You can’t always export and import MySQL databases (or MariaDB databases, which started out as a fork of MySQL) through a pretty point-and-click interface like phpMyAdmin or Adminer. For small databases under 20 MB that may still work, but with something like 3 GB it gets difficult. Tools like MySQLDumper (in German) are getting really long in the tooth (most of them aren’t actively developed anymore), even though they still work. But there’s a simpler way, as long as you have access to the console, either via SSH or directly.
Export a specific MySQL database
mysqldump -u benutzername -p datenbankname > dump.sql
Export only the structure of a MySQL database
mysqldump -u benutzername -p --no-data datenbankname > dump.sql
Export only the data from a MySQL database
mysqldump -u benutzername -p --no-create-info datenbankname > dump.sql
Export multiple MySQL databases
mysqldump -u benutzername -p --databases datenbankname1 [datenbankname2 ...] > dump.sql
Export all MySQL databases
mysqldump -u benutzername -p --all-databases > dump.sql
Import MySQL databases
mysql -u benutzername -p datenbankname < dump.sql
In all commands, replace “benutzername” with your database user name and “datenbankname” with the name of your database.
Update 2026: On current MariaDB versions, the tools are called mariadb-dump and mariadb. The old name mysqldump still works on many systems, but according to the MariaDB documentation it has been deprecated since MariaDB 11.0 and is no longer included in the official mariadb Docker image. The options shown above stay the same.
Compress SQL dumps
Since SQL dumps can get very large and are just plain text, you can easily shrink them to a fraction of their size with a compression tool like gzip, using “gzip dump.sql“. A 2 GB SQL dump of mine came down to just under 175 MB after compressing it with gzip. With gunzip you can unpack the archive again: “gunzip dump.sql.gz”.
Once the SQL dump is successfully exported and compressed, you can get it to the target server or database via SCP, SFTP or many other ways, including putting it in a public directory. Just don’t forget the dump in that public directory, otherwise things get embarrassing (in German).
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