[BBLISA] How to retreive data from an old MySQL database

[Tom Metro]

Douglas Alan wrote:
> I'd like to retrieve some wiki pages from an old MySQL database.
> Unfortunately, mysqldump doesn't work -- I'm guessing because the
> version of mysqld currently installed doesn't match the version of the
> database that was used for the wiki.

What happens when you try and access the database via the mysql client
on the server?

If some how you've ended up with binary database files from an older
version of MySQL, and presumably they weren't in the data directory when
MySQL got upgraded, maybe you need to run the conversion scripts that
the installer normally runs during an upgrade.

I didn't see any relevant options, but I'd investigate commands like
mysql_convert_table_format or mysql_install_db. Those may be Debian
specific. The conversion scripts also might only be part of the
installer and not installed on the system.

You could try doing a temporary install of the older version on another
machine, copy over the database files, upgrade it, and copy the upgraded
database files to your current server.

If you think the problem is only on the client side, then using a
mysqldump of the correct version on another machine might do it. Or
instead of using mysqldump try mysqlhotcopy, which is a Perl script and
may be more version tolerant. But I doubt this is a client-side problem.

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/