How do I turn off autocommit for a MySQL client?
I have a web app that has been written with the assumption that autocommit is turned on on the database, so I don't want to make any changes there. However all the documentation I can find only seems to talk about using init_connect on the database, i.e. a global setting for all client connections.
Is there a way to set autocommit=0 just when running mysql on a Linux command line (without having to type it in every time)?
Answer
Perhaps the best way is to write a script that starts the mysql command line client and then automatically runs whatever sql you want before it hands over the control to you.
linux comes with an application called 'expect'. it interacts with the shell in such a way as to mimic your key strokes. it can be set to start mysql, wait for you to enter your password. run further commands such as SET autocommit = 0; then go into interactive mode so you can run any command you want.
for more on the command SET autocommit = 0; see.. http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/innodb-transaction-model.html
I use expect to log in to a command line utility in my case it starts ssh, connects to the remote server, starts the application enters my username and password then turns over control to me. saves me heaps of typing :)
http://linux.die.net/man/1/expect
DC
Expect script provided by Michael Hinds
spawn /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql
expect "mysql>"
send "set autocommit=0;\r"
expect "mysql>" interact
expect is pretty powerful and can make life a lot easier as in this case.
if you want to make the script run without calling expect use the shebang line
insert this as the first line in your script (hint: use which expect to find the location of your expect executable)
#! /usr/bin/expect
then change the permissions of your script with..
chmod 0744 myscript
then call the script
./myscript
DC