Try this:

Code:

$ echo mypassword | mysql -uroot -p
Enter password:

Commandline mysql features a full-fledged line editor complete with arrow keys and history recall. It can and does mess with your terminal. It doesn't have to "reach up stdin" to do this -- it can open /dev/tty and mess with it direct. Any interactive program has the potential to do this, really. How else would more work when stuck on the end of a pipe chain?

You can also do

Code:

read x <<<$(....)

It's not a BASH problem, or at least not just a BASH problem. Lots of non-bash bourne shells have the same shortcoming. ksh's behavior is an extension.

---------- Post updated at 01:29 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:17 PM ----------

Like the memory buffer used for pipes, and the caching+read-ahead Linux and UNIX do for files? That's handled decently well at the kernel level. (I've noticed some changes lately, actually, in pipes being flushed more often.) The trouble I've found is how to tell the kernel when not to do that. Any operation on a large file fills the file cache with junk that'll probably not be reused, and you need to posix_fadvise every step of the way to prevent it...

I think the default line-buffering for printf() and such is to make situations like this more efficient:

Code:

for(x=0; x<10; x++) printf("asdf");
printf("\n");

With buffering, that's only one context switch, when write() is called by printf("\n"); Turn off all buffering and it's 11 context switches.