Ok, not being satisfied with my first exploration of a global “do something” mysql script I asked the community for help.

The result is posted below, and here are the links that got me here.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?p=2668261#post2668261
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/linux-programming-scripting/85836-loop-within-loop-mysql-ops.html#post445403

Here is the final example script that optimizes (or replace optimize
with your favorite command like backup, alter table to InnoDB, etc.)
all tables in all databases on a server except the core mysql databases
or others that you exclude.

#!/bin/sh
MUSER=”USER”
MPASS=”PASSWORD”
MHOST=”localhost”
MYSQL=”$(which mysql)”

the Bs makes the output appear without the formatting

and header row.

Step 1: list all databases EXCEPT core mysql tables and others that can be added

DBS=”$($MYSQL -u$MUSER -p$MPASS -Bse ‘show databases’ | egrep -v ‘information_schema|mysql|test’)”

for db in ${DBS[@]}
do

Step 2: list all tables in the databases

echo “$MYSQL -u$MUSER -p$MPASS $db -Bse ‘show tables’”
TABLENAMES=”$($MYSQL -u$MUSER -p$MPASS $db -Bse ‘show tables’)”
echo “[START DATABASE]”
echo “Database: “$db
echo ${TABLENAMES[@]}

Step 3: perform an optimize (or other op) for all tables returned

for TABLENAME in ${TABLENAMES[@]}
do
echo $TABLENAME
$MYSQL -u$MUSER -p$MPASS $db -Bse “optimize TABLE $TABLENAME;”
done
echo “[END DATABASE]”
done