If you’re a small business or individual who relies on MySQL for your online presence, then you know the importance of having a back-up plan in place. A good way to back up your MySQL database is by using a mysql backup tool. There are many different mysql backup tools available, so it’s important to choose the one that best suits your needs. One of the most popular mysql backup tools is BackupBuddy. BackupBuddy is easy to use and can back up your MySQL database in minutes. It also has a wide range of features, making it an ideal tool for small businesses and individual users alike. Another popular mysql backup tool is phpMyAdmin. phpMyAdmin is an extremely versatile and powerful mysql backup tool that can be used for a variety of purposes. It can be used to back up your entire MySQL database, or just a specific table or section thereof. phpMyAdmin also has extensive user documentation, making it easy to learn how to use it. There are many other mysql backup tools available, so it’s important to find one that best suits your needs and needs the data you need backed up as well.
Sure, you can point and laugh about why we’re not using a better database, like maybe PostgreSQL, but since our sites are based on WordPress, we’re stuck with MySQL and have to make the best of it.
Luckily I remembered that command-line arguments exist, and looked to see if there was a way to export only a single table using mysqldump, and sure enough, there was. The syntax goes like this:
Of course that example sucks, so here’s a better one — if you want to backup only the wp_users table from your WordPress database named wordpressdb, you’d do something closer to this, which would export it all into a file called users.bak.
You’d want to replace User, Password, and Hostname with the values from your wp-config, of course.
If you wanted to export multiple tables — for instance, if you realized you probably need wp_usermeta if you’re going to export wp_users — you would simply add that to the command:
To import that backup later on, transfer it wherever you want to use it, and run something like this:
And that’s the story of how one table was exported and my local database is now up to date.
