Mysql – Dump a thesql database to a plaintext (CSV) backup from the command line

backupcommand linecsvMySQL

I'd like to avoid mysqldump since that outputs in a form that is only convenient for mysql to read. CSV seems more universal (one file per table is fine). But if there are advantages to mysqldump, I'm all ears. Also, I'd like something I can run from the command line (linux). If that's a mysql script, pointers to how to make such a thing would be helpful.

Best Answer

If you can cope with table-at-a-time, and your data is not binary, use the -B option to the mysql command. With this option it'll generate TSV (tab separated) files which can import into Excel, etc, quite easily:

% echo 'SELECT * FROM table' | mysql -B -uxxx -pyyy database

Alternatively, if you've got direct access to the server's file system, use SELECT INTO OUTFILE which can generate real CSV files:

SELECT * INTO OUTFILE 'table.csv'
    FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
    LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
FROM table

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Windows – n equivalent of ‘which’ on the Windows command line?

Windows Server 2003 and later (i.e. anything after Windows XP 32 bit) provide the where.exe program which does some of what which does, though it matches all types of files, not just executable commands. (It does not match built-in shell commands like cd.) It will even accept wildcards, so where nt* finds all files in your %PATH% and current directory whose names start with nt.

Try where /? for help.

Note that Windows PowerShell defines where as an alias for the Where-Object cmdlet, so if you want where.exe, you need to type the full name instead of omitting the .exe extension.

Windows – How to get the application exit code from a Windows command line

A pseudo environment variable named errorlevel stores the exit code:

echo Exit Code is %errorlevel%

Also, the if command has a special syntax:

if errorlevel

See if /? for details.

Example

@echo off
my_nify_exe.exe
if errorlevel 1 (
   echo Failure Reason Given is %errorlevel%
   exit /b %errorlevel%
)

Warning: If you set an environment variable name errorlevel, %errorlevel% will return that value and not the exit code. Use (set errorlevel=) to clear the environment variable, allowing access to the true value of errorlevel via the %errorlevel% environment variable.

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Windows – n equivalent of ‘which’ on the Windows command line?

Windows – How to get the application exit code from a Windows command line

Example

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