backing up MySQL data

[thedotproduct]

heya gang,

I'm just curious as to a way to back up my MySQL tables. I'm ok with using cron to automate this process, but what command (if any) should I use to make a backup of the tables? Also, can I automatically make a tarball out of these archives to save space?

Thanks,
Greg

[jburfield]

Have you looked at mysqldump???

mysqldump -u USERNAME -p DATABASENAME > /dir/to/put/file.sql

You could write out a little shell script to excecute the dump and then tar it...

#!/bin/bash

make the dump

mysqldump -u jason -pXXX jasondb > /backup/db.sql

tar it

tar -czf /backup/db.tar.gz /backup/db.sql

That's quick and rough...and assumes you are funning some form of *nix.

-- Jason