How do you run a single query through mysql from the command line?

Question

mysql -u <user> -p -e 'select * from schema.table'

(Note the use of single quotes rather than double quotes, to avoid the shell expanding the * into filenames)

mysql -uroot -p -hslavedb.mydomain.com mydb_production -e "select * from users;"

From the usage printout:

-e, --execute=name
Execute command and quit. (Disables --force and history file)

here's how you can do it with a cool shell trick:

mysql -uroot -p -hslavedb.mydomain.com mydb_production <<< 'select * from users'

'<<<' instructs the shell to take whatever follows it as stdin, similar to piping from echo.

use the -t flag to enable table-format output

If it's a query you run often, you can store it in a file. Then any time you want to run it:

mysql < thefile

(with all the login and database flags of course)

echo "select * from users;" | mysql -uroot -p -hslavedb.mydomain.com mydb_production