> # list MySQL databases and dump each > DB_LIST=`mysql -u $DB_USER -p"$DB_PASS" -e'show databases;'` Let me add, there is another way of storing the password. Put the following into .my.cnf file in home directory of the user, which has this job on his crontab: [mysql] default-character-set=utf8 user=root password=w00t [mysqldump] default-character-set=utf8 user=root password=w00t This would be also convenient for a real user, which runs mysql client from shell. -- Denis Ovsienko