Dumping a mysql database - piece of cake

I love MySql. A lot. No muss, no fuss. It just gets the job done. Granted I am not supporting it on an enterprise level (as the argument usually goes from the pro-proprietary), but it really fits my needs great.

Case in point: I had a prototype project hosted on some hardware that was incurring cost. Being that the prototype had outlived it's usefulness I wanted to back up my code but then un-host it and get rid of the hardware. Since the project was quite simple, I had done the MySql DB work myself (I'm usually a java developer but I was DB admin as well on this LAMP project). Now it came time to back up the database.

I googled for backing up a MySql database and found this. It simply outlines the utility included with MySql that accomplishes my purpose. I ran a simple:

mysqldump -u root -p Complaints > complaints.sql

Bam! All done! 5 minutes tops. Data and structure backed up and ready to be re-instantiated at my bidding. Hence, I love MySql.