I've got a bunch of users running a DOS app on win98 pcs and I'd like to add and modify entries in some MySQL tables on a Debian box under my control each time a user opens and closes a certain file. (The DOS app lets me call out to the shell and run perl and the desired times.) The users' pcs all have Perl installed, along with the DBI and other modules.

Right now the script that connects to MySQL passes the username and password value in plain text and they're hardcoded in the script itself. I'd like to be able to hide these values from the users on the off chance that someone gets curious enough to use them to connect and tinker with the values in the tables.

Any suggestions on where I can stash the username and password values so they won't be visible to the users?

Thanks,

scratch

Homer: And how is education suppose to make me feel smarter? Besides, everytime I learn something new it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home wine making course, and I forgot how to drive?