If your tables are primarily InnoDB tables, or if you have a mix of InnoDB and MyISAM tables, consider using the mysqlbackup command of the MySQL Enterprise Backup product. (Available as part of the Enterprise subscription.) It provides the best performance for InnoDB backups with minimal disruption; it can also back up tables from MyISAM and other storage engines; and it provides a number of convenient options to accommodate different backup scenarios. See MySQL Enterprise Backup User's Guide (Version 3.8.1).

If your tables are primarily MyISAM tables, consider using the mysqlhotcopy instead, for better performance than mysqldump of backup and restore operations. See Section 4.6.10, “mysqlhotcopy — A Database Backup Program”.

--bind-address=ip_address

On a computer having multiple network interfaces, this option can be used to select which interface is employed when connecting to the MySQL server.

This option is supported beginning with MySQL 5.6.1.

--compress, -C

Compress all information sent between the client and the server if both support compression.

--default-auth=plugin

The client-side authentication plugin to use. See Section 6.3.7, “Pluggable Authentication”.

--host=host_name, -h host_name

Dump data from the MySQL server on the given host. The default host is localhost.

--password[=password], -p[password]

The password to use when connecting to the server. If you use the short option form (-p), you cannot have a space between the option and the password. If you omit the password value following the --password or -p option on the command line, mysqldump prompts for one.

Specifying a password on the command line should be considered insecure. See Section 6.1.2.1, “End-User Guidelines for Password Security”. You can use an option file to avoid giving the password on the command line.

--pipe, -W

On Windows, connect to the server using a named pipe. This option applies only if the server supports named-pipe connections.

--plugin-dir=path

The directory in which to look for plugins. It may be necessary to specify this option if the --default-auth option is used to specify an authentication plugin but mysqldump does not find it. See Section 6.3.7, “Pluggable Authentication”.

--port=port_num, -P port_num

The TCP/IP port number to use for the connection.

--protocol={TCP|SOCKET|PIPE|MEMORY}

The connection protocol to use for connecting to the server. It is useful when the other connection parameters normally would cause a protocol to be used other than the one you want. For details on the permissible values, see Section 4.2.2, “Connecting to the MySQL Server”.

--socket=path, -S path

For connections to localhost, the Unix socket file to use, or, on Windows, the name of the named pipe to use.

--ssl*

Options that begin with --ssl specify whether to connect to the server using SSL and indicate where to find SSL keys and certificates. See Section 6.3.9.4, “SSL Command Options”.

--user=user_name, -u user_name

The MySQL user name to use when connecting to the server.

max_allowed_packet

The maximum size of the buffer for client/server communication. The maximum is 1GB.

net_buffer_length

The initial size of the buffer for client/server communication. When creating multiple-row INSERT statements (as with the --extended-insert or --opt option), mysqldump creates rows up to net_buffer_length length. If you increase this variable, ensure that the net_buffer_length variable in the MySQL server is at least this large.

--add-drop-database

Add a DROP DATABASE statement before each CREATE DATABASE statement. This option is typically used in conjunction with the --all-databases or --databases option because no CREATE DATABASE statements are written unless one of those options is specified.

--add-drop-table

Add a DROP TABLE statement before each CREATE TABLE statement.

--add-drop-trigger

Add a DROP TRIGGER statement before each CREATE TRIGGER statement.

--all-tablespaces, -Y

Adds to a table dump all SQL statements needed to create any tablespaces used by an NDB table. This information is not otherwise included in the output from mysqldump. This option is currently relevant only to MySQL Cluster tables.

--no-create-db, -n

This option suppresses the CREATE DATABASE statements that are otherwise included in the output if the --databases or --all-databases option is given.

--no-create-info, -t

Do not write CREATE TABLE statements that re-create each dumped table.

--no-tablespaces, -y

This option suppresses all CREATE LOGFILE GROUP and CREATE TABLESPACE statements in the output of mysqldump.

--replace

Write REPLACE statements rather than INSERT statements.

--allow-keywords

Permit creation of column names that are keywords. This works by prefixing each column name with the table name.

--comments, -i

Write additional information in the dump file such as program version, server version, and host. This option is enabled by default. To suppress this additional information, use --skip-comments.

--debug[=debug_options], -# [debug_options]

Write a debugging log. A typical debug_options string is 'd:t:o,file_name'. The default value is 'd:t:o,/tmp/mysqldump.trace'.

--debug-check

Print some debugging information when the program exits.

--debug-info

Print debugging information and memory and CPU usage statistics when the program exits.

--dump-date

If the --comments option is given, mysqldump produces a comment at the end of the dump of the following form:

-- Dump completed on DATE

However, the date causes dump files taken at different times to appear to be different, even if the data are otherwise identical. --dump-date and --skip-dump-date control whether the date is added to the comment. The default is --dump-date (include the date in the comment). --skip-dump-date suppresses date printing.

--force, -f

Continue even if an SQL error occurs during a table dump.

One use for this option is to cause mysqldump to continue executing even when it encounters a view that has become invalid because the definition refers to a table that has been dropped. Without --force, mysqldump exits with an error message. With --force, mysqldump prints the error message, but it also writes an SQL comment containing the view definition to the dump output and continues executing.

--log-error=file_name

Log warnings and errors by appending them to the named file. The default is to do no logging.

--skip-comments

See the description for the --comments option.

--verbose, -v

Verbose mode. Print more information about what the program does.

--help, -?

Display a help message and exit.

--version, -V

Display version information and exit.

--character-sets-dir=path

The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 10.5, “Character Set Configuration”.

--default-character-set=charset_name

Use charset_name as the default character set. See Section 10.5, “Character Set Configuration”. If no character set is specified, mysqldump uses utf8, and earlier versions use latin1.

--no-set-names, -N

Turns off the --set-charset setting, the same as specifying --skip-set-charset.

--set-charset

Add SET NAMES default_character_set to the output. This option is enabled by default. To suppress the SET NAMES statement, use --skip-set-charset.

--apply-slave-statements

For a slave dump produced with the --dump-slave option, add a STOP SLAVE statement before the CHANGE MASTER TO statement and a START SLAVE statement at the end of the output.

--delete-master-logs

On a master replication server, delete the binary logs by sending a PURGE BINARY LOGS statement to the server after performing the dump operation. This option automatically enables --master-data.

--dump-slave[=value]

This option is similar to --master-data except that it is used to dump a replication slave server to produce a dump file that can be used to set up another server as a slave that has the same master as the dumped server. It causes the dump output to include a CHANGE MASTER TO statement that indicates the binary log coordinates (file name and position) of the dumped slave's master (rather than the coordinates of the dumped server, as is done by the --master-data option). These are the master server coordinates from which the slave should start replicating.

The option value is handled the same way as for --master-data and has the same effect as --master-data in terms of enabling or disabling other options and in how locking is handled.

This option causes mysqldump to stop the slave SQL thread before the dump and restart it again after.

In conjunction with --dump-slave, the --apply-slave-statements and --include-master-host-port options can also be used.

--include-master-host-port

For the CHANGE MASTER TO statement in a slave dump produced with the --dump-slave option, add MASTER_PORT and MASTER_PORT options for the host name and TCP/IP port number of the slave's master.

--master-data[=value]

Use this option to dump a master replication server to produce a dump file that can be used to set up another server as a slave of the master. It causes the dump output to include a CHANGE MASTER TO statement that indicates the binary log coordinates (file name and position) of the dumped server. These are the master server coordinates from which the slave should start replicating after you load the dump file into the slave.

If the option value is 2, the CHANGE MASTER TO statement is written as an SQL comment, and thus is informative only; it has no effect when the dump file is reloaded. If the option value is 1, the statement is not written as a comment and takes effect when the dump file is reloaded. If no option value is specified, the default value is 1.

This option requires the RELOAD privilege and the binary log must be enabled.

The --master-data option automatically turns off --lock-tables. It also turns on --lock-all-tables, unless --single-transaction also is specified, in which case, a global read lock is acquired only for a short time at the beginning of the dump (see the description for --single-transaction). In all cases, any action on logs happens at the exact moment of the dump.

It is also possible to set up a slave by dumping an existing slave of the master, using the --dump-slave option.

Prior to MySQL 5.6.4, this option was required for dumping the replication log tables (see Section 16.2.2, “Replication Relay and Status Logs”).

--set-gtid-purged=value

This option enables control over global transaction ID (GTID) information written to the dump file, by indicating whether to add a SET @@global.gtid_purged statement to the output.

The following table shows the permitted option values. The default value is AUTO.

This option was added in MySQL 5.6.9.

--compact

Produce more compact output. This option enables the --skip-add-drop-table, --skip-add-locks, --skip-comments, --skip-disable-keys, and --skip-set-charset options.

--compatible=name

Produce output that is more compatible with other database systems or with older MySQL servers. The value of name can be ansi, mysql323, mysql40, postgresql, oracle, mssql, db2, maxdb, no_key_options, no_table_options, or no_field_options. To use several values, separate them by commas. These values have the same meaning as the corresponding options for setting the server SQL mode. See Section 5.1.7, “Server SQL Modes”.

This option does not guarantee compatibility with other servers. It only enables those SQL mode values that are currently available for making dump output more compatible. For example, --compatible=oracle does not map data types to Oracle types or use Oracle comment syntax.

This option requires a server version of 4.1.0 or higher. With older servers, it does nothing.

--complete-insert, -c

Use complete INSERT statements that include column names.

--create-options

Include all MySQL-specific table options in the CREATE TABLE statements.

--fields-terminated-by=..., --fields-enclosed-by=..., --fields-optionally-enclosed-by=..., --fields-escaped-by=...

These options are used with the --tab option and have the same meaning as the corresponding FIELDS clauses for LOAD DATA INFILE. See Section 13.2.6, “LOAD DATA INFILE Syntax”.

--hex-blob

Dump binary columns using hexadecimal notation (for example, 'abc' becomes 0x616263). The affected data types are BINARY, VARBINARY, the BLOB types, and BIT.

--lines-terminated-by=...

This option is used with the --tab option and has the same meaning as the corresponding LINES clause for LOAD DATA INFILE. See Section 13.2.6, “LOAD DATA INFILE Syntax”.

--quote-names, -Q

Quote identifiers (such as database, table, and column names) within “`” characters. If the ANSI_QUOTES SQL mode is enabled, identifiers are quoted within “"” characters. This option is enabled by default. It can be disabled with --skip-quote-names, but this option should be given after any option such as --compatible that may enable --quote-names.

--result-file=file_name, -r file_name

Direct output to a given file. This option should be used on Windows to prevent newline “\n” characters from being converted to “\r\n” carriage return/newline sequences. The result file is created and its previous contents overwritten, even if an error occurs while generating the dump.

--tab=path, -T path

Produce tab-separated text-format data files. For each dumped table, mysqldump creates a tbl_name.sql file that contains the CREATE TABLE statement that creates the table, and the server writes a tbl_name.txt file that contains its data. The option value is the directory in which to write the files.

By default, the .txt data files are formatted using tab characters between column values and a newline at the end of each line. The format can be specified explicitly using the --fields-xxx and --lines-terminated-by options.

Column values are converted to the character set specified by the --default-character-set option.

--tz-utc

This option enables TIMESTAMP columns to be dumped and reloaded between servers in different time zones. mysqldump sets its connection time zone to UTC and adds SET TIME_ZONE='+00:00' to the dump file. Without this option, TIMESTAMP columns are dumped and reloaded in the time zones local to the source and destination servers, which can cause the values to change if the servers are in different time zones. --tz-utc also protects against changes due to daylight saving time. --tz-utc is enabled by default. To disable it, use --skip-tz-utc.

--xml, -X

Write dump output as well-formed XML.

NULL, 'NULL', and Empty Values: For a column named column_name, the NULL value, an empty string, and the string value 'NULL' are distinguished from one another in the output generated by this option as follows.

The output from the mysql client when run using the --xml option also follows the preceding rules. (See Section 4.5.1.1, “mysql Options”.)

XML output from mysqldump includes the XML namespace, as shown here:

shell> mysqldump --xml -u root world City
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<mysqldump xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<database name="world">
<table_structure name="City">
<field Field="ID" Type="int(11)" Null="NO" Key="PRI" Extra="auto_increment" />
<field Field="Name" Type="char(35)" Null="NO" Key="" Default="" Extra="" />
<field Field="CountryCode" Type="char(3)" Null="NO" Key="" Default="" Extra="" />
<field Field="District" Type="char(20)" Null="NO" Key="" Default="" Extra="" />
<field Field="Population" Type="int(11)" Null="NO" Key="" Default="0" Extra="" />
<key Table="City" Non_unique="0" Key_name="PRIMARY" Seq_in_index="1" Column_name="ID"
Collation="A" Cardinality="4079" Null="" Index_type="BTREE" Comment="" />
<options Name="City" Engine="MyISAM" Version="10" Row_format="Fixed" Rows="4079"
Avg_row_length="67" Data_length="273293" Max_data_length="18858823439613951"
Index_length="43008" Data_free="0" Auto_increment="4080"
Create_time="2007-03-31 01:47:01" Update_time="2007-03-31 01:47:02"
Collation="latin1_swedish_ci" Create_options="" Comment="" />
</table_structure>
<table_data name="City">
<row>
<field name="ID">1</field>
<field name="Name">Kabul</field>
<field name="CountryCode">AFG</field>
<field name="District">Kabol</field>
<field name="Population">1780000</field>
</row>

...

<row>
<field name="ID">4079</field>
<field name="Name">Rafah</field>
<field name="CountryCode">PSE</field>
<field name="District">Rafah</field>
<field name="Population">92020</field>
</row>
</table_data>
</database>
</mysqldump>

Prior to MySQL 5.6.5, this option prevented the --routines option from working correctly—that is, no stored routines, triggers, or events could be dumped in XML format. (Bug #11760384, Bug #52792)

--all-databases, -A

Dump all tables in all databases. This is the same as using the --databases option and naming all the databases on the command line.

Prior to MySQL 5.6.4, the slave_master_info and slave_relay_log_info tables (see Section 16.2.2, “Replication Relay and Status Logs”) were not included by this option.

--databases, -B

Dump several databases. Normally, mysqldump treats the first name argument on the command line as a database name and following names as table names. With this option, it treats all name arguments as database names. CREATE DATABASE and USE statements are included in the output before each new database.

--events, -E

Include Event Scheduler events for the dumped databases in the output.

--ignore-table=db_name.tbl_name

Do not dump the given table, which must be specified using both the database and table names. To ignore multiple tables, use this option multiple times. This option also can be used to ignore views.

--no-data, -d

Do not write any table row information (that is, do not dump table contents). This is useful if you want to dump only the CREATE TABLE statement for the table (for example, to create an empty copy of the table by loading the dump file).

--routines, -R

Include stored routines (procedures and functions) for the dumped databases in the output. Use of this option requires the SELECT privilege for the mysql.proc table. The output generated by using --routines contains CREATE PROCEDURE and CREATE FUNCTION statements to re-create the routines. However, these statements do not include attributes such as the routine creation and modification timestamps. This means that when the routines are reloaded, they will be created with the timestamps equal to the reload time.

If you require routines to be re-created with their original timestamp attributes, do not use --routines. Instead, dump and reload the contents of the mysql.proc table directly, using a MySQL account that has appropriate privileges for the mysql database.

Prior to MySQL 5.6.5, this option had no effect when used together with the --xml option. (Bug #11760384, Bug #52792)

--tables

Override the --databases or -B option. mysqldump regards all name arguments following the option as table names.

--triggers

Include triggers for each dumped table in the output. This option is enabled by default; disable it with --skip-triggers.

--where='where_condition', -w 'where_condition'

Dump only rows selected by the given WHERE condition. Quotes around the condition are mandatory if it contains spaces or other characters that are special to your command interpreter.

Examples:

--where="user='jimf'"
-w"userid>1"
-w"userid<1"

--delayed-insert

For those nontransactional tables that support the INSERT DELAYED syntax, use that statement rather than regular INSERT statements.

As of MySQL 5.6.6, DELAYED inserts are deprecated, so this option will be removed in a future release.

--disable-keys, -K

For each table, surround the INSERT statements with /*!40000 ALTER TABLE tbl_name DISABLE KEYS */; and /*!40000 ALTER TABLE tbl_name ENABLE KEYS */; statements. This makes loading the dump file faster because the indexes are created after all rows are inserted. This option is effective only for nonunique indexes of MyISAM tables.

--extended-insert, -e

Use multiple-row INSERT syntax that include several VALUES lists. This results in a smaller dump file and speeds up inserts when the file is reloaded.

--insert-ignore

Write INSERT IGNORE statements rather than INSERT statements.

--opt

This option, enabled by default, is shorthand for the combination of --add-drop-table --add-locks --create-options --disable-keys --extended-insert --lock-tables --quick --set-charset. It gives a fast dump operation and produces a dump file that can be reloaded into a MySQL server quickly.

Because the --opt option is enabled by default, you only specify its converse, the --skip-opt to turn off several default settings. See the discussion of mysqldump option groups for information about selectively enabling or disabling a subset of the options affected by --opt.

--quick, -q

This option is useful for dumping large tables. It forces mysqldump to retrieve rows for a table from the server a row at a time rather than retrieving the entire row set and buffering it in memory before writing it out.

--skip-opt

See the description for the --opt option.

--add-locks

Surround each table dump with LOCK TABLES and UNLOCK TABLES statements. This results in faster inserts when the dump file is reloaded. See Section 8.2.2.1, “Speed of INSERT Statements”.

--flush-logs, -F

Flush the MySQL server log files before starting the dump. This option requires the RELOAD privilege. If you use this option in combination with the --all-databases option, the logs are flushed for each database dumped. The exception is when using --lock-all-tables, --master-data, or --single-transaction: In this case, the logs are flushed only once, corresponding to the moment that all tables are locked. If you want your dump and the log flush to happen at exactly the same moment, you should use --flush-logs together with --lock-all-tables, --master-data, or --single-transaction.

--flush-privileges

Send a FLUSH PRIVILEGES statement to the server after dumping the mysql database. This option should be used any time the dump contains the mysql database and any other database that depends on the data in the mysql database for proper restoration.

--lock-all-tables, -x

Lock all tables across all databases. This is achieved by acquiring a global read lock for the duration of the whole dump. This option automatically turns off --single-transaction and --lock-tables.

--lock-tables, -l

For each dumped database, lock all tables to be dumped before dumping them. The tables are locked with READ LOCAL to permit concurrent inserts in the case of MyISAM tables. For transactional tables such as InnoDB, --single-transaction is a much better option than --lock-tables because it does not need to lock the tables at all.

Because --lock-tables locks tables for each database separately, this option does not guarantee that the tables in the dump file are logically consistent between databases. Tables in different databases may be dumped in completely different states.

Some options, such as --opt, automatically enable --lock-tables. If you want to override this, use --skip-lock-tables at the end of the option list.

--no-autocommit

Enclose the INSERT statements for each dumped table within SET autocommit = 0 and COMMIT statements.

--order-by-primary

Dump each table's rows sorted by its primary key, or by its first unique index, if such an index exists. This is useful when dumping a MyISAM table to be loaded into an InnoDB table, but makes the dump operation take considerably longer.

--single-transaction

This option sets the transaction isolation mode to REPEATABLE READ and sends a START TRANSACTION SQL statement to the server before dumping data. It is useful only with transactional tables such as InnoDB, because then it dumps the consistent state of the database at the time when START TRANSACTION was issued without blocking any applications.

When using this option, you should keep in mind that only InnoDB tables are dumped in a consistent state. For example, any MyISAM or MEMORY tables dumped while using this option may still change state.

The --single-transaction option and the --lock-tables option are mutually exclusive because LOCK TABLES causes any pending transactions to be committed implicitly.

To dump large tables, combine the --single-transaction option with the --quick.

The --opt option turns on several settings that work together to perform a fast dump operation. All of these settings are on by default, because --opt is on by default. Thus you rarely if ever specify --opt. Instead, you can turn these settings off as a group by specifying --skip-opt, the optionally re-enable certain settings by specifying the associated options later on the command line.

The --compact option turns off several settings that control whether optional statements and comments appear in the output. Again, you can follow this option with other options that re-enable certain settings, or turn all the settings on by using the --skip-compact form.

To select the effect of --opt except for some features, use the --skip option for each feature. To disable extended inserts and memory buffering, use --opt --skip-extended-insert --skip-quick. (Actually, --skip-extended-insert --skip-quick is sufficient because --opt is on by default.)

To reverse --opt for all features except index disabling and table locking, use --skip-opt --disable-keys --lock-tables.