--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/lemuriformes/table2csv.py	Sun Dec 10 17:42:52 2017 -0800
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+"""
+dump a MySQL table to CSV
+"""
+
+
+import argparse
+import csv
+import sys
+from .db import MySQLConnection, MySQLParser
+
+
+class MySQLParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
+
+    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
+        argparse.ArgumentParser.__init__(self, **kwargs)
+        self.add_arguments()
+        self.options = None
+
+    def add_arguments(self):
+        self.add_argument('host')
+        self.add_argument('db')
+        self.add_argument('-u', '--user', dest='user', default='root',
+                          help="MySQL user [DEFAULT: %(default)s]")
+        self.add_argument('-p', '--password', dest='password',
+                          help="MySQL password [DEFAULT: %(default)s]")
+
+    def parse_args(self, args):
+        options = argparse.ArgumentParser.parse_args(self, args)
+        self.options = self.validate(options)
+        return self.options
+
+    def validate(self, options):
+        """validate options"""
+        return options
+
+    def connection(self):
+        if self.options is None:
+            raise Exception("parse_args not called successfully!")
+
+        return MySQLConnection(host=self.options.host,
+                               user=self.options.user,
+                               password=self.options.password,
+                               db=self.options.db)
+
+def main(args=sys.argv[1:]):
+
+    # parse command line
+    parser = MySQLParser(description=__doc__)
+    parser.add_argument('table',
+                        help="table to dump")
+    parser.add_argument('-o', '--output', dest='output',
+                        type=argparse.FileType('w'), default=sys.stdout,
+                        help="path to put data to, or stdout by default")
+    options = parser.parse_args(args)
+
+    # read table
+    connection = parser.connection()
+    data = connection("SELECT * FROM {table}".format(table=options.table))
+
+    # dump table
+    writer = csv.writer(options.output)
+    writer.writerows(data)
+    options.output.flush()
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    main()