When I login to MySQL as root I usually set MROOTPASS environment variable
export MROOTPASS=my-secret-password
and then do
mysql -u root -p$MROOTPASS
this eliminates the need to reenter the password each time I connect to MySQL as root, but obviously it is insecure because the password is saved to the bash history file. Is it possible to prevent the password from being saved?
You could just enter the variable using
read -s -p "Enter password:" MROOTPASS
this way it also wouldn't appear anywhere without having to save it in a file. Instead you just have to enter it once. The -s option tells read not to echo the typed characters, so nobody can look it up while you type it.
Edit: long time after this answer was accepted some people stated, that this doesn't define system variables but shell variables. If you need your variable to be visible in a subshell, you just need to rexport the variable by adding the following line below the read statement (bash):
export MROOTPASS