Querying a mysql database from within a shell script?

[Eddie Fantastic]

Is this possible?

I know your able to use prewritten scripts like so:

mysql db_name < text_file

but what if the sql statement needs other variables in order to be useful.

Let me explain.
I've written a script that searches a directory for *.%17 files. These are text files output from our archaic back office software. This software was written before the days of email addresses so doesn't unerstand them.

If the script finds a %17 file it runs a line:

luser=`sed '2!d' $file`

which scans the second line of the file for the username

I have another file set up that looks like this called emap

AJR      angela@domain.com
AM       annem@domain.com
AR       angel@domain.com
AR2      angel@domain.com
AW       andrew@domain.com
BB       blaize@domain.com

I then run a line that goes:

senderemail=`grep -w ${luser:0:8} /path/to/emap`

I can then use

${senderemail:8}

for my email address which I can then use with mutt. Hey presto, an email spooler.

It works but is very cumbersome and I could do with more fields with more info for each user to add extra functionality.

I would to use bash to say something along the lines of:
email=`select email from database where $luser = AJR`
or
phone=`select phoneno from database where $luser = AJR`

Is this possible, because it would be great.
Thanks
Ed

[cybertron]

I use the following for my commercial remover to use with Myth. It reads the cutlist from the database and eventually it gets passed to MPlayer in an edl. There's a lot of options to make sure the output is in a usable format for my purposes, but the man page for mysql should explain all about them.

mysql -D mythconverg -u mysql --password=almost_forgot_to_remove_this;) -r -s --skip-column-names -e "select cutlist from recorded where title like 'sometitle'"

BTW, I don't use Myth's transcoding because the files it outputs don't work for me with MPlayer, which means I can't burn them to DVD. Not relevant here, but just so people don't think I'm an idiot.