The MySQL client or utility cannot recognize a supplied short option flag and aborts with error code 69 (EE_UNKNOWN_SHORT_OPTION).
MySQL Error 69: EE_UNKNOWN_SHORT_OPTION appears when a MySQL client or utility encounters an unrecognized -x style flag. Remove or correct the invalid option, or upgrade/downgrade to a version that supports it, to clear the error.
%s: unknown option '-%c'. EE_UNKNOWN_SHORT_OPTION was added in 8.0.13.
Error code 69 signals that a MySQL program received a short option it does not understand. The message format is “%s: unknown option '-%c'”. Added in 8.0.13, the check fires early during option parsing, so no connection to the server is ever attempted.
Fixing the issue is important because the program will terminate immediately, blocking automation scripts and scheduled jobs.
Understanding which component rejects the flag helps you resolve it quickly.
Most occurrences stem from typos, copy-pasted options from older blog posts, or mixing client versions. A flag valid in 5.7 may be removed in 8.0, triggering EE_UNKNOWN_SHORT_OPTION. Wrapped shell variables that expand to -x flags can also surprise CI pipelines.
Identify the exact utility printing the message (mysqld, mysql, mysqldump, etc.).
Run it with --help to list supported flags. Remove, rename, or replace the offending option. If the flag exists only in older versions, install that version or use its long-form equivalent.
Automation scripts that call mysqldump -p instead of -p[password] can hit the error in strict shells. Container images that upgrade to 8.0 may break legacy init scripts using -T (tab-separated output).
Fix by switching to --tab.
Pin MySQL client versions in Dockerfiles, keep option files under version control, and validate all command invocations in CI. Use Galaxy’s snippet library to share vetted command templates the whole team can reuse safely.
ER_UNKNOWN_SYSTEM_VARIABLE occurs when a SQL variable is unknown, while ER_PARSE_ERROR flags SQL syntax issues. Unlike EE_UNKNOWN_SHORT_OPTION, both happen after a successful connection.
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No, the error is raised by the client or utility before any network communication with mysqld.
No, the program exits with status 2, so downstream steps in scripts will fail.
The condition appears in 8.0.13 and later. Older versions emit a generic unknown option error.
Galaxy lets teams store and version working command templates, reducing copy-paste mistakes that lead to unrecognized options.
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