[mythtv-users] Database internals (was: REMINDER: Back Up Your Database.)

[Jay Ashworth]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Gardiner" <lists at glidos.net>

> Another thing still bugging me, is why mysqldump doesn't create
> exact copies of the database. I'd have thought that was what it
> was intended to do.

Having spent hours with mysqldump, I'm going to take a swing at this one:

What the words "exact copy of the database" actually means to you is 
something that actually varies quite a lot.

It can't mean "a binary copy of the internal files" -- aside from endianness,
you *don't want to know* how much difference there can be amongst different 
DB engines storing the same data.

In point of fact, *the reason SQL exists* is precisely to insulate users and
programmers from that.

And once you get as far in as "database administrator" (and I myself have 
really only scratched the surface -- there's a reason those guys get 6 
figure salaries) there are a bunch of things you might be wanting to do
with that dump, and each will have different requirements.

So the best thing to do, if you don't understand all the knobs on mysqldump,
is to get someone who does to whip you up a quick... scri.. 

Wait; what?  :-)

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra at baylink.com
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