Backing up MySQL Backing up MySQL

[lloydi]

I'm currently building up a new DB, am using CoacoaMySQL on OS X to create content.

How can I do a backup of the database, safely, in case I mangle some data or the database itself?

Bear in mind that

a) I am new to MySQL and
b) I'm no Terminal/Unix expert

... as such, if it's possible to do it with a GUI that'd be best!

[greg.harvey]

I find phpMyAdmin most useful for backing up MySQL databases, if you have PHP installed. The 'Export' options allow you to drop everything out to a .sql file:

http://www.phpmyadmin.net/

Alternatively, MySQL themselves do a free Windows GUI tool for administrating MySQL which is great for user management:

http://www.mysql.com/products/administrator/

I found that it wasn't so great for backing up and restoring databases because the error messages it generates in the event of a SQL error are completely useless! Far too generic and don't actually tell you why it's going wrong. So I use phpMyAdmin and the MySQL GUI in combination... phpMyAdmin for everything but user management and performance info which I do with the MySQL tool.

[Technosailor]

from the commandline:

 mysqldump --opt -uusername -p databasename > backup.sql

On OSX (I'm not sure) you may have to be in your %/mysql/bin folder if it was not added to your global path.

Aaron