When you run MySQL commands MySQL, mysqlcheck, mysqdump and psql, psqldump, etc; they will pick username & password from this file if you do not provide them as argument (-u and -p). It can save you time.

Of course, if you specify username and password explicitly as part of the command’s arguments, they will be used.

.my.cnf ( for MySQL client )

[clienthost1]   # Note: client + host1
user=myuser
password=mypass
database=dbname
host=server.location.com