7.4.5.4 Dumping Table Definitions and Content Separately

The --no-data option tells mysqldump not to dump table data, resulting in the dump file containing only statements to create the tables. Conversely, the --no-create-info option tells mysqldump to suppress CREATE statements from the output, so that the dump file contains only table data.

For example, to dump table definitions and data separately for the test database, use these commands:

shell> mysqldump --no-data test > dump-defs.sql
shell> mysqldump --no-create-info test > dump-data.sql

For a definition-only dump, add the --routines and --events options to also include stored routine and event definitions:

shell> mysqldump --no-data --routines --events test > dump-defs.sql