Page 390 - Beginning PHP 5.3

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Part III: Using PHP in Practice
5. Add passwords for the root users — Type the following lines, replacing mypass with the pass-
word you want to use and mattscomputer with the host name of your computer (shown in the
Host column in the table), and pressing Enter after each line:

SET PASSWORD FOR ‘root’@’localhost’ = PASSWORD(‘mypass’);
SET PASSWORD FOR ‘root’@’mattscomputer’ = PASSWORD(‘mypass’);
SET PASSWORD FOR ‘root’@’127.0.0.1’ = PASSWORD(‘mypass’);

You only need to enter the lines that correspond to the root entries shown in the table. For example,
if your table doesn ’ t include the line with the 127.0.0.1 host, you can omit the third SET PASSWORD line.
Make sure you choose a secure password. At a minimum, this should be at least 7 characters long, and
contain a mixture of letters and numbers.
6. Check that the passwords have been set — Retype the SELECT line from Step 4 and press Enter.
You should see that the three root users now have their Password columns set:

+---------------+------+-------------------------------------------+
7. Exit the MySQL command - line tool — Type exit and then press Enter to return to the shell
prompt.
Now that you ’ ve added a password for the root account, your MySQL server is relatively secure. To test
the new password, run the mysql command again, but this time, add a - (hyphen followed by “ ” )
p
p
to the end of the command line, as follows:
mysql -u root -p # Ubuntu, Windows
./mysql -u root -p # Mac OS X

MySQL will prompt you for the root password that you entered previously. Type it now, then press
Enter. If all goes well you should be back at the mysql > prompt. Again, type exit and press Enter to exit
the program.

If you get an “ Access denied ” error, try again. If you still can ’ t get access, you may need to reinstall
your MySQL server. Alternatively you may be able to reset the root password. See the section titled
“ How to Reset the Root Password ” in the MySQL reference manual at http://dev.mysql.com/
doc/refman/5.1/en/resetting-permissions.html .

You can now use this root user to create and work with databases in your MySQL system. The PHP
scripts you create later will also use the root user to connect to your MySQL database. Though this is
fine for development and testing purposes, you should not use the root user in your PHP scripts on a
live server. Instead, create a new MySQL user that has only the privileges that your script needs. (If
you ’ re running your site on a shared server, your hosting company will probably give you a username
and password to use.)

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