Importing and exporting MySQL databases in a Unix/Linux environment can be done easily with a single command. You can even choose to export the database's structure or data only.
Exporting is done using the mysqldump program and importing is done using the MySQL command line client mysql.
mysqldump prints out the resulting SQL to standard output and mysql gets the SQL to execute from standard input. So you will use command line redirection with each.
Both programs also accept the same command line arguments. To pass the database credentials enter -u followed by the username and -p to prompt you for the password. And lastly the name of the database you want to import to or export from.
To import a database:
mysql -u username -p -h server_name database_name < dump_file
To export a database:
mysqldump -u username -p database_name > dump_file
To export the database structure only:
mysqldump --no-data -u username -p database_name > dump_file
To export the database data only:
mysqldump --no-create-info -u username -p database_name > dump_file
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