How can I import a large (14 GB) MySQL dump file into a new MySQL database?

Question

How can I import a large (14 GB) MySQL dump file into a new MySQL database?

Answer 1

I'm posting my finding in a few of the responses I've seen that didn't mention what I ran into, and apprently this would even defeat BigDump, so check it:

I was trying to load a 500 meg dump via Linux command line and kept getting the "Mysql server has gone away" errors. Settings in my.conf didn't help. What turned out to fix it is...I was doing one big extended insert like:

    insert into table (fields) values (a record, a record, a record, 500 meg of data);

I needed to format the file as separate inserts like this:

    insert into table (fields) values (a record);
    insert into table (fields) values (a record);
    insert into table (fields) values (a record);
    Etc.

And to generate the dump, I used something like this and it worked like a charm:

    SELECT 
        id,
        status,
        email
    FROM contacts
    INTO OUTFILE '/tmp/contacts.sql'
    FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
    OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
    LINES STARTING BY "INSERT INTO contacts (id,status,email) values ("
    TERMINATED BY ');\n'