Although you can specify user authentication parameters
(user, password, database, and host) in
the call to dbConnect, the preferred method to pass
these parameters to the server is through a MySQL
default.file, e.g., $HOME/.my.cnf (or c:/my.cnf
under Windows).
The MySQL dbConnect method parses the
default.file=$HOME/.my.cnf to initialize connections to
MySQL databases.
This file consists of zero or more named sections
each starting with a line of the form [section-name];
each section includes zero or more MySQL variable declaration per line,
such as, user=, password=, host=, etc.
For instance,$ cat $HOME/.my.cnf
# this is a comment
; this is also a comment
[client]
user = dj
host = localhost
[rs-dbi]
database = s-data
[lasers]
user = opto
database = opto
password = pure-light
host = merced
...
[iptraffic]
host = data
database = iptraffic
This file should be readable only by you. RMySQL
always initializes connection values from the [client] and
[rs-dbi] sections, but you may define you own project-specific
sections (as in the example above) to tailor its environment;
if the same parameter appears in multiple sections (e.g., in client
and rs-dbi), the last (closer to the bottom) occurrence is used.
If you define a section, for instance, [iptraffic],
then instead of including all these parameters in the
call to dbConnect, you simply supply the
name of the group,
e.g., dbConnect(MySQL(), group = "iptraffic").
In addition to user, password, host, and
dbname, you may specify any other connection parameters,
e.g., port, socket. See the MySQL documentation
for details.
Lastly, you may specify an alternate default.file, e.g.,
dbConnect(MySQL(), group="iptraffic", default.file="router_shield").