This is a tiny program that can be used to _remotely_ dump one, or many, MySQL
tables to CSV format. The application was developed out of frustration that
mysqldump still (in 2014!!!) can't dump to CSV format without storing the
dumped file on the database host.
Comma-Separated Values (CSV) is a very natural dataformat for relational tables. It's readable by most applications that deals with data (yes, I'm thinking about you, Excel) and it's a natural fit when working with data on the command line (awk, sed, grep etc.).
Likewise, it can also easily be parsed by various scripting languages.
TLDR; Because unnecessary fiddling on a database machine is generally a bad idea. Hands off database machines if possible.
The longer answer:
First and foremost, I've seen many mistakes being made on database hosts. Dumping to local disk will require you to log into the host, copy files, possibly compress files and delete files. Many of these steps run the risk of disturbing the work of the MySQL instance; IO could get worse or you run the risk of running out of disk space. Heck, you even run the risk of deleting files you did not intend to remove.
To avoid running out of disk space and not drain IO, you could of course mount a separate file system for dumps - but I would rather not do that kind of work on a database instance if not really necessary.
Also, dumping to local disk does not support compression. This utility application does.
- Install a Go compiler.
- Set up a Go workspace:
mkdir -p ~/src/mysqlcsvdump && export GOPATH=~/src/mysqlcsvdump. See http://golang.org/doc/code.html for more information. - Get:
go get github.com/JensRantil/mysqlcsvdump.
- Compile and install:
go install github.com/JensRantil/mysqlcsvdump. - Execute:
~/src/mysqlcsvdump/bin/mysqlcsvdump -help
I'm Jens Rantil. Have a look at my blog for more info on what I'm working on.