On Debian and Ubuntu systems you can use this command to dump all databases into one file: mysqldump --defaults-file=/etc/mysql/debian.cnf -cCeQ --hex-blob --quote-names --routines --events --triggers --all-databases -r all_databases.sql Then you can gzip it or you pipe the output to gzip instead of using the -r all_databases.sql switch.
That's only possible with a bit of additional magic on the shell and multiple commands. for database in $( mysql --defaults-extra-file=/etc/mysql/debian.cnf -N -e "SHOW DATABASES;" ); do mysqldump --defaults-file=/etc/mysql/debian.cnf -cCeQ --hex-blob --quote-names --routines --events --triggers $database > ${database}.sql; done; tar -czf databases.tar.gz *.sql Logic behind this: Get a list of all databases; loop over them and dump each in a file; compress the files into an archive. This assumes you're using Debian, Ubuntu or a derivate thereof as well. On other systems you need to replace both instances of "--defaults-extra-file=/etc/mysql/debian.cnf" with "-u root -p'<password>'". Of course you can use the latter on Debian-based systems as well - it might even avoid one or two warnings when dumping the system tables. This also assumes that your shell is Bash. Most, if not all Linux shells support loops and variables, the syntax may vary, though. You may have to consult the manpage or Google, if you don't use Bash.
