Ran into this error tonight while copying tables from one database into another. 

I was using the mysqldump command as follows:

mysqldump -h localhost -u username -p --add-drop-table wildernessgear  wp_31_term_relationship /home/bnettles/wp_31_term_relationship.sql

This command was supposed to export just the one table wp_31_term_relationship.  I had already exported the 30 previous tables in the database.  All of a sudden this one was causing a problem with the following error message.

mysqldump: Got error: 1146: Table ‘wildernessgear.wp_31_term_relationship ‘ doesn’t exist when doing LOCK TABLES.

I searched the internet for a while and wasted a half an hour not being able to figure out how to unlock the tables.  Then I discovered the real problem.  The table did not exist.  There was a typo.  It was supposed to be wp_31_term_relationships with an “s” at the end, not wp_31_term_relationship.

Looks like Mysql is using the wrong error message in this case.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 10:02 pm and is filed under Information Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.