Hi there,

I was wondering if it's possible to Clear MySQL's History Remotely.

Considering that you only have root access to the database but no
access to the linux box.

I found something in Goggle to do this, but you need to have access to
the linux box:

cat /dev/null > ~/.mysql_history

How can you do this remotely with only root access to the database and
not to the linux box?

I think (and hope) you cannot do such a thing.



Regards
Dimitre

mdavila78 wrote:
Hmm. Trying to cover your tracks? :-)

Note that the .mysql_history is a history of commands run by the client
on that host. So if you have no shell access on that host, SQL
statements you run won't be recorded in the .mysql_history file on that
host. They'll be recorded in the .mysql_history file on your client host.

Anyway, I agree with Dimitre, if you have no shell access on the
database server host, you have no privilege to modify files there.
MySQL cannot, and should not, grant that access.

If you have FTP access, you could upload a zero-length file, copying it
over a file for which you have write privileges.

MySQL has other logs which may be recording all queries against the
server, regardless of the origin client that executed the query. See
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/query-log.html But this is also
inaccessible if you don't have shell access on the server host.

Regards,
Bill K.

Peter H. Coffin wrote:
This is not unusual, I have done it frequently. For example, if you're
trying to reach a host behind a firewall, and telnet (or more likely
ssh) is allowed through the firewall, but MySQL's port 3306 isn't.

Another reason is bandwidth: the host to which you telnet is connected
to the database server by a nice fast network. The two hosts could be
in the same data center, connected by a gigabit switched network, for
instance. But suppose your desktop PC is connected to that network via
a much slower link. You may be in another building, or even halfway
around the world. Data loads or data dumps would be very quick between
the two proximal hosts, but very slow if you have to transfer volumes of
data that way to/from your PC. You might also be sharing the slow link
with other users, and such use of bandwidth would be interruptive to them.

Regards,
Bill K.

Whose MySQL history? Every user on every machine that uses the
'mysql' command-line client has their own history in their own
home directory on their own machine.

If you do not have access to the linux box, how did anything of
yours get INTO that file in the first place?

You don't. But you can't put anything *IN* the file either, so what is
it you are trying to erase?

Peter H. Coffin wrote:
I know it's not relevant to the OP's situation, I was just pointing out
that such a situation is not necessarily "crazy" as you termed it.

Well, there's "LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE ..." which loads a file on the
client host and sends it over the network connection.

In the other direction, output of mysqldump is sent over the network to
be saved on the client side.

Regards,
Bill K.