Database dump

Record of the table structure and/or the data from a database

This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations . Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (October 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

For information on obtaining a database dump of the Wikipedia contents, see Wikipedia:Database dump.

A database dump contains a record of the table structure and/or the data from a database and is usually in the form of a list of SQL statements ("SQL dump"). A database dump is most often used for backing up a database so that its contents can be restored in the event of data loss. Corrupted databases can often be recovered by analysis of the dump. Database dumps are often published by free content projects, to facilitate reuse, forking, offline use, and long-term digital preservation.

Dumps can be transported into environments with Internet blackouts or otherwise restricted Internet access, as well as facilitate local searching of the database using sophisticated tools such as grep .