title: How to skip certain database tables with mysqldump?
body: <p>Is there a way to restrict certain tables from the mysqldump command?</p>
  
  <p>For example, I'd use the following syntax to dump <em>only</em> table1 and table2:</p>
  
  <pre><code>mysqldump -u username -p database table1 table2 &gt; database.sql
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But is there a similar way to dump all the tables <em>except</em> table1 and table2? I haven't found anything in the mysqldump documentation, so is brute-force (specifying all the table names) the only way to go?</p>