diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 541e949f6de9f08bd34769e82bc1a2a9590ae67e..79e338a770e33222f42ff2520ebd5da183bf9c9c 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ rhatto 		   -- rub handler and patches
 Patches: 
 
 cmccallum@thecsl.org
-Daniel.Bonniot@inria.fr
+Daniel.Bonniot@inria.fr -- mysql ignores and nodata
 Brad Fritz <brad@fritzfam.com> -- trac patch
 garcondumonde@riseup.net
 Martin Krafft madduck@debian.org -- admingroup patch
diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index ba68c07e20ce486ce30fbfd456927a475b4b07d1..5aa1fd056795f12edca00db890f79ceac32bc64c 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ version 0.9.5 -- unreleased
         mysql:
 	 . Fixed case where odd combination of configuration options caused sqldump
 	   backups to get overwritten with an empty file (Closes: #402679)
+	 . Added 'nodata' option to enable you to specify tables that you want to omit
+	   the data from a backup, but still backup the table structure. This is very
+	   useful in cases where tables contain large amounts of cache data. See the
+	   example.mysql for options, thanks Daniel Bonniot (Closes: #408829)
 	pgsql:
 	 . Support configuring PGSQLUSER for real, and document it a bit; this
 	   broken support actually prevented pgsql handler to work for VServers
diff --git a/examples/example.mysql b/examples/example.mysql
index 25750ad725d06c589dfa42e1b1b3a983307f1db3..d7ab8b6ff0c144cb51590ba464de2c611ebb29f7 100644
--- a/examples/example.mysql
+++ b/examples/example.mysql
@@ -53,6 +53,13 @@ compress    = yes
 # which databases to backup. should either be the word 'all' or a 
 # space separated list of database names.
 #
+# nodata = < table1 table2 table3 > (no default)
+# only dump the structure for the database tables listed here, this means
+# no data contained in these tables will be dumped. This is very useful
+# to backup databases that have tables with cache stored in tables that
+# isn't necessary to backup, but you still need the structure to exist
+# on a restore
+#
 # backupdir = < path/to/destination > (default = /var/backups/mysql)
 # where to dump the backups. hotcopy backups will be in a subdirectory 
 # 'hotcopy' and sqldump backups will be in a subdirectory 'sqldump'
diff --git a/handlers/mysql.in b/handlers/mysql.in
index de4e4c3d2f920d8117c2e960e9c1f5e1619ccf22..64b6f492188b31429ceb9249abd9c748fd68d99c 100644
--- a/handlers/mysql.in
+++ b/handlers/mysql.in
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 getconf backupdir /var/backups/mysql
 getconf databases all
 getconf ignores
+getconf nodata
 getconf dbhost localhost
 getconf hotcopy no
 getconf sqldump no
@@ -47,7 +48,7 @@ fi
 ## This only works for mysqldump at the moment
 
 ignore=''
-for i in $ignores; do
+for i in $ignores $nodata; do
        ignore="$ignore --ignore-table=$i"
 done
 	
@@ -243,10 +244,27 @@ then
 		    fatal "Authentication problem, maybe user/password is wrong or mysqld is not running?"
 		fi
 	fi
-fi
+    fi
 
 	for db in $databases
 	do
+           DUMP_BASE="$MYSQLDUMP $defaultsfile --lock-tables --complete-insert --add-drop-table --quick --quote-names"
+
+           # Dumping structure and data
+           DUMP="$DUMP_BASE $ignore $db"
+
+           # If requested, dump only the table structure for this database
+           if echo "$nodata" | grep -E '(^|[[:space:]])'"$db\." >/dev/null
+           then
+              # Get the structure of the tables, without data
+              DUMP_STRUCT="$DUMP_BASE --no-data $db"
+              for qualified_table in $nodata
+              do
+                 table=$( expr match "$qualified_table" "$db\.\([^\w]*\)" )
+                 DUMP_STRUCT="$DUMP_STRUCT $table"
+              done
+              DUMP="( $DUMP; $DUMP_STRUCT )"
+           fi
 		if [ $usevserver = yes ]
 		then
                    # Test to make sure mysqld is running, if it is not sqldump will not work
@@ -255,9 +273,9 @@ fi
                       fatal "Either you have an authentication problem, or mysqld doesn't appear to be running!"
                    fi
                    if [ "$compress" == "yes" ]; then
-                      execstr="$VSERVER $vsname exec $MYSQLDUMP $defaultsfile --lock-tables --complete-insert --add-drop-table --quick --quote-names $ignore $db | $GZIP > $vroot$dumpdir/${db}.sql.gz"
+                      execstr="$VSERVER $vsname exec $DUMP | $GZIP > $vroot$dumpdir/${db}.sql.gz"
                    else
-                      execstr="$VSERVER $vsname exec $MYSQLDUMP $defaultsfile --lock-tables --complete-insert --add-drop-table --quick --quote-names $ignore $db -r $vroot$dumpdir/${db}.sql"
+                      execstr="$VSERVER $vsname exec $DUMP -r $vroot$dumpdir/${db}.sql"
                    fi
 		else
                    # Test to make sure mysqld is running, if it is not sqldump will not work
@@ -266,9 +284,9 @@ fi
                       fatal "Either you have an authentication problem, or mysqld doesn't appear to be running!"
                    fi
                    if [ "$compress" == "yes" ]; then
-                      execstr="$MYSQLDUMP $defaultsfile --lock-tables --complete-insert --add-drop-table --quick --quote-names $ignore $db | $GZIP > $dumpdir/${db}.sql.gz"
+                      execstr="$DUMP | $GZIP > $dumpdir/${db}.sql.gz"
                    else
-                      execstr="$MYSQLDUMP $defaultsfile --lock-tables --complete-insert --add-drop-table --quick --quote-names $ignore $db -r $dumpdir/${db}.sql"
+                      execstr="$DUMP -r $dumpdir/${db}.sql"
                    fi
 		fi
 		debug "su $user -c \"$execstr\""