These are commands for the major operations for mysqlbackup. Only one of them can be specified for each mysqlbackup invocation, and, unlike the command options, the name of a command is not preceded by any dashes.

Each of these commands has its own set of required or allowed command options. For example, the backup command typically requires connection information to the database server. The apply-log and other commands that operate on the backup data after it is produced require the options that specify where the backup data is located.

The major groups of commands are: