ERROR at line 1: Unknown command '\-'. When trying to import with -

[nextgenthemes]

Bug Report

• [ x] Yes, I reviewed the contribution guidelines.
• [x ] Yes, more specifically, I reviewed the guidelines on how to write clear bug reports.

Describe the current, buggy behavior

I have been using this command in a script for years. No idea WTF is happening, I need to - to pipe a local file to the remote.

wp @dev db import - < /tmp/ngt.sql
ERROR at line 1: Unknown command '\-'.

Export works perfectly fine wp @prod db export - > "$sql_file"

Describe what you would expect as the correct outcome

No error, like it always did.

Let us know what environment you are running this on

OS:	Linux 5.15.0-83-generic #92-Ubuntu SMP Mon Aug 14 09:30:42 UTC 2023 x86_64
Shell:	/bin/bash
PHP binary:	/usr/bin/php8.1
PHP version:	8.1.27
php.ini used:	/etc/php/8.1/cli/php.ini
MySQL binary:	/usr/bin/mysql
MySQL version:	mysql  Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.6.17-MariaDB, for debian-linux-gnu (x86_64) using  EditLine wrapper
SQL modes:	
WP-CLI root dir:	phar://wp-cli.phar/vendor/wp-cli/wp-cli
WP-CLI vendor dir:	phar://wp-cli.phar/vendor
WP_CLI phar path:	/home/vagrant
WP-CLI packages dir:	
WP-CLI cache dir:	/home/vagrant/.wp-cli/cache
WP-CLI global config:	
WP-CLI project config:	
WP-CLI version:	2.9.0

[nextgenthemes]

Downgrading to 2.8.1 on all 3 sides did not help. What file? It's not by bash script, as the same error appears when I run this run console.

If this is an error from WP-CLI it would for sure be helpful to know what file this is referring to.

[nextgenthemes]

cat /tmp/ngt.sql | wp @dev db import - same error.

[mrsdizzie]

That error comes from MySQL / MariaDB itself and indicates an issue with the .sql file.

Since there are two servers involved and there is only version info for one of them, I'm not sure but this recent bug might be relevant if you are exporting from a newer version into an older one: https://jira.mariadb.org/browse/MDEV-34183

Otherwise searching for that error message brings up other possibilities.

[nextgenthemes]

@mrsdizzie Thanks so much! Upgrading MariaDB in my VM did the trick.

I figured it something on my end, probably nothing to do with WP-CLI directly.

I made a simple check of the end of the MySQL file, I assume it was/is perfectly fine. Seems it was the bug you mentioned. https://jira.mariadb.org/browse/MDEV-34183

@wp-cli devs if you could please add some kind of hint to error messages coming from mysql. I thought it has something to do with the - in my command in my bash script, like something tried to escape it '\-'.. Yes stupid and makes no sense I know but ... I thought of all kinds of things, but not about MySQL for some reason.

Error messages that say nothing helpful and do not even tell you where they are coming from are a nightmare.

[mrsdizzie]

Often MySQL errors do identify themselves better (or are more obvious) like:
mysql: Error reading file 'UNKNOWN' (Errcode: 5 "Input/output error")
But not always I guess. I looked into it a bit, but capturing this error and using it in a WP_CLI::error would first involve changing this line:

db-command/src/DB_Command.php

Line 1729 in bf741eb

private static function run( $cmd, $assoc_args = [], $send_to_shell = true, $interactive = false ) {

so $send_to_shell is false. Otherwise it will directly exit here:
https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/blob/f701f406aa39f6aeca2af16e92712780e2675bad/php/utils.php#L587-L589

That of course will also change existing output which would be a breaking change etc... A less breaking option would be to add a WP_CLI::debug call before that exit with more details, though it would still require running with the --debug flag to see what happened.

[danielbachhuber]

I think we'll refrain from the breaking change for now. We can revisit in the future if it comes up again.

Thanks for the report, @nextgenthemes !