(mysql.info) user-names

(mysql.info) user-account-management
 
 5.9.1 MySQL Usernames and Passwords
 -----------------------------------
 
 A MySQL account is defined in terms of a username and the client host
 or hosts from which the user can connect to the server. The account
 also has a password. There are several distinctions between the way
 usernames and passwords are used by MySQL and the way they are used by
 your operating system:
 
    * Usernames, as used by MySQL for authentication purposes, have
      nothing to do with usernames (login names) as used by Windows or
      Unix. On Unix, most MySQL clients by default try to log in using
      the current Unix username as the MySQL username, but that is for
      convenience only. The default can be overridden easily, because
      client programs allow any username to be specified with a -u or
      -user option. Because this means that anyone can attempt to
      connect to the server using any username, you cannot make a
      database secure in any way unless all MySQL accounts have
      passwords. Anyone who specifies a username for an account that has
      no password is able to connect successfully to the server.
 
    * MySQL usernames can be up to a maximum of 16 characters long. This
      limit is hard-coded in the MySQL servers and clients, and trying
      to circumvent it by modifying the definitions of the tables in the
      `mysql' database _does not work_.
 
      database in any manner whatsoever except by means of the procedure
      prescribed by MySQL AB that is described in  mysql-upgrade.
      Attempting to redefine MySQL's system tables in any other fashion
      results in undefined (and unsupported!) behavior_.
 
      Operating system usernames are completely unrelated to MySQL
      usernames and may even be of a different maximum length. For
      example, Unix usernames typically are limited to eight characters.
 
    * MySQL passwords have nothing to do with passwords for logging in
      to your operating system. There is no necessary connection between
      the password you use to log in to a Windows or Unix machine and
      the password you use to access the MySQL server on that machine.
 
    * MySQL encrypts passwords using its own algorithm. This encryption
      is different from that used during the Unix login process. MySQL
      password encryption is the same as that implemented by the
      `PASSWORD()' SQL function. Unix password encryption is the same as
      that implemented by the `ENCRYPT()' SQL function. See the
      descriptions of the `PASSWORD()' and `ENCRYPT()' functions in
       encryption-functions. From version 4.1 on, MySQL employs a
      stronger authentication method that has better password protection
      during the connection process than in earlier versions. It is
      secure even if TCP/IP packets are sniffed or the `mysql' database
      is captured. (In earlier versions, even though passwords are
      stored in encrypted form in the `user' table, knowledge of the
      encrypted password value could be used to connect to the MySQL
      server.)
 
 When you install MySQL, the grant tables are populated with an initial
 set of accounts. These accounts have names and access privileges that
 are described in  default-privileges, which also discusses how
 to assign passwords to them. Thereafter, you normally set up, modify,
 and remove MySQL accounts using statements such as `GRANT' and
 `REVOKE'. See  account-management-sql.
 
 When you connect to a MySQL server with a command-line client, you
 should specify the username and password for the account that you want
 to use:
 
      shell> mysql --user=monty --password=GUESS DB_NAME
 
 If you prefer short options, the command looks like this:
 
      shell> mysql -u monty -pGUESS DB_NAME
 
 There must be _no space_ between the -p option and the following
 password value. See  connecting.
 
 The preceding commands include the password value on the command line,
 which can be a security risk. See  password-security. To avoid
 this problem, specify the -password or -p option without any following
 password value:
 
      shell> mysql --user=monty --password DB_NAME
      shell> mysql -u monty -p DB_NAME
 
 When the password option has no password value, the client program
 prints a prompt and waits for you to enter the password.  (In these
 examples, DB_NAME is _not_ interpreted as a password because it is
 separated from the preceding password option by a space.)
 
 On some systems, the library routine that MySQL uses to prompt for a
 password automatically limits the password to eight characters. That is
 a problem with the system library, not with MySQL. Internally, MySQL
 doesn't have any limit for the length of the password. To work around
 the problem, change your MySQL password to a value that is eight or
 fewer characters long, or put your password in an option file.
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