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MySQL Backup Reference Manual :: 1 Using MySQL Backup :: 1.4 MySQL Backup Image Portability
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1.4. MySQL Backup Image Portability

In general, backup images produced by BACKUP DATABASE are highly portable and can be restored using RESTORE on a different host. The following list indicates which differences between the backup and restore hosts do and do not matter for portability:

  • Word size differences: Do not affect portability

  • Endianness differences: Do not affect portability

  • Floating-point hardware differences: Unknown whether these affect portability

    This has not been tested explicitly, but floating-point differences are likely not to matter.

  • File system case-sensitivity differences: Do affect portability

    The best portability is obtained when the backup and restore hosts have same case-sensitivity characteristics and the MySQL servers are run with the same lower_case_table_names value. If the hosts have different case-sensitivity characteristics, the best portability is obtained when lower_case_table_names=1 on both hosts.

    Some combinations will not work. For example, a backup containing databases named db1 and DB1 created on a case-sensitive platform such as Linux cannot be restored properly on a case-insensitive platform such as Windows or Mac OS X.