Automating tasks and passwords

[MCMartin]

When you use SQLA tools like e.g. dbupdate or similar, to automate specific tasks, how can you use the -c parameter without showing the password? Or exists any alternative approach which hides the password from the command line?

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

AFAIK, all (or at least most) utilities support the @data command line parameter in conjunction with configuration files for that use:

@data Reads in options from the specified environment variable or configuration file. See Configuration files.
If you want to protect passwords or other information in the configuration file, you can use the File Hiding utility to obfuscate the contents of the configuration file. See File Hiding utility (dbfhide).

(Note, AFAIK DBFHide itself does usually just obfuscate the files - unless you run it on Windows with -w or -wm.)

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Another (possibly preferred) approach for scheduled tasks would be to rely on scheduled events that can run on their own without explicit credentials. That way the server can itself do backups and the like.