How do I quickly rename a MySQL database (change schema name)?

Question

The MySQL manual at MySQL covers this.

Usually I just dump the database and reimport it with a new name. This is not an option for very big databases. Apparently

Answer 1

Most of the answers here are wrong for one of two reasons:

1. You cannot just use RENAME TABLE, because there might be views and triggers. If there are triggers, RENAME TABLE fails
2. You cannot use mysqldump if you want to "quickly" (as requested in the question) rename a big database

Percona has a blog post about how to do this well: https://www.percona.com/blog/2013/12/24/renaming-database-schema-mysql/

and script posted (made?) by Simon R Jones that does what is suggested in that post. I fixed a bug I found in the script. You can see it here:

https://gist.github.com/ryantm/76944318b0473ff25993ef2a7186213d

Here is a copy of it:

#!/bin/bash
# Copyright 2013 Percona LLC and/or its affiliates
# @see https://www.percona.com/blog/2013/12/24/renaming-database-schema-mysql/
set -e
if [ -z "$3" ]; then
    echo "rename_db   "
    exit 1
fi
db_exists=`mysql -h $1 -e "show databases like '$3'" -sss`
if [ -n "$db_exists" ]; then
    echo "ERROR: New database already exists $3"
    exit 1
fi
TIMESTAMP=`date +%s`
character_set=`mysql -h $1 -e "SELECT default_character_set_name FROM information_schema.SCHEMATA WHERE schema_name = '$2'" -sss`
TABLES=`mysql -h $1 -e "select TABLE_NAME from information_schema.tables where table_schema='$2' and TABLE_TYPE='BASE TABLE'" -sss`
STATUS=$?
if [ "$STATUS" != 0 ] || [ -z "$TABLES" ]; then
    echo "Error retrieving tables from $2"
    exit 1
fi
echo "create database $3 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET $character_set"
mysql -h $1 -e "create database $3 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET $character_set"
TRIGGERS=`mysql -h $1 $2 -e "show triggers\G" | grep Trigger: | awk '{print $2}'`
VIEWS=`mysql -h $1 -e "select TABLE_NAME from information_schema.tables where table_schema='$2' and TABLE_TYPE='VIEW'" -sss`
if [ -n "$VIEWS" ]; then
    mysqldump -h $1 $2 $VIEWS > /tmp/${2}_views${TIMESTAMP}.dump
fi
mysqldump -h $1 $2 -d -t -R -E > /tmp/${2}_triggers${TIMESTAMP}.dump
for TRIGGER in $TRIGGERS; do
    echo "drop trigger $TRIGGER"
    mysql -h $1 $2 -e "drop trigger $TRIGGER"
done
for TABLE in $TABLES; do
    echo "rename table $2.$TABLE to $3.$TABLE"
    mysql -h $1 $2 -e "SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0; rename table $2.$TABLE to $3.$TABLE"
done
if [ -n "$VIEWS" ]; then
    echo "loading views"
    mysql -h $1 $3 < /tmp/${2}_views${TIMESTAMP}.dump
fi
echo "loading triggers, routines and events"
mysql -h $1 $3 < /tmp/${2}_triggers${TIMESTAMP}.dump
TABLES=`mysql -h $1 -e "select TABLE_NAME from information_schema.tables where table_schema='$2' and TABLE_TYPE='BASE TABLE'" -sss`
if [ -z "$TABLES" ]; then
    echo "Dropping database $2"
    mysql -h $1 $2 -e "drop database $2"
fi
if [ `mysql -h $1 -e "select count(*) from mysql.columns_priv where db='$2'" -sss` -gt 0 ]; then
    COLUMNS_PRIV="    UPDATE mysql.columns_priv set db='$3' WHERE db='$2';"
fi
if [ `mysql -h $1 -e "select count(*) from mysql.procs_priv where db='$2'" -sss` -gt 0 ]; then
    PROCS_PRIV="    UPDATE mysql.procs_priv set db='$3' WHERE db='$2';"
fi
if [ `mysql -h $1 -e "select count(*) from mysql.tables_priv where db='$2'" -sss` -gt 0 ]; then
    TABLES_PRIV="    UPDATE mysql.tables_priv set db='$3' WHERE db='$2';"
fi
if [ `mysql -h $1 -e "select count(*) from mysql.db where db='$2'" -sss` -gt 0 ]; then
    DB_PRIV="    UPDATE mysql.db set db='$3' WHERE db='$2';"
fi
if [ -n "$COLUMNS_PRIV" ] || [ -n "$PROCS_PRIV" ] || [ -n "$TABLES_PRIV" ] || [ -n "$DB_PRIV" ]; then
    echo "IF YOU WANT TO RENAME the GRANTS YOU NEED TO RUN ALL OUTPUT BELOW:"
    if [ -n "$COLUMNS_PRIV" ]; then echo "$COLUMNS_PRIV"; fi
    if [ -n "$PROCS_PRIV" ]; then echo "$PROCS_PRIV"; fi
    if [ -n "$TABLES_PRIV" ]; then echo "$TABLES_PRIV"; fi
    if [ -n "$DB_PRIV" ]; then echo "$DB_PRIV"; fi
    echo "    flush privileges;"
fi

Save it to a file called rename_db and make the script executable with chmod +x rename_db then use it like ./rename_db localhost old_db new_db