How to use mysql.exe from C#

Question

I need to call the following command from C# code: mysql.exe --user=useranme --password=password --database=base < C:\backups\data.sql

I use:

process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
process.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;
process.StartInfo.FileName = "mysql.exe";
process.StartInfo.Arguments = "--user=useranme --password=password --database=base < C:\backups\data.sql";

process.OutputDataReceived += new DataReceivedEventHandler(delegate(object sender, DataReceivedEventArgs args)
{
    Console.WriteLine(args.Data);
});

process.Start();
process.BeginOutputReadLine();

process.WaitForExit();

But it does not work as a direct entry to the command line. I see that the right part "< C:\backups\data.sql" is not executed.

Help please.

Answer 1

this is because writing < filename at the command prompt force the shell to submit the content of the file c:\backups\data.sql in the standard input of your program. Passing the part after the '<' in the argument is not correct because you have to feed the stdin of your executable whith the content of the file.In order to do stdin/stdout redirection you can refer this question:

Redirecting stdin and stdout where stdin closes first

and you will push the content of your data.sql file onto the stdin stream.

Answer 2

Just something I noticed, could it be that your database is not called data.sql but somehow else, where first letter matches some escape sequence?

You need to escape all \ characters in path or C# compiler will treat them as escape sequences.
In your code, "C:\backups" actually becomes C:□ackups.
You either need to prefix string with @ which tells compiler to not use escape sequences, or else prefix \ with another \:

process.StartInfo.Arguments = @"--user=useranme --password=password --database=base < C:\backups\data.sql";

process.StartInfo.Arguments = "--user=useranme --password=password --database=base < C:\\backups\\data.sql";

However it is just as possible that you just typed some path here and your code doesn't have this mistake.

Answer 3

See the answer by SchlaWiener here:

Problem, executing commands in cmd using c#

It worked for me! :)