Databases go outside your home directory.

Someone remind me next time I say I’m going to do something stupid like reinstall an operating system too quickly, that databases aren’t stored in my home directory. Far out. I’ve just created hours of work for myself trying to piece together what used to be in various MySQL databases on this computer. Yeah, I know, I should backup, but seeing as I never make major changes (it’s all just incremental little stuff for sites still in the development phase) and really don’t understand how things are meant to be backed up with MySQL (do you export queries, or do you copy the folder, huh? HUH!??) I don’t anywhere near as often as I should.

For me, the databases are generally ancillary things that are merely there to fill in spaces in CSS-based designs, so I always backup design aspects, but rarely the database itself, because there’s no original content there. Well, yeah, but there’s vitally important structure that’s just been thrown away. Doh!

Oh well, nothing I can (read: should) do about it now, maybe between tomorrow afternoon and Thursday. Think of it as post-humous ITF study. Because that’s all it’s going to get.