Mysqlimport does not work on ubuntu 14.04 - mysql

Question

i have installed Server version: 5.6.25 MySQL Community Server (GPL) on my laptop with OS ubuntu 14.04 lts. Recently i tried to run mysqlimport client program and got errors that i was unable to figure out.
on terminal i type this command and got this error:
mysql> mysqlimport --local test_database employee.txt;
ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'mysqlimport --local test_database employee.txt' at line 1
Initially, i thought that may be the problem is in the employee.txt file directory which i stored under var/lib/mysql directory.But when i tried this most basic mysqlimport command i again got error!:
mysql> mysqlimport --help;
ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'mysqlimport --help' at line 1
Thus, i think my current mysql 5.6.25 does not have mysqlimport support.I tried to follow this RPM Package Client Utilities..However that was for linux not ubuntu & all the given Package versions are 5.6.26 not 5.6.25.BTW all of my other configurations such as phpmyadmin & database query works fine.
Therefore, in that situation how should i resolve the problem ?
let me know for further information.
Thanks
Thanks alvits , finally i tried this modified commands from outside the mysql in another terminal:
mysqlimport --local -u root -p test_database home/himadree/mysqlTestingFiles/employee.txt;
it works,BUT the data inside the employee.txt were not correctly restored into the table. my actucal employee.txt contains this tab-dalimated data below:
100 John Doe DBA
200 John Smith Sysadmin
300 Raj Patel Developer
But after mysqlimport command i got this output:
select * from employee;
+-------+-----------------+------+
| empno | ename | job |
+-------+-----------------+------+
| 100 | John Doe | NULL |
| 200 | NULL | NULL |
| 300 | NULL | NULL |
+-------+-----------------+------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)
why i m getting some incorrect data on the table?
Yes Finally i realized that there were some extra tabs in the text file & last commands were fine.
Now here is my final table:
mysql> select * from employee;
+-------+------------+-----------+
| empno | ename | job |
+-------+------------+-----------+
| 100 | John Doe | DBA |
| 200 | John Smith | Sysadmin |
| 300 | Raj Patel | Developer |
+-------+------------+-----------+
So, anyone trying to learn the mysqlimport program then be careful:
whether the input text file properly delimited or not.
use mysqlimport program outside from mysql program itself with opening another terminal/shell on your OS etc.
Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

In Ubuntu, shell, I ditched mysqlimport and instead use:
MYSQL -h blah < file.sql