Backups
What is a Backup?
A backup is a copy of your database. You can restore the state of the database as it existed at the time of the backup.
How to use Backups
Backups are used for disaster recovery. When you create a backup it is wise to copy the backup to a different host. If you lose access to the host that houses your database, you restore the database from a backup on another host.
Backups have additional uses. Taking a backup of a database is often the easiest way to get a copy of the database. You can use this copy for development, testing, or analytics.
Difference between MySQL Backups and Dolt Backups
Dolt does not support any of the MySQL backup methods except the mysqldump method. Dolt can create a dump using the dolt dump command or mysqldump connected to the running Dolt server.
Interaction with Dolt Version Control
Dolt supports different methods of backup that leverage Dolt's git-style features.
Dolt databases contain the entire history of the database, meaning Dolt has backups built in to the running server. To restore to a previous point on a running server, you checkout the database at the commit you would like to restore to.
To replicate your database off host so you can restore if you lose the host, Dolt supports two different concepts: remotes and backups.
Using a remote for backup allows you to back up all committed changes. You add a remote using the dolt remote command. Then you push a branch to a remote using the dolt push command or dolt_push() procedure.
Dolt has an additional backup functionality beyond remotes. Using dolt backup backs up uncommitted changes as well. Backups are accessed via the dolt backup command or dolt_backup() procedure.
Interestingly, you can trigger backups from your application using the dolt_backup() procedure. If you hit a weird edge case you can create a backup of the state of your database for debugging.
Example
Create a new backup
Updating a backup
Restoring from a backup
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