Execute large MySQL scripts through phpMyAdmin

Here’s a simple and convenient trick that I use quite often for doing repetitive MySQL script executes or to bypass file upload limits in phpMyAdmin/Apache. This example is based off my WAMP install but the procedure is the same for Linux too.

1. Browse to the directory where your phpMyAdmin is installed and create a folder called “upload”.  Paste any (as many) SQL scripts you would like to run in this folder.  Sorry, I blurred the name out on mine for security reasons.

2.  Open your phpMyAdmin config file (config.inc.php).  You’ll find this in the root folder of your phpMyAdmin directory.

3.  In config.inc.php, edit the upload directory as shown circled below and save.

4. Now when you go into phpMyAdmin, you’ll see a new dropdown in the import tab that lists all the files you’ve inserted into the “upload” directory you created in step #1 above.

So the next time you’re trying to upload a large SQL script to a remote server, try the above trick and then just FTP your files to the phpMyAdmin “upload” directory you created.  Select it from the dropdown in phpMyAdmin and run!

Note: You may have to increase max_execution_time & upload_max_filesize in php.ini and also the $cfg[‘ExecTimeLimit’] in the PhpMyAdmin config.default.php file (usually in the pma/libraries folder).  One other thing that may need to set is TimeOut in your apache config httpd.conf file.  If it’s not there, just add a line like; TimeOut 1500