[tlug] Duplicating a MySQL database

["Jonathan Q" <jq@example.com>]

I have a MySQL database that I would like to make an exact duplicate of
for testing purposes.  According to the MySQL manual, it seems that I could
use mysqldump and mysqlimport for this purpose, but that seems somehow
inelegant.  Does anyone know of a better way to do this that I haven't
stumbled across yet?  

This is a 3.22.x version of MySQL, so replication is not supported (so
sayeth the Fine Manual). Proceeding from that, after the test database is
established, I would like to sync the test database off of the production
database in batch mode if not daily, at some regular interval.  Is anyone
doing that?  I'm sure there are several scripts out there that can do this
for me, but before I shortlist any candidates I'd like to find out if you
have any favorites or any that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

A small version of the test database already exists, but if it can't be
added to with something along the lines of a REPLACE INTO, blowing it away
and creating a new copy of the production database is not a problem.

TIA,

J