what is the content inside the innodb redo log file

[seagen]

Anybody knows if there is a tool which could read the innodb redo log file and show us the readable content?

As we know the binlog is very useful for replication and recovery, but the performance is also affected very significantly. If we disable binlog,we only archive all redo log files which are placed in many groups. My question is whether we could recover our database from the redo log files when the accident happens. Is it work ?

[xaprb]

There is no such tool. The redo log files contain everything needed to roll the state of the database forward in time except for .frm files, which MySQL needs. But there is no functionality that would allow you to apply these logs to the database to roll it forward. You could consider hiring Percona to build such a tool if you wanted; we certainly have the expertise to do it (c.f. Percona XtraBackup, for example). But I believe you would be better off with a different approach to the problem you’re trying to solve.

[seagen]

thanks Baron

Another question pops up again :)… As you mentioned the above words - except for .frm files -, it does mean whether the redo log files never record the DDL statements,am i right? If so, please kindly read ahead the following assume.

If redo-tool is present,which is developed for ME one day:P, when my recovery totally relies on the redo log files, my question is how you deal with the alter table statements. Thanks so much again…And looking for more further details.