How do I quickly rename a MySQL database (change schema name)?

Question

The MySQL manual at MySQL covers this.

Usually I just dump the database and reimport it with a new name. This is not an option for very big databases. Apparently

Answer 1

I posed a question on Server Fault trying to get around downtime when restoring very large databases by using MySQL Proxy. I didn't have any success, but I realized in the end what I wanted was RENAME DATABASE functionality because dump/import wasn't an option due to the size of our database.

There is a RENAME TABLE functionality built in to MySQL so I ended up writing a simple Python script to do the job for me. I've posted it on GitHub in case it could be of use to others.