在可能不同的MySQL安装上还原MySQL数据库？

Question

I have a broken installation of Ubuntu 14.04 - it won't boot, but I won't say anymore about that because that's not what I'm asking about really. I have a MySQL database (created using v5.5) on the broken Ubuntu installation and I need that data. I can get at the raw MySQL database files by mounting the broken installation onto another machine.

I actually need the database to be imported into a MySQL v5.1 installation. I tried copying the raw database files (eg the directory at /var/lib/mysql/dbname ) into the same directory on the working OS installation. At first, it seemed like it worked, I can see the database, I can use it and I can list the tables. But it turns out that even though I can see the tables in the db, any attempts to describe or use them in any way give the 'table doesnt exist` error.

Ideally, I'd love to be able to use msqldump and then import the database the proper way, but how can I get a dump of the database if it's not part of the MySQL installation (remember, I can't boot into the installation, it's broken).

Of course, mysqldump is the most preferable solution, but if it's not possible to use that utility with the raw database files as input, then I'm willing to try anything that might work.

Answer 1

Of course the first thing you should do is to install the same version of MySQL as the original - if you're directly using the raw data files, keeping things as identical to the original as possible is a must! The same applies to paths, make sure the new installation and data files are placed in the same directory path that they were originally.

Once you have this, you can mysqldump the tables and use that to import into a clean, new installation.