How about getting the sources for the version of mySQL that's running on the system, compiling the mysqldump module, and running it. As near as I can tell from 20 seconds of playing, it doesn't need special priviledges. Simply having access to the database (just like you would through DBI) is sufficient to dump it.

I realize (also) that it isn't really a Perl solution, but mysqldump is a very clean and trusted way for getting the data out. Not to mention, if you do it right, you can punch the data back into any SQL compatible database. Makes migration to postGres, mSQL, whatever much easier.

--Chris