Note: This statement is deprecated. We are working on a better
replacement for it that will provide online backup capabilities.
In the meantime, the mysqlhotcopy script can be used instead.

BACKUP TABLE copies to the backup directory the minimum number of
table files needed to restore the table, after flushing any buffered changes
to disk. The statement works only for MyISAM tables.  It copies the
*.frm definition  and *.MYD data files. The *.MYI
index file can be rebuilt from those two files.
The directory should be specified as a full pathname.
