Can you automatically create a mysqldump file that doesn't enforce foreign key constraints?

Question

When I run a mysqldump command on my database and then try to import it, it fails as it attempts to create the tables alphabetically, even though they may have a foreign key that references a table later in the file. There doesn't appear to be anything in the documentation and I've found answers like this that say to update the file after it's created to include:

set FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0;
...original mysqldump file contents...
set FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1;

Is there no way to automatically set those lines or export the tables in the necessary order (without having to manually specify all table names as that can be tedious and error prone)? I could wrap those lines in a script, but was wondering if there is an easy way to ensure I can dump a file and then import it without manually updating it.

Answer 1

The mysqldump command included with MySQL 5.0.51 (and according to the change log versions since 4.1.1) does switch off foreign key checks. By default, mysqldump includes the following line at the top of the dump file:

/*!40014 SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0 */;

The /*!40014 ... */ syntax is a conditional comment that will be executed on MySQL 4.0.14 and later. The old foreign key checks setting is restored at the end of the dump file:

/*!40014 SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS */;