mariadb-dump

The mariadb-dump client is a backup program originally written by Igor Romanenko.

The mariadb-dump client can be used to dump a database or a collection of databases for backup or transfer to another database server (not necessarily MariaDB or MySQL). The dump typically contains SQL statements to create the table, populate it, or both. Also, mariadb-dump can also be used to generate files in CSV, other delimited text, or XML format.

mariadb-dump dumps triggers along with tables, as these are part of the table definition. However, stored procedures, views, and events are not dumped, and need extra parameters to be recreated explicitly (for example, --routines and --events). Procedures and functions are also part of the system tables (for example, mysql.proc).

mariadb-dump supports the enhancements for START TRANSACTION WITH CONSISTENT SNAPSHOT.

Performance

mariadb-dump usually doesn't consume much CPU resources on modern hardware, as by default it uses a single thread. This method is good for a heavily loaded server.

Disk input/outputs per second (IOPS), can, however, increase for multiple reasons. When you back up on the same device as the database, this produces unnecessary random IOPS. The dump is done sequentially, on a per-table basis, causing a full table scan and many buffer page misses on tables that are not fully cached in memory.

It's recommended that you back up from a network location to remove disk IOPS on the database server, but it is vital to use a separate network card to keep network bandwidth available for regular traffic.

Although mariadb-dump by default preserves your resources for regular spindle disks and low-core hardware, this doesn't mean that concurrent dumps cannot benefit from hardware architecture like SAN, flash storage, low write workload. The backup time would benefit from a tool such as MyDumper.

Usage

There are four general ways to invoke mariadb-dump:

shell> mariadb-dump [options] db_name [tbl_name ...]
shell> mariadb-dump [options] --databases db_name ...
shell> mariadb-dump [options] --all-databases
shell> mariadb-dump [options] --system=[option_list]

If you do not name any tables after specifying db_name , or if you use the --databases or --all-databases option, entire databases are dumped.

mariadb-dump does not dump the INFORMATION_SCHEMA (or PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA, if enabled) database by default. MariaDB dumps the INFORMATION_SCHEMA if you name it explicitly on the command line, although you must also use the --skip-lock-tables option.

To see a list of the options your version of mariadb-dump supports, execute mariadb-dump --help.

Row by Row vs. Buffering

mariadb-dump 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, so to enable memory buffering, use --skip-quick.

mysql.transaction_registry_table

mariadb-dump includes logic to cater for the mysql.transaction_registry table.

Old Versions of MySQL

If you are using a recent version of mariadb-dump 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.

Options

mariadb-dump supports the following options:

Scope

--all

Deprecated. Use --create-options instead.

-A, --all-databases

Dump all the databases. This is the same as --databases with all databases selected.

-Y, --all-tablespaces

Dump all the tablespaces.

-y, --no-tablespaces

Do not dump any tablespace information.

Other Options

--add-drop-database

Add a DROP DATABASE before each create. Typically used in conjunction with the --all-databases or --databases option, because no CREATE DATABASE statements are written, unless one of those options is specified.

--add-drop-table

Add a DROP TABLE before each create.

--add-drop-trigger

Add a DROP TRIGGER statement before each CREATE TRIGGER.

--add-locks

Add locks around INSERT statements, which results in faster inserts when the dump file is reloaded. Use --skip-add-locks to disable.

--allow-keywords

Allow creation of column names that are keywords. This works by prefixing each column name with the table name.

--apply-slave-statements

Adds STOP SLAVE prior to CHANGE MASTER and START SLAVE to bottom of dump.

--as-of=name

Dump system versioned table as of specified timestamp. Argument is interpreted according to the --tz-utc setting. Table structures are always dumped as of current timestamp. This option is available from MariaDB 10.7.

--character-sets-dir=name

Directory for character set files.

-i, --comments

Write additional information in the dump file such as program version, server version, and host. Disable with --skip-comments.

--compact

Give less verbose output (useful for debugging). Disables structure comments and header/footer constructs. Enables the --skip-add-drop-table, --skip-add-locks, --skip-comments, --skip-disable-keys, and --skip-set-charset options.

--compatible=name

Change the dump to be compatible with a given mode. By default tables are dumped in a format optimized for MariaDB and MySQL. Legal modes are: ansi, mysql323, mysql40, postgresql, oracle, mssql, db2, maxdb, no_key_options, no_table_options, and no_field_options. You can use several modes, separated by commas. This option does not guarantee compatibility with other servers. It only enables those SQL mode values that are available for making dump output more compatible. For example, --compatible=oracle does not map data types to Oracle types or use Oracle comment syntax.

-c, --complete-insert

Use complete INSERT statements that include column names.

-C, --compress

Use compression in server/client protocol. Both client and server must support compression for this to work.

--copy-s3-tables

By default, S3 tables are ignored. With this option set, the result file will contain a CREATE statement for a similar Aria table, followed by the table data and ending with an ALTER TABLE`` table ``ENGINE=S3.

-a, --create-options

Include all MariaDB and/or MySQL specific create options in CREATE TABLE statements. Use --skip-create-options to disable.

-B, --databases

Dump several databases. Normally, mariadb-dump 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.

-#, --debug[=#]

If using a debug version of MariaDB, 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. If using a non-debug version, mariadb-dump will catch this and exit.

--debug-check

Check memory and open file usage at exit.

--debug-info

Print some debug info at exit.

--default-auth=name

Default authentication client-side plugin to use.

--default-character-set=name

Set the default character set to name. If no character set is specified, mariadb-dump uses utf8mb4.

--defaults-extra-file=name

Read the file name after the global files are read. Must be given as the first argument.

--defaults-file=name

Only read default options from the given file name. Must be given as the first argument.

--defaults-group-suffix=str

Also read groups with a suffix of str. For example, since mariadb-dump normally reads the [client] and [mariadb-dump] (or [mysqldump]) groups, --defaults-group-suffix=x would cause it to also read the groups [mariadb-dump_x] (or [mysqldump_x]) and [client_x].

--delayed-insert

Insert rows with INSERT DELAYED instead of INSERT.

--delete-master-logs

On a primary replication server, delete the binary logs by sending a PURGE BINARY LOGS statement to the server after performing the dump operation. This option automatically enables --master-data=2.

--dir

Parallel dump of multiple databases. Works just like --tab, with regard to output (sql file for table definition and tab-separated for data, same options, for example, --parallel). It also allows the --databases and --all-databases options. When --dir is used, it creates the directory structure in the output directory pointed to by --dir. For every database to be dumped, there is a directory with the database name. All options that --tab supports are also supported by --dir, in particular --parallel. This option is available from MariaDB 11.5.

-K, --disable-keys

'/*!40000 ALTER TABLE`` tb_name``DISABLE KEYS``/; and '/!40000 ALTER TABLE`` tb_name ``ENABLE KEYS */; are written to the output. This makes loading the dump file faster, because the indexes are created after all rows are inserted. This option is effective only for non-unique indexes of MyISAM tables. Disable with --skip-disable-keys.

--dump-date

If the --comments option and this option are given, mariadb-dump produces a comment at the end of the dump of the following form: -- Dump completed on`` date. However, the date causes dump files taken at different times to appear to be different, even if the data are otherwise identical. --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.

-H, --dump-history

Dump tables with history. This option is available from MariaDB 10.11. Until this option was introduced, mariadb-dump could not read historical rows from versioned tables, and so historical data would not be backed up.

--dump-slave[=value]

Used for producing a dump file from a replica server that can be used to set up another replica server with the same primary. Causes the binary log position and filename of the primary to be appended to the dumped data output. Setting the value to 1 (the default) prints it as a CHANGE MASTER command in the dumped data output; if set to 2, that command is prefixed with a comment symbol. This option will turn on --lock-all-tables, unless --single-transaction is specified, too (in which case a global read lock is only taken a short time at the beginning of the dump. Make sure to read about --single-transaction below). In all cases, any action on logs happens at the exact moment of the dump. This option automatically turns off --lock-tables.

-E, --events

Include Event Scheduler events for the dumped databases in the output.

-e, --extended-insert

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. Defaults to ON; use --skip-extended-insert to disable.

--fields-terminated-by=string

Fields in the output file are terminated by the given string. Used with the --tab option and has the same meaning as the corresponding FIELDS clause for LOAD DATA INFILE.

--fields-enclosed-by=character

Fields in the output file are enclosed by the given character. Used with the --tab option and has the same meaning as the corresponding FIELDS clause for LOAD DATA INFILE.

--fields-optionally-enclosed-by=character

Fields in the output file are optionally enclosed by the given character. Used with the --tab option and has the same meaning as the corresponding FIELDS clause for LOAD DATA INFILE.

--fields-escaped-by=character

Fields in the output file are escaped by the given character. Used with the --tab option and has the same meaning as the corresponding FIELDS clause for LOAD DATA INFILE.

--first-slave

Removed in MariaDB 5.5. Use --lock-all-tables instead.

-F, --flush-logs

Flush the MariaDB server log files before starting the dump. This option requires the RELOAD privilege. If you use this option in combination with the --databases= or --all-databases 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 all tables are locked. If you want your dump and the log flush to happen at the same exact moment, you should use --flush-logs together with either --lock-all-tables or --master-data.

--flush-privileges

Send a FLUSH PRIVILEGES statement to the server 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.

-f, --force

Continue even if an SQL error occurs during a table dump.One use for this option is to cause mariadb-dump 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 in this example, mariadb-dump exits with an error message. With --force, mariadb-dump prints the error message, but it also writes an SQL comment containing the view definition to the dump output and continues executing.

--gtid

Used together with --master-data and --dump-slave to more conveniently set up a new GTID replica. It causes those options to output SQL statements that configure the replica to use the global transaction ID to connect to the primary instead of old-style filename/offset positions. The old-style positions are still included in comments when --gtid is used; likewise the GTID position is included in comments even if --gtid is not used.

-?, --help

Display a help message and exit.

--hex-blob

Dump binary strings in hexadecimal format (for example, ´abc´ becomes 0x616263). The affected data types are BINARY, VARBINARY, the BLOB types, and BIT.

-h name, --host=host

Connect to and dump data from the MariaDB or MySQL server on the given host. The default host is localhost.

--ignore-database=database

Do not dump the specified database. To specify more than one database to ignore, use the directive multiple times, once for each database. Only takes effect when used together with --all-databases or -A.

--ignore-table=table

Do not dump the specified table. To specify more than one table to ignore, use the directive multiple times, once for each table. Each table must be specified with both database and table names, for example, --ignore-table=database.table. This option also can be used to ignore views.

--ignore-table-data=table

Do not dump the specified table data (only the structure). To specify more than one table to ignore, use the directive multiple times, once for each table. Each table must be specified with both database and table names. See also --no-data.

--include-master-host-port

Add the MASTER_HOST and MASTER_PORT options for the CHANGE MASTER TO statement when using the --dump-slave option for a replica dump.

--insert-ignore

Insert rows with INSERT IGNORE instead of INSERT.

--lines-terminated-by=string

Lines in the output file are terminated by the given string. This option is used with the --tab option and has the same meaning as the corresponding LINES clause for LOAD DATA INFILE.

-x, --lock-all-tables

Lock all tables across all databases. This is achieved by acquiring a global read lock for the duration of the whole dump by executing FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK. This option automatically turns off --single-transaction and --lock-tables.

-l, --lock-tables

For each dumped database, lock all tables to be dumped 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, --single-transaction is a much better option than --lock-tables because it does not need to lock the tables at all. Because --lock-tables locks tables for each database separately, 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. Use --skip-lock-tables to disable.

--log-error=file

Log warnings and errors by appending them to the named file. The default is no logging.

--log-queries

When restoring the dump, if logging is turned on, the server logs queries to the general and slow query log. Defaults to ON; use --skip-log-queries to disable.

--master-data[=#]

Causes the binary log position and filename to be appended to the output, useful for dumping a primary replication server to produce a dump file that can be used to set up another server as a replica of the primary. These are the primary server coordinates from which the replica should start replicating after you load the dump file into the replica.

If the option is set to 1 (the default), print it as a CHANGE MASTER command; if set to 2, that command is prefixed with a comment symbol. This --master-data option turns --lock-all-tables on, unless --single-transaction is specified, too. In all cases, any action on logs will happen at the exact moment of the dump. This option automatically turns --lock-tables off. In all cases, any action on logs happens at the exact moment of the dump. It is also possible to set up a replica by dumping an existing replica of the primary. To do this, use the following procedure on the existing replica:

STOP SLAVE SQL_THREAD;
SHOW REPLICA STATUS;

mariadb-dump --master-data=2 --all-databases > dumpfile

START REPLICA;

mariadb < dumpfile

CHANGE MASTER TO 
       MASTER_LOG_FILE = ´file_name´, 
       MASTER_LOG_POS = file_pos;

--max-allowed-packet=#

The maximum packet length to send to or receive from server. The maximum is 1GB.

--max-statement-time=#

Sets the maximum time any statement can run before being timed out by the server. Default value is 0 (no limit).

--net-buffer-length=#

The initial buffer size for client/server TCP/IP and socket communication. This can be used to limit the size of rows in the dump. When creating multiple-row INSERT statements (as with the --extended-insert or --opt option), mariadb-dump creates rows up to net_buffer_length length.

--no-autocommit

Enclose the INSERT statements for each dumped table within SET autocommit = 0 and COMMIT statements. ON by default from MariaDB 11.8 to allow faster data loading by InnoDB, writing only one undo log for the whole operation.

-n, --no-create-db

This option suppresses the CREATE DATABASE ... IF EXISTS statement that normally is output for each dumped database if --all-databases or --databases is given.

-t, --no-create-info

Do not write CREATE TABLE statements which re-create each dumped table.

-d, --no-data

Do not write any table row information (that is, do not dump table contents). This is useful if you want to dump only the CREATE TABLE statement for the table (for example, to create an empty copy of the table by loading the dump file). See also --ignore-table-data.

--no-data-med

Do not dump rows for engines that manage external data (for instance, MRG_MyISAM, MRG_ISAM, CONNECT, OQGRAPH, Spider, VP, Federated). This option is enabled by default. If you want to dump data for these engines, you need to set --no-data-med=0.

--no-defaults

Don't read default options from any option file. Must be given as the first argument.

-N, --no-set-names

Suppress the SET NAMES statement. This has the same effect as --skip-set-charset.

--opt

This option is shorthand. It is the same as specifying --add-drop-table, --add-locks, --create-options, --quick, --extended-insert, --lock-tables, --set-charset, and --disable-keys. Enabled by default, disable with --skip-opt. It should give you a fast dump operation and produce a dump file that can be reloaded into a MariaDB 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 a subset of the options affected by --opt.

--order-by-primary

Sorts each table's rows by primary key, or first unique key, if such a key 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.

--order-by-size

Dump each table according to their size, smallest first. Useful when using --single-transaction on tables which get truncated/altered often. The assumption here is that smaller tables get truncated more often, and by dumping those first, this reduces the chance that a --single-transaction dump will fail with 'Table definition has changed, please retry transaction'. This option is available from MariaDB 10.9.1.

-j, --parallel=#

Number of dump table jobs executed in parallel (only for use with the --tab option). Testing indicates that performance can be increased (dump time decreased) up to 4 times on smaller size dumps, when the database fits into memory. There is a point at which the disk becomes the bottleneck, after which adding more parallel jobs does not bring better performance. From MariaDB 11.4.1.

-p[password], --password=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, mariadb-dump prompts for one. Specifying a password on the command line should be considered insecure. You can use an option file to avoid giving the password on the command line.

-W, --pipe

On Windows, connect to the server via a named pipe. This option applies only if the server supports named-pipe connections.

--plugin-dir

Directory for client-side plugins.

-P port, --port=port

The TCP/IP port number to use for the connection.

--print-defaults

Print the program argument list and exit. Must be given as the first argument.

--protocol=name

The connection protocol to use for connecting to the server (TCP, SOCKET, PIPE, MEMORY). It is useful when the other connection parameters normally would cause a protocol to be used other than the one you want.

-q, --quick

This option is useful for dumping large tables. It forces mariadb-dump to retrieve rows for a table from the server a row at a time and to then dump the results directly to stdout rather than retrieving the entire row set and buffering it in memory before writing it out. Defaults to ON, use --skip-quick to disable.

-Q, --quote-names

Quote identifiers (such as database, table, and column names) within backtick (`) characters. If the ANSI_QUOTES SQL mode is enabled, identifiers are quoted with (") 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.

--replace

Use REPLACE INTO statements instead of INSERT INTO statements.

-r, --result-file=file

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 previous contents overwritten, even if an error occurs while generating the dump.

-R, --routines

Include stored routines (procedures and functions) for the dumped databases in the output. Use of this option requires the SELECT privilege for the mysql.proc table. The output generated 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 are 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 MariaDB account which has appropriate privileges for the mysql database.

--set-charset

Add 'SET NAMES default_character_set' to the output in order to set the character set. Enabled by default; suppress with --skip-set-charset.

-O, --set-variable=variable

Change the value of a variable. This option is deprecated; you can set variables directly with --variable-name=value.

--shared-memory-base-name

Shared-memory name to use for Windows connections using shared memory to a local server (started with the --shared-memory option). Case-sensitive. Defaults to MYSQL.

--single-transaction

This option sends a START TRANSACTION SQL statement to the server before dumping data. It is useful only with transactional tables such as InnoDB, 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. The single-transaction feature depends not only on the engine being transactional and capable of REPEATABLE-READ, but also on START TRANSACTION WITH CONSISTENT SNAPSHOT. The dump is not guaranteed to be consistent for other storage engines. For example, any TokuDB, MyISAM or MEMORY tables dumped while using this option may still change state. While a --single-transaction dump is in process, to ensure a valid dump file (correct table contents and binary log coordinates), no other connection should use the following statements: ALTER TABLE, CREATE TABLE, DROP TABLE, RENAME TABLE, or 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 mariadb-dump to retrieve the table contents) to obtain incorrect contents or fail. The --single-transaction option and the --lock-tables option are mutually exclusive, because LOCK TABLES causes any pending transactions to be committed implicitly. So this option automatically turns off --lock-tables. To dump large tables, you should combine the --single-transaction option with --quick.

--skip-add-locks

Disable the --add-locks option.

--skip-comments

Disable the --comments option.

--skip-disable-keys

Disable the --disable-keys option.

--skip-extended-insert

Disable the --extended-insert option.

--skip-opt

Disable the --opt option (disables --add-drop-table, --add-locks, --create-options, --quick, --extended-insert, --lock-tables, --set-charset, and --disable-keys).

--skip-quick

Disable the --quick option.

--skip-quote-name

Disable the --quote-names option.

--skip-set-charset

Disable the --set-charset option.

--skip-triggers

Disable the --triggers option.

--skip-tz-utc

Disable the --tz-utc option.

-S name, --socket={socket|named-pipe}

For connections to localhost, the Unix socket file to use, or, on Windows, the name of the named pipe to use.

--ssl

Enables TLS. TLS is also enabled even without setting this option when certain other TLS options are set. The --ssl option does not enable verifying the server certificate by default. In order to verify the server certificate, the user must specify the --ssl-verify-server-cert option.

--ssl-ca=pem-file

Defines a path to a PEM file that should contain one or more X509 certificates for trusted Certificate Authorities (CAs) to use for TLS. This option requires that you use the absolute path, not a relative path. See Secure Connections Overview: Certificate Authorities (CAs) for more information. This option implies the --ssl option.

--ssl-capath=pem-directory

Defines a path to a directory that contains one or more PEM files that should each contain one X509 certificate for a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) to use for TLS. This option requires that you use the absolute path, not a relative path. The directory specified by this option needs to be run through the openssl rehash command. See Secure Connections Overview: Certificate Authorities (CAs) for more information. This option is only supported if the client was built with OpenSSL or yaSSL. If the client was built with GnuTLS or Schannel, then this option is not supported. See TLS and Cryptography Libraries Used by MariaDB for more information about which libraries are used on which platforms. This option implies the --ssl option.

--ssl-cert=certificate-file

Defines a path to the X509 certificate file to use for TLS. This option requires that you use the absolute path, not a relative path. This option implies the --ssl option.

--ssl-cipher=cipher-list

List of permitted ciphers or cipher suites to use for TLS. This option implies the --ssl option.

--ssl-crl=pem-file

Defines a path to a PEM file that should contain one or more revoked X509 certificates to use for TLS. This option requires that you use the absolute path, not a relative path. See Secure Connections Overview: Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) for more information. This option is only supported if the client was built with OpenSSL or Schannel. If the client was built with yaSSL or GnuTLS, then this option is not supported. See TLS and Cryptography Libraries Used by MariaDB for more information about which libraries are used on which platforms.

--ssl-crlpath=pem-directory

Defines a path to a directory that contains one or more PEM files that should each contain one revoked X509 certificate to use for TLS. This option requires that you use the absolute path, not a relative path. The directory specified by this option needs to be run through the openssl rehash command. See Secure Connections Overview: Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) for more information. This option is only supported if the client was built with OpenSSL. If the client was built with yaSSL, GnuTLS, or Schannel, then this option is not supported. See TLS and Cryptography Libraries Used by MariaDB for more information about which libraries are used on which platforms.

--ssl-key=private-key

Defines a path to a private key file to use for TLS. This option requires that you use the absolute path, not a relative path. This option implies the --ssl option.

--ssl-verify-server-cert

Enables server certificate verification. This option is disabled by default.

--system=option[,option]]

Dump the database's system tables in a logical form. With this option, the mysql database tables are dumped as CREATE USER, CREATE SERVER and other forms of logical portable SQL statements. The option values here are from the set of all, users, plugins, udfs, servers, stats, timezones.

-T, --tab=name

Produce tab-separated text-format data files. With this option, for each dumped table, mariadb-dump creates a tbl_name.sql file containing the CREATE TABLE statement that creates the table, and a tbl_name.txt file containing the table's data. The option value is the directory in which to write the files. Note: This option can only be used when mariadb-dump is run on the same machine as the mariadbd server. You must have the FILE privilege, and the server must have permission to write files in the directory that you specify. 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 converted to the character set specified by the --default-character-set option.

--tables

This option overrides the --databases (-B) option. mariadb-dump regards all name arguments following the option as table names.

--tls-version=protocol

This option accepts a comma-separated list of TLS protocol versions. A TLS protocol version will only be enabled if it is present in this list. All other TLS protocol versions will not be permitted. See Secure Connections Overview: TLS Protocol Versions for more information.

--triggers

Include triggers for each dumped table in the output. This option is enabled by default; disable it with --skip-triggers.

--tz-utc

This option enables TIMESTAMP columns to be dumped and reloaded between servers in different time zones. mariadb-dump 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 if the servers are in different time zones. --tz-utc also protects against changes due to daylight saving time. --tz-utc is enabled by default. To disable it, use --skip-tz-utc.

-u username, --user=username

The MariaDB user name to use when connecting to the server.

-v, --verbose

Verbose mode. Print more information about what the program is doing during various stages.

-V, --version

Output version information and exit.

-w condition, --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. Example: --where="user = ´jimf´" -w"userid > 1" -w"userid < 1" .

-L, --wildcards

Usage of wildcards in the table/database name. Without the --databases option, wildcards can be used only in tables names. From MariaDB 12.1.

-X, --xml

Dump a database as well-formed XML.

Group Options

Some mariadb-dump options are shorthand for groups of other options:

• Use of --opt is the same as specifying--add-drop-table, --add-locks,--create-options, --disable-keys,--extended-insert, --lock-tables,--quick, and --set-charset. All of the options that --opt stands for also are on by default because --opt is on by default.

• Use of --compact is the same as specifying--skip-add-drop-table,--skip-add-locks, --skip-comments,--skip-disable-keys, and--skip-set-charset options.

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:

• To select the effect of --opt except for some features, use the --skip option for each feature. To disable extended inserts and memory buffering, use --opt--skip-extended-insert --skip-quick. (Actually, --skip-extended-insert--skip-quick is sufficient because--opt is on by default.)

• 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, the 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.

Special Characters in Option Values

Some options, like --lines-terminated-by, accept a string. The string can be quoted, if necessary. For example, on Unix systems this is the option to enclose fields within double quotes:

--fields-enclosed-by='"'

An alternative is to specify the hexadecimal value of a character. For example, the following syntax works on any platform:

--fields-enclosed-by=0x22

Option Files

In addition to reading options from the command line, mariadb-dump can also read options from option files. If an unknown option is provided to mariadb-dump in an option file, then it is ignored.

The following options relate to how MariaDB command line tools handles option files. They must be given as the first argument on the command line:

mariadb-dump is linked with MariaDB Connector/C. However, MariaDB Connector/C does not handle the parsing of option files for this client. That is performed by the server option file parsing code. See MDEV-19035 for more information.

Option Groups

mariadb-dump reads options from the following option groups from option files:

NULL, ´NULL´, and Empty Values in XML

For a 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.

The output from the mariadb client when run using the --xml option also follows the preceding rules.

XML output from mariadb-dump includes the XML namespace, as shown here :

shell> mariadb-dump --xml -u root world City
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<mariadb-dump 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="273293" Max_data_length="18858823439613951"
Index_length="43008" Data_free="0" Auto_increment="4080"
Create_time="2007-03-31 01:47:01" Update_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>
</mariadb-dump>

Restoring Dumps

To restore a backup created with mariadb-dump, use the [mariadb client](../mariadb-client/mariadb-command line-client.md) to import the dump:

mariadb db_name < backup-file.sql

Variables

You can also set the following variables (--variable-name=value) and boolean options {FALSE|TRUE} by using:

Examples

A common use of mariadb-dump is making a backup of an entire database:

shell> mariadb-dump db_name > backup-file.sql

You can load the dump file back into the server like this:

shell> mariadb db_name < backup-file.sql

Or like this:

shell> mariadb -e "source /path-to-backup/backup-file.sql" db_name

mariadb-dump is also very useful for populating databases by copying data from one MariaDB server to another:

shell> mariadb-dump --opt db_name | mariadb --host=remote_host -C db_name

It is possible to dump several databases with one command:

shell> mariadb-dump --databases db_name1 [db_name2 ...] > my_databases.sql

To dump all databases, use the --all-databases option:

shell> mariadb-dump --all-databases > all_databases.sql

For InnoDB tables, mariadb-dump provides a way of making an online backup:

shell> mariadb-dump --all-databases --single-transaction all_databases.sql

This backup acquires a global read lock on all tables (usingFLUSH 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 MariaDB 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 MariaDB 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 or at least know the binary log coordinates to which the dump corresponds:

shell> mariadb-dump --all-databases --master-data=2 > all_databases.sql

Or:

shell> mariadb-dump --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 use prior to point-in-time recovery if tables are stored that use the InnoDB storage engine.

See Also

• mariadb-backup

• MariaDB point-in-time recovery (video)

• MariaDB Enterprise Backup

• Upgrading to a newer major version of MariaDB (video)

• MariaDB dump file compatibility change (blog, 2024)

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