mysqldump not exporting data or structures

Question

I have a short PHP script which is supposed to perform a MySQL backup and email it to me. However, neither the data nor the structures are being written by mysqldump. The command to invoke mysqldump looks like this:

mysqldump --host=localhost --user=xxx --pass=xxx xxx_license > xxx2012-12-28.sql

(The xxx username and password are the same as from another script which works with php and the database so I know the credentials are correct).

The output is as follows:

-- MySQL dump 10.13  Distrib 5.5.28, for Linux (x86_64)
--
-- Host: localhost    Database: xxx_license
-- ------------------------------------------------------
-- Server version   5.5.28-cll

/*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT=@@CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT */;
/*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS=@@CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS */;
/*!40101 SET @OLD_COLLATION_CONNECTION=@@COLLATION_CONNECTION */;
/*!40101 SET NAMES utf8 */;
/*!40103 SET @OLD_TIME_ZONE=@@TIME_ZONE */;
/*!40103 SET TIME_ZONE='+00:00' */;
/*!40014 SET @OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS=@@UNIQUE_CHECKS, UNIQUE_CHECKS=0 */;
/*!40014 SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0 */;
/*!40101 SET @OLD_SQL_MODE=@@SQL_MODE, SQL_MODE='NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO' */;
/*!40111 SET @OLD_SQL_NOTES=@@SQL_NOTES, SQL_NOTES=0 */;

--
-- Current Database: `xxx_license`
--

CREATE DATABASE /*!32312 IF NOT EXISTS*/ `xxx_license` /*!40100 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET latin1 */;

USE `xxx_license`;

The CREATE and USE statements are only present if I add --databases to the options.

And using --help to show the default options is:

mysqldump  Ver 10.13 Distrib 5.5.28, for Linux (x86_64)

<snip>

Variables (--variable-name=value)
and boolean options {FALSE|TRUE}  Value (after reading options)
--------------------------------- ----------------------------------------
all-databases                     FALSE
all-tablespaces                   FALSE
no-tablespaces                    FALSE
add-drop-database                 FALSE
add-drop-table                    TRUE
add-locks                         TRUE
allow-keywords                    FALSE
apply-slave-statements            FALSE
character-sets-dir                (No default value)
comments                          TRUE
compatible                        (No default value)
compact                           FALSE
complete-insert                   FALSE
compress                          FALSE
create-options                    TRUE
databases                         FALSE
debug-check                       FALSE
debug-info                        FALSE
default-character-set             utf8
delayed-insert                    FALSE
delete-master-logs                FALSE
disable-keys                      TRUE
dump-slave                        0
events                            FALSE
extended-insert                   TRUE
fields-terminated-by              (No default value)
fields-enclosed-by                (No default value)
fields-optionally-enclosed-by     (No default value)
fields-escaped-by                 (No default value)
flush-logs                        FALSE
flush-privileges                  FALSE
force                             FALSE
hex-blob                          FALSE
host                              (No default value)
include-master-host-port          FALSE
insert-ignore                     FALSE
lines-terminated-by               (No default value)
lock-all-tables                   FALSE
lock-tables                       TRUE
log-error                         (No default value)
master-data                       0
max-allowed-packet                25165824
net-buffer-length                 1046528
no-autocommit                     FALSE
no-create-db                      FALSE
no-create-info                    FALSE
no-data                           FALSE
order-by-primary                  FALSE
port                              0
quick                             TRUE
quote-names                       TRUE
replace                           FALSE
routines                          FALSE
set-charset                       TRUE
single-transaction                FALSE
dump-date                         TRUE
socket                            (No default value)
ssl                               FALSE
ssl-ca                            (No default value)
ssl-capath                        (No default value)
ssl-cert                          (No default value)
ssl-cipher                        (No default value)
ssl-key                           (No default value)
ssl-verify-server-cert            FALSE
tab                               (No default value)
triggers                          TRUE
tz-utc                            TRUE
user                              (No default value)
verbose                           FALSE
where                             (No default value)
plugin-dir                        (No default value)
default-auth                      (No default value)

If something in those options is wrong, how do I change/override it? I can't find a config file and I don't have SSH access to the web server to perform any actions.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Check the user's permissions, and make sure it has SELECT permissions to all the tables. And if it doesn't have permission to lock the tables, use --skip-lock-tables.