script/command for taking automatic backup of mysql database

[Ankush Grover]

hey friends,

I am using FC3 with mysql 4.1(downloaded from mysql.com site).
 
 I want a script which automatically takes backup of the mysql
database.I have one database "dental" and I want to setup a cron job
for the database backup .

The command given in the script is :

mysqldump -u root -p  *F298CEE6BE03DAEB0D515166F40879C6DD1D24F3 
dental > /var/database/dental.sql

If I try to execute the script from the command line it asks for the
password where as the password is given in the command in my case the
password for root user is  *F298CEE6BE03DAEB0D515166F40879C6DD1D24F3"
.

 How can I avoid asking for password .Moreover I can't keep the
password without encryption in the script.

Is there anyway  the script does not asks for the password and the
password if given as argument or passed  in the script is encrypted ?

Encryption is done with the mysql   "select password('ankush') ' command.



Thanks & Regards

Ankush Grover