MySQL dump - how to order tables? It seems that mysqldump dumps tables in sequential order - using the same order tables are shown when running:

show tables;


I would like to reverse that order - is it possible to do without getting the list of all tables from database; reordering that list, and specifying all tables in cmdline to mysqldump?
What you are asking for can be done by getting the list of all tables from the database. However, you should use the INFORMATION_SCHEMA database. In your particular case, you can use the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES table.

TABLES IN DESCENDING TABLE_NAME ORDER (Database mydb)

MYSQL_USER=root
MYSQL_PASS=rootpassword
MYSQL_CONN="-u${MYSQL_USER} -p${MYSQL_PASS}"
#
# Choose Database
#
DB_TO_DUMP=mydb
#
# Choose Ordering
# Descending Order By Table Name
#
ORDER_BY="table_name DESC"
#
#
#
SQL="SET group_concat_max_len = 1048576;"
SQL="${SQL} SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(table_name ORDER BY ${ORDER_BY} SEPARATOR ' ')"
SQL="${SQL} FROM information_schema.tables"
SQL="${SQL} WHERE table_schema='${DB_TO_DUMP}'"
DBLIST=`mysql ${MYSQL_CONN} -ANe"${SQL}"`
MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS="--single-transaction"
MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS="${MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS} --routines"
MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS="${MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS} --triggers"
mysqldump ${MYSQL_CONN} ${MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS} -B ${DBLIST} &gt; ${DB_TO_DUMP}_Tables_Desc.sql


TABLES IN DESCENDING SIZE ORDER (Database mydb)

MYSQL_USER=root
MYSQL_PASS=rootpassword
MYSQL_CONN="-u${MYSQL_USER} -p${MYSQL_PASS}"
#
# Choose Database
#
DB_TO_DUMP=mydb
#
# Choose Ordering
# Descending Order By Table Size
#
ORDER_BY="(data_length+index_length) DESC"
#
#
#
SQL="SET group_concat_max_len = 1048576;"
SQL="${SQL} SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(table_name ORDER BY ${ORDER_BY} SEPARATOR ' ')"
SQL="${SQL} FROM information_schema.tables"
SQL="${SQL} WHERE table_schema='${DB_TO_DUMP}'"
DBLIST=`mysql ${MYSQL_CONN} -ANe"${SQL}"`
MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS="--single-transaction"
MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS="${MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS} --routines"
MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS="${MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS} --triggers"
mysqldump ${MYSQL_CONN} ${MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS} -B ${DBLIST} &gt; ${DB_TO_DUMP}_Tables_Desc.sql


GIVE IT A TRY !!!

I have suggested techniques like this before


Sep 09, 2011 : How can I optimize a mysqldump of a large database?
Dec 16, 2011 : How do you mysqldump specific table(s)?
Aug 23, 2012 : Creating dump file with use command


UPDATE 2014-12-20 21:09 EST

Your last comment 


  It just seems inflexible to me that mysqldump doesn't offer any kind of table ordering. Reason is I have a table that I want it to be restored last, but in the dump order its among the first couple of tables. It's app dependence that this specific table is not present until the whole dump is fully restored.


TABLES IN ORDER BY tb1,tb2,tb3 BEING LAST (Database mydb)

Let's say you want tables tb1,tb2,tb3 to be last

MYSQL_USER=root
MYSQL_PASS=rootpassword
MYSQL_CONN="-u${MYSQL_USER} -p${MYSQL_PASS}"
#
# Choose Database
#
DB_TO_DUMP=mydb
#
# Order By List of Tables to Make Last
#
LAST_TABLES=tb1,tb2,tb3
ORDER_BY="IF(LOCATE(CONCAT(',',table_name,','),',${LAST_TABLES},')&gt;0,1,0)"
#
#
#
SQL="SET group_concat_max_len = 1048576;"
SQL="${SQL} SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(table_name ORDER BY ${ORDER_BY} SEPARATOR ' ')"
SQL="${SQL} FROM information_schema.tables"
SQL="${SQL} WHERE table_schema='${DB_TO_DUMP}'"
DBLIST=`mysql ${MYSQL_CONN} -ANe"${SQL}"`
MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS="--single-transaction"
MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS="${MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS} --routines"
MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS="${MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS} --triggers"
mysqldump ${MYSQL_CONN} ${MYSQLDUMP_OPTIONS} -B ${DBLIST} &gt; ${DB_TO_DUMP}_Tables_Desc.sql


UPDATE 2014-12-21 23:02 EST

In your comment you said mysqldump doesn't offer any kind of ordering unless you specify table names as arguments, and there are not going to. Why ? Please keep in mind that the question MySQL dump - how to order tables? is very broad. There are many ways to ask for tables from a mysqldump.

In my old post How can I monitor the progress of an import of a large .sql file? (May 02, 2012) : When you execute a mysqldump of a single database, all tables are dumped in alphabetical order. Naturally, the reload of the mysqldump into a database would also be in alphabetical order.

The mysqldump client program sees a list of options and names names


  Syntax
  
  There are in general three ways to use mysqldump—in order to
  dump a set of one or more tables, a set of one or more complete
  databases, or an entire MySQL server—as shown here:

shell&gt; mysqldump [options] db_name [tbl_name ...]
shell&gt; mysqldump [options] --databases db_name ...
shell&gt; mysqldump [options] --all-databases



Given the first example of syntax, MySQL (now Oracle) expect us developers and DBAs to give the database names and table names.

Since the mysqldump client program has the --databases (-B) option, we are given the opportunity to dump the databases in a specific order or with a specific list.

The point I am making is that it is left up to us to order the tables when running mysqldump. Since MySQL (now Oracle) uses storage engines that use plug-in frameworks, MySQL was not going to make mysqldump compliant to ordering anything for us. Imagine trying to use a storage engine whose physical files you cannot get access to. That leaves no choices but to use the INFORMATION_SCHEMA as I just demonstrated.

Unless someone downloads the source code for mysqldump and creates a version of mysqldump that can do custom ordering, this is all that mysqldump client program gives us to work with. We just have to do the ordering.