Export part of a table from MySQL. Someone can edit this file, send it back, then we can just overwrite the existing rows. I am doing this for a legacy database that has confusing logic to retrieve this information. Updating the rows seems to be the safest way to update this data without impacting other site functionality.

backup_partial_table.sh

#!/bin/bash
set -e

die () {
    echo >&2 "$@"
    echo >&2
    echo >&2 "USAGE: $0 [database]"
    exit 1
}

[ "$#" -eq 1 ] || die "Database not specified"


PREFIX="TOOLTIPS_DATA"
DATE=$(date +"%b_%d_%Y")
BACKUP_FILE="${PREFIX}_${DATE}.sql"

echo "BACKING UP TOOLTIPS TO: $BACKUP_FILE"

# SectionID=15 is used by the tooltips
mysqldump --databases erictest --tables page --replace --no-create-info --where="SectionID=15" > $BACKUP_FILE

restore_from_partial_backup.sh

#!/bin/bash

mysql erictest < BACKUP_FILENAME_HERE.sql