I know about them, I will use them!
UPDATE
After I set this up, I realized that the command line mysql --defaults-group-suffix=dbid was a little hefty. So as added bonus, assuming you're running Linux/Mac/Etc do this:
echo 'alias mysql_dbid="mysql --defaults-group-suffix=dbid"' >> ~/.profile
Where dbid is the name of your suffix group.
My database admin helped me uncover the problem, and so here is the solution to the original issue that prompted this question:
The issue (as I understand it) was that the database only allows access to computers based on specific IP addresses. My IP address had changed when I got a new computer, and I had different passwords for the accounts that had been set up with the different IP addresses, in the words of my database administrator
I had a few different usernames in there for you based on user@olddesktopip.edu, user@newdesktopip.edu, and your IP address. The passwords weren't the same for them all which caused confusion, it was my fault for the trouble.
As an update to Derek Downey's update, this is how I use a common ~/.my.cnf file across different Linux computers, choosing the suitable section according to hostname automatically:
echo 'alias mysql="mysql --defaults-group-suffix=$HOST"' >> ~/.bash_aliases
After that, all I have to type on the command line is mysql.
