Re: Backing up UTF-8 content using mysqldump [ Solution ]

[Tal Rotbart]

The problem turned out to be the MySQL command line client, as it doesn't support UTF-8 encoding. Once I import the dump with a client that supports UTF-8 then everything works just fine.

It took a while but I finally found a command-line client I that can use with MySQL that fully supports UTF-8 / other encoding, it is Java based and it is called Jisql [http://www.xigole.com/software/jisql.jsp].

Graphic clients such as the query-browser are useless when you've got a 2.8 gigabyte dump file to import...

Before using Jisql you'll need to:

1. Download the latest Connector/J from MySQL's site.
2. Edit the runit script to provide the right connection attributes and to point it at the Connector/J's .JAR file.
3. Remember to set the encoding in the JDBC URL by adding "?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF-8" (or as approriate for your data)
3. Make sure your query file / dump file has the right 'use <databasename>;' line at the top.

Good luck :)
-Tal