It shouldn’t be hard to develop an user space file system for quick browsing MySQL server. The directory/file structure may be something like:
d / <- root mount point d /[DATABASES] d /[TABLES] f data.txt <- the whole table as tab delimited fields f data.sql <- the whole table as sql script f structure.sql <- table's structure as sql script d /[rows] f row[id] <- rows by primary key (if available) or first field
One useful feature could be the ability to edit single row of data with normal text editor. The file system can also be useful for programming languages with no support for MySQL.
tail -f
for table could also be very helpful if it doesn’t overload the server.