mysqldump(1) MySQL Database System mysqldump(1)

NAME

 mysqldump - a database backup program

SYNOPSIS

 mysqldump [options] [db_name [tbl_name ...]]

DESCRIPTION

 The mysqldump client is a backup program originally written by Igor
 Romanenko. It can be used to dump a database or a collection of
 databases for backup or transfer to another SQL server (not necessarily
 a MySQL server). The dump typically contains SQL statements to create
 the table, populate it, or both. However, mysqldump can also be used to
 generate files in CSV, other delimited text, or XML format.
 If you are doing a backup on the server and your tables all are MyISAM
 tables, consider using the mysqlhotcopy instead because it can
 accomplish faster backups and faster restores. See mysqlhotcopy(1) .
 There are three general ways to invoke mysqldump:
 shell> mysqldump [options] db_name [tables]
 shell> mysqldump [options] --databases db_name1 [db_name2 db_name3...]
 shell> mysqldump [options] --all-databases
 If you do not name any tables following db_name or if you use the
 --databases or --all-databases option, entire databases are dumped.
 mysqldump does not dump the INFORMATION_SCHEMA database. If you name
 that database explicitly on the command line, mysqldump silently
 ignores it.
 To get a list of the options your version of mysqldump supports,
 execute mysqldump --help.
 Some mysqldump options are shorthand for groups of other options.
 --opt and --compact fall into this category. For example, use of --opt
 is the same as specifying --add-drop-table --add-locks --create-options
 --disable-keys --extended-insert --lock-tables --quick --set-charset.
 Note that all of the options that --opt stands for also are on by
 default because --opt is on by default.
 To reverse the effect of a group option, uses its --skip-xxx form
 (--skip-opt or --skip-compact). It is also possible to select only part
 of the effect of a group option by following it with options that
 enable or disable specific features. Here are some examples:
 o To select the effect of --opt except for some features, use the
 --skip option for each feature. For example, to disable extended
 inserts and memory buffering, use --opt --skip-extended-insert
 --skip-quick. (As of MySQL 5.0, --skip-extended-insert --skip-quick
 is sufficient because --opt is on by default.)
 o To reverse --opt for all features except index disabling and table
 locking, use --skip-opt --disable-keys --lock-tables.
 When you selectively enable or disable the effect of a group option,
 order is important because options are processed first to last. For
 example, --disable-keys --lock-tables --skip-opt would not have the
 intended effect; it is the same as --skip-opt by itself.
 mysqldump can retrieve and dump table contents row by row, or it can
 retrieve the entire content from a table and buffer it in memory before
 dumping it. Buffering in memory can be a problem if you are dumping
 large tables. To dump tables row by row, use the --quick option (or
 --opt, which enables --quick). The --opt option (and hence --quick) is
 enabled by default in MySQL 5.0; to enable memory buffering, use
 --skip-quick.
 If you are using a recent version of mysqldump to generate a dump to be
 reloaded into a very old MySQL server, you should not use the --opt or
 --extended-insert option. Use --skip-opt instead.
 Before MySQL 4.1.2, out-of-range numeric values such as -inf and inf,
 as well as NaN (not-a-number) values are dumped by mysqldump as NULL.
 You can see this using the following sample table:
 mysql> CREATE TABLE t (f DOUBLE);
 mysql> INSERT INTO t VALUES(1e+111111111111111111111);
 mysql> INSERT INTO t VALUES(-1e111111111111111111111);
 mysql> SELECT f FROM t;
 +------+
 | f |
 +------+
 | inf |
 | -inf |
 +------+
 For this table, mysqldump produces the following data output:
 --
 -- Dumping data for table `t`
 --
 INSERT INTO t VALUES (NULL);
 INSERT INTO t VALUES (NULL);
 The significance of this behavior is that if you dump and restore the
 table, the new table has contents that differ from the original
 contents. This problem is fixed as of MySQL 4.1.2; you cannot insert
 inf in the table, so this mysqldump behavior is only relevant when you
 deal with old servers.
 mysqldump supports the options in the following list. It also reads
 option files and supports the options for processing them described at
 Section 4.2.3.3.1, "Command-Line Options that Affect Option-File
 Handling".
 o --help, -?
 Display a help message and exit.
 o --add-drop-database
 Add a DROP DATABASE statement before each CREATE DATABASE
 statement.
 o --add-drop-table
 Add a DROP TABLE statement before each CREATE TABLE statement.
 o --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 7.2.19, "Speed of INSERT Statements".
 o --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.
 o --allow-keywords
 Allow creation of column names that are keywords. This works by
 prefixing each column name with the table name.
 o --character-sets-dir=path
 The directory where character sets are installed. See Section 9.2,
 "The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting".
 o --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.
 o --compact
 Produce less verbose output. This option enables the
 --skip-add-drop-table, --skip-add-locks, --skip-comments,
 --skip-disable-keys, and --skip-set-charset options.
 Note
 Prior to release 5.0.48, this option did not create valid SQL
 if the database dump contained views. The recreation of views
 requires the creation and removal of temporary tables and this
 option suppressed the removal of those temporary tables. As a
 workaround, use --compact with the --add-drop-table option and
 then manually adjust the dump file.
 o --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.
 o --complete-insert, -c
 Use complete INSERT statements that include column names.
 o --compress, -C
 Compress all information sent between the client and the server if
 both support compression.
 o --create-options
 Include all MySQL-specific table options in the CREATE TABLE
 statements.
 o --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.
 o --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'.
 o --debug-info
 Print debugging information and memory and CPU usage statistics
 when the program exits. This option was added in MySQL 5.0.32.
 o --default-character-set=charset_name
 Use charset_name as the default character set. See Section 9.2,
 "The Character Set Used for Data and Sorting". If no character set
 is specified, mysqldump uses utf8, and earlier versions use latin1.
 This option has no effect for output data files produced by using
 the --tab option. See the description for that option.
 o --delayed-insert
 Write INSERT DELAYED statements rather than INSERT statements.
 o --delete-master-logs
 On a master replication server, delete the binary logs after
 performing the dump operation. This option automatically enables
 --master-data.
 o --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.
 o --dump-date
 mysqldump produces a -- Dump completed on DATE comment at the end
 of the dump if the --comments option is given. However, the date
 causes dump files for identical data take at different times to
 appear to be different. --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. This option was added in MySQL 5.0.52.
 o --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.
 o --fields-terminated-by=..., --fields-enclosed-by=...,
 --fields-optionally-enclosed-by=..., --fields-escaped-by=...
 These options are used with the -T option and have the same meaning
 as the corresponding clauses for LOAD DATA INFILE. See
 Section 12.2.6, "LOAD DATA INFILE Syntax".
 o --first-slave, -x
 Deprecated. Now renamed to --lock-all-tables.
 o --flush-logs, -F
 Flush the MySQL server log files before starting the dump. This
 option requires the RELOAD privilege. Note that if you use this
 option in combination with the --all-databases (or -A) option, the
 logs are flushed for each database dumped. The exception is when
 using --lock-all-tables or --master-data: 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
 either --lock-all-tables or --master-data.
 o --flush-privileges
 Emit a FLUSH PRIVILEGES statement 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. This option was added in
 MySQL 5.0.26.
 o --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.
 o --host=host_name, -h host_name
 Dump data from the MySQL server on the given host. The default host
 is localhost.
 o --hex-blob
 Dump binary columns using hexadecimal notation (for example, 'abc'
 becomes 0x616263). The affected data types are BINARY, VARBINARY,
 and BLOB. As of MySQL 5.0.13, BIT columns are affected as well.
 o --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.
 o --insert-ignore
 Write INSERT statements with the IGNORE option.
 o --lines-terminated-by=...
 This option is used with the -T option and has the same meaning as
 the corresponding clause for LOAD DATA INFILE. See Section 12.2.6,
 "LOAD DATA INFILE Syntax".
 o --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.
 o --lock-tables, -l
 Lock all tables before dumping them. The tables are locked with
 READ LOCAL to allow concurrent inserts in the case of MyISAM
 tables. For transactional tables such as InnoDB and BDB,
 --single-transaction is a much better option, because it does not
 need to lock the tables at all.
 Please note that when dumping multiple databases, --lock-tables
 locks tables for each database separately. Therefore, 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.
 o --log-error=file_name
 Append warnings and errors to the named file. This option was added
 in MySQL 5.0.42.
 o --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.
 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 takes effect when the dump file is reloaded. If the
 option value is not 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. To do this, use the following procedure on the
 existing slave:
 1. Stop the slave's SQL thread and get its current status:
 mysql> STOP SLAVE SQL_THREAD;
 mysql> SHOW SLAVE STATUS;
 2. From the output of the SHOW SLAVE STATUS statement, get the
 binary log coordinates of the master server from which the new
 slave should start replicating. These coordinates are the
 values of the Relay_Master_Log_File and Exec_Master_Log_Pos
 values. Denote those values as file_name and file_pos.
 3. Dump the slave server:
 shell> mysqldump --master-data=2 --all-databases > dumpfile
 4. Restart the slave:
 mysql> START SLAVE;
 5. On the new slave, reload the dump file:
 shell> mysql < dumpfile
 6. On the new slave, set the replication coordinates to those of
 the master server obtained earlier:
 mysql> CHANGE MASTER TO
 -> MASTER_LOG_FILE = 'file_name', MASTER_LOG_POS = file_pos;
 The CHANGE MASTER TO statement might also need other
 parameters, such as MASTER_HOST to point the slave to the
 correct master server host. Add any such parameters as
 necessary.
 o --no-autocommit
 Enclose the INSERT statements for each dumped table within SET
 autocommit = 0 and COMMIT statements.
 o --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.
 o --no-create-info, -t
 Do not write CREATE TABLE statements that re-create each dumped
 table.
 o --no-data, -d
 Do not write any table row information (that is, do not dump table
 contents). This is very useful if you want to dump only the CREATE
 TABLE statement for the table.
 o --no-set-names
 This option is deprecated. Use --skip-set-charset instead.
 o --opt
 This option is shorthand; it is the same as specifying
 --add-drop-table --add-locks --create-options --disable-keys
 --extended-insert --lock-tables --quick --set-charset. It should
 give you a fast dump operation and produce a dump file that can be
 reloaded into a MySQL server quickly.
 The --opt option is enabled by default. Use --skip-opt to disable
 it. See the discussion at the beginning of this section for
 information about selectively enabling or disabling certain of the
 options affected by --opt.
 o --order-by-primary
 Sort each table's rows 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 will make the
 dump itself take considerably longer.
 o --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, you are prompted for
 one.
 Specifying a password on the command line should be considered
 insecure. See Section 5.5.6.2, "End-User Guidelines for Password
 Security".
 o --pipe, -W
 On Windows, connect to the server via a named pipe. This option
 applies only for connections to a local server, and only if the
 server supports named-pipe connections.
 o --port=port_num, -P port_num
 The TCP/IP port number to use for the connection.
 o --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
 allowable values, see Section 4.2.2, "Connecting to the MySQL
 Server".
 o --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.
 o --quote-names, -Q
 Quote database, table, and column names within "`" characters. If
 the ANSI_QUOTES SQL mode is enabled, names 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.
 o --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 contents overwritten, even if an error occurs while
 generating the dump. The previous contents are lost.
 o --routines, -R
 Dump stored routines (procedures and functions) from the dumped
 databases. 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.
 This option was added in MySQL 5.0.13. Before that, stored routines
 are not dumped. Routine DEFINER values are not dumped until MySQL
 5.0.20. This means that before 5.0.20, when routines are reloaded,
 they will be created with the definer set to the reloading user. If
 you require routines to be re-created with their original definer,
 dump and load the contents of the mysql.proc table directly as
 described earlier.
 o --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.
 o --single-transaction
 This option issues a BEGIN SQL statement before dumping data from
 the server. It is useful only with transactional tables such as
 InnoDB and BDB, because then it dumps the consistent state of the
 database at the time when BEGIN 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.
 While a --single-transaction dump is in process, to ensure a valid
 dump file (correct table contents and binary log position), no
 other connection should use the following statements: ALTER TABLE,
 DROP TABLE, RENAME TABLE, TRUNCATE TABLE. A consistent read is not
 isolated from those statements, so use of them on a table to be
 dumped can cause the SELECT performed by mysqldump to retrieve the
 table contents to obtain incorrect contents or fail.
 This option is not supported for MySQL Cluster tables; the results
 cannot be guaranteed to be consistent due to the fact that the
 NDBCLUSTER storage engine supports only the READ_COMMITTED
 transaction isolation level. You should always use NDB backup and
 restore instead.
 To dump large tables, you should combine this option with --quick.
 o --skip-comments
 See the description for the --comments option.
 o --skip-opt
 See the description for the --opt option.
 o --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.
 o --ssl*
 Options that begin with --ssl specify whether to connect to the
 server via SSL and indicate where to find SSL keys and
 certificates. See Section 5.5.7.3, "SSL Command Options".
 o --tab=path, -T path
 Produce tab-separated data files. For each dumped table, mysqldump
 creates a tbl_name.sql file that contains the CREATE TABLE
 statement that creates the table, and 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 dumped using the binary character set and the
 --default-character-set option is ignored. In effect, there is no
 character set conversion. If a table contains columns in several
 character sets, the output data file will as well and you may not
 be able to reload the file correctly.
 Note
 This option should be used only when mysqldump is run on the
 same machine as the mysqld server. You must have the FILE
 privilege, and the server must have permission to write files
 in the directory that you specify.
 o --tables
 Override the --databases or -B option. mysqldump regards all name
 arguments following the option as table names.
 o --triggers
 Dump triggers for each dumped table. This option is enabled by
 default; disable it with --skip-triggers. This option was added in
 MySQL 5.0.11. Before that, triggers are not dumped.
 o --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. --tz-utc also
 protects against changes due to daylight saving time. --tz-utc is
 enabled by default. To disable it, use --skip-tz-utc. This option
 was added in MySQL 5.0.15.
 o --user=user_name, -u user_name
 The MySQL user name to use when connecting to the server.
 o --verbose, -v
 Verbose mode. Print more information about what the program does.
 o --version, -V
 Display version information and exit.
 o --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"
 o --xml, -X
 Write dump output as well-formed XML.
 NULL, 'NULL', and Empty Values: For some 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.
 +----------------------+---------------------------------+
 |Value: | XML Representation: |
 +----------------------+---------------------------------+
 |NULL (unknown value) | <field name="column_name" |
 | | xsi:nil="true" /> |
 +----------------------+---------------------------------+
 |'' (empty string) | <field |
 | | name="column_name"></field> |
 +----------------------+---------------------------------+
 |'NULL' (string value) | <field |
 | | name="column_name">NULL</field> |
 +----------------------+---------------------------------+
 Beginning with MySQL 5.0.26, the output from the mysql client when
 run using the --xml option also follows these rules. (See the
 section called "MYSQL OPTIONS".)
 Beginning with MySQL 5.0.40, 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="27329
 3" Max_data_length="18858823439613951" Index_length="43008" Data_free="0" Auto_increment="4080" Create_time="2007-03-31 01:47:01" Updat
 e_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>
 You can also set the following variables by using --var_name=value
 syntax:
 o max_allowed_packet
 The maximum size of the buffer for client/server communication. The
 maximum is 1GB.
 o net_buffer_length
 The initial size of the buffer for client/server communication.
 When creating multiple-row-insert statements (as with option
 --extended-insert or --opt), mysqldump creates rows up to
 net_buffer_length length. If you increase this variable, you should
 also ensure that the net_buffer_length variable in the MySQL server
 is at least this large.
 It is also possible to set variables by using --var_name=value. The
 --set-variable format is deprecated.
 The most common use of mysqldump is probably for making a backup of an
 entire database:
 shell> mysqldump db_name > backup-file.sql
 You can read the dump file back into the server like this:
 shell> mysql db_name < backup-file.sql
 Or like this:
 shell> mysql -e "source /path-to-backup/backup-file.sql" db_name
 mysqldump is also very useful for populating databases by copying data
 from one MySQL server to another:
 shell> mysqldump --opt db_name | mysql --host=remote_host -C db_name
 It is possible to dump several databases with one command:
 shell> mysqldump --databases db_name1 [db_name2 ...] > my_databases.sql
 To dump all databases, use the --all-databases option:
 shell> mysqldump --all-databases > all_databases.sql
 For InnoDB tables, mysqldump provides a way of making an online backup:
 shell> mysqldump --all-databases --single-transaction > all_databases.sql
 This backup acquires a global read lock on all tables (using FLUSH
 TABLES WITH READ LOCK) at the beginning of the dump. As soon as this
 lock has been acquired, the binary log coordinates are read and the
 lock is released. If long updating statements are running when the
 FLUSH statement is issued, the MySQL server may get stalled until those
 statements finish. After that, the dump becomes lock-free and does not
 disturb reads and writes on the tables. If the update statements that
 the MySQL server receives are short (in terms of execution time), the
 initial lock period should not be noticeable, even with many updates.
 For point-in-time recovery (also known as "roll-forward," when you need
 to restore an old backup and replay the changes that happened since
 that backup), it is often useful to rotate the binary log (see
 Section 5.2.3, "The Binary Log") or at least know the binary log
 coordinates to which the dump corresponds:
 shell> mysqldump --all-databases --master-data=2 > all_databases.sql
 Or:
 shell> mysqldump --all-databases --flush-logs --master-data=2
 > all_databases.sql
 The --master-data and --single-transaction options can be used
 simultaneously, which provides a convenient way to make an online
 backup suitable for point-in-time recovery if tables are stored using
 the InnoDB storage engine.
 For more information on making backups, see Section 6.2, "Database
 Backup Methods", and Section 6.3, "Example Backup and Recovery
 Strategy".
 If you encounter problems backing up views, please read the section
 that covers restrictions on views which describes a workaround for
 backing up views when this fails due to insufficient privileges. See
 Section D.4, "Restrictions on Views".

COPYRIGHT

 Copyright 2007-2008 MySQL AB, 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
 This documentation is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 modify it only under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
 published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.
 This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
 General Public License for more details.
 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
 with the program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA or see
 http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

SEE ALSO

 For more information, please refer to the MySQL Reference Manual, which
 may already be installed locally and which is also available online at
 http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.

AUTHOR

 Sun Microsystems, Inc. (http://www.mysql.com/).
MySQL 5.0 11/09/2009 mysqldump(1)