Getting MySQL Schemas for All Tables

Question

I want to download/backup the schema of an entire MySQL database. Is there a way to easily do this? I haven't had much luck using a wildcard, but that could be an error on my part.

Answer 1

Login as root, then

show databases; # lists all databases
use information_schema; # connect to the mysql schema
show tables;   
select * from tables;

Everything you need is in the information_schema schema. If all you want to do is backup the db, use the builtin dump/restore capabilities.