Mysql dump

Read the manual on mysqldump, especially option --opt. Also, check the 
section "Database backups", under "Solving common problems with MySQL". 

You can dump the database into a file using: 

mysqldump -h hostname -u user --password=password databasename > filename 

you can restore the info to the database again using: 

mysql -h hostname -u user --password=password databasename < filename