Restore MYSQL Dump File with Command Line

Question

I have file.sql, and I want to restore it. I found this command:

mysql -u username -p database_name < file.sql

Where should I put 'file.sql' in file system? I'm using Windows and XAMPP. Thank you.

*) The dump file is 3GB++

Answer 1

You can put it anywhere, where there is enough diskspace available of course.

A good place for this would be either /tmp (on linux or similar) or c:\temp (on windows or similar)

But assuming you use that exact line you need to change your working directory to that which holds the file.

cd /path/where/sql/file/is

And then

mysql -u username -p database_name < file.sql

If you don't have the mysql bin in your PATH you might want to run

/path/to/mysql/bin/mysql -u username -p database_name < file.sql

Or temporarily put the file.sql in the mysql bin directory (not recommended)

Another possible scenario is to point to the file in the filesystem like this

mysql -u username -p database_name < /path/where/sql/file/is/file.sql

PS. If you're on windows you might wanna change the forward slashes to backslashes.

Answer 2

You can put anywhere in the system but consider to change the command also

mysql -u username -p database_name < /somepath/file.sql