Databases

How to perform MySQL/MariaDB backups: mysqldump command examples

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MySQL/MariaDB mysqldump command

Although there are different methods for backing up MySQL and MariaDB databases, the most common and effective one is to use a native tool that both MySQL and MariaDB make available for this purpose: the mysqldump command. As its name suggests, this is a command-line executable program that allows you to perform a complete export (dump) of all the contents of a database or even all the databases in a running MySQL or MariaDB instance. Of course it also allows partial backups, i.e. only some specific tables, or even only only a subset of all the records in a table.

The mysqldump command offers a multitude of different parameters that make it very powerful and flexible. Since having so many options can be confusing, in this post I am going to collect several of the most frequent usage examples with the most common parameters and that are most useful in the day to day life of the system administrator.

DanielHow to perform MySQL/MariaDB backups: mysqldump command examples