MySQL: Why does basic MySQLdump on db table fail with "Permission denied"

Question

This should be quick and simple, but after researching on Google quite a bit I am still stumped. I am mostly newbie with: server admin, CLI, MySQL.

I am developing my PHP site locally, and now need to move some new MySQL tables from my local dev setup to the remote testing site. First step for me is just to dump the tables, one at a time.

I successfully login to my local MySQL like so:

Govind% /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -uroot

but while in this dir (and NOT logged into MySQL):

/usr/local/mysql/bin

...when I try this

mysqldump -uroot -p myDBname myTableName > myTestDumpedTable.sql

..then I keep getting this:

"myTestDumpedTable.sql: Permission denied."

Same result if I do any variation on that (try to dump the whole db, drop the '-p', etc.)

I am embarrassed as I am sure this is going to be incredibly simple, or just reveal a gaping (basic) hole in my knowledge. .. but please help ;-)

Answer 1

The answer came from a helpful person on the MySQL list:
As you guys (Anson and krazybean) were thinking - I did not have permission to be writing to the /usr/local/mysql/bin/ dir. But starting from any other directory, calls to mysqldump were failing because my shell PATH var (if I said that right) is not yet set up to handle mysqldump from another dir. Also, for some reason I do not really understand yet, I also needed to use a full path on the output, even if I was calling mysqldump effectively, and even if I had permission to write to the output dir (e.g. ~/myTestDumpedTable.sql. So here was my ticket, for now (quick answer):

Govind% /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqldump -uroot -p myDBname myTableName > /Users/Govind/myTestDumpedTable.sql

You can write to wherever your shell user has permission to do so. I just chose my user's home dir.

Hope this helps someone someday.
Cheers.

Answer 2

Generally I stick with defining the hostname anyways, but as you being root doesn't seem like it would be the problem, I would question where are you writing this to? What happens when you dump to > ~/myTestDumpedTable.sql