Read insert statements from text file
You can do this two ways.

Use the mysql client SOURCE command. 

mysql> SOURCE mysql_stuff.txt or mysql&gt; \. mysql_stuff.txt

or, you can use the mysql client from the shell. 

$> mysql -u my_user -pmy_password my_schema &lt; mysql_stuff.txt  

Note - no space between -p and the actual password. If you don't put in the password, you will be prompted for it, but you must include the -p or else the client will throw an error.

Now, if you have multiple files and you wish to go through them and execute each one, then look here. 

You could use sed, awk and grep in inventive ways to create SQL text files with a 1000 lines, each with a different file name - you could start with (in the directory containing your SQL files).

ls --format single-column &gt; mysql_stuff.txt (bash or cygwin) 

and then add SOURCE (+ space) to the beginning of each line 

sed -i -e 's/^/SOURCE /' mysql_stuff.txt 


1) -e not strictly necessary in this case, see here. It's used
in the case where one wishes to run multiple commands at once.
2) -i means perform the edit "inplace" - no new file is created. If you're not sure of your regular expressions (either search and/or replace), then backup your file.
3) the circumflex (^) is part of the regular expression search pattern. It means start the replace at the beginning of the line.


and then run SOURCE mysql_stuff.txt from the mysql client and it will go through the file executing each line. Oh, yes, don't forget to add a semi-colon ; to the end of each line also.

sed -i -e 's/$/;/' mysql_stuff.txt


the $ means perform the substitution at the end of the line.