[Klug-general] Cron job

[Nathan Friend]

Here's my updated script.  It's working now.

#!/bin/bash
set -e
NOW=$(date +%d-%m-%Y-%H:%M)
FILENAME="moodle_db_backup_$NOW.sql"
/usr/bin/mysqldump -uuser -ppassword moodle>/dbbck/$FILENAME

I tried adding the error checking:

#!/bin/bash
set -e
NOW=$(date +%d-%m-%Y-%H:%M)
FILENAME="moodle_db_backup_$NOW.sql"
/usr/bin/mysqldump -uuser -ppassword moodle>/dbbck/$FILENAME
EXITSTATUS=$?
if["$EXITSTATUS"!="0"] then
/bin/mail -s "Moodle db backup failed" root;
fi

But I get line 9: syntax error near unexpected token 'fi'

I guess it's not really that important as long as I check a new file appears
each day. [?]

Cheers,

Nathan.

On Fri, Apr 10, 2009 at 9:19 PM, Nathan Friend <nathan.friend at gmail.com>wrote:

> Thanks everyone, lot's of good script info.
>
> I'll add some error checking and post my findings when I'm back at work
> Tuesday.
>
> Colin - Yes I can do a talk on Moodle if it's of interest...
>
> Nathan.
>
> On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 11:18 PM, Alan @ COMM-TECH <
> alan at communitytechnology.org.uk> wrote:
>
>>  Jeremy Hooks wrote:
>>
>> 2009/4/9 Nathan Friend <nathan.friend at gmail.com> <nathan.friend at gmail.com>:
>>
>>
>>  Afternoon All,
>> I've writen a simple script to dump a database and would like it to run as a
>> cron job.  How should I set the script permisisons?
>>
>>
>>  Presuming the cron job is being run by root you will probably want to
>> make sure the script is owned by root:
>> chown root.root /usr/local/script/dbbackup.sh
>>
>> Then you can set the permissions with so that only root has
>> permissions to read/write/execute it:
>> chmod 700 /usr/local/script/dbbackup.sh
>> or
>> chmod u=rwx /usr/local/script/dbbackup.sh
>>
>>
>>
>>  dbbackup.sh contains:
>>
>> NOW=$(date +"%d-%b-%y"_"%l:%M")
>> FILENAME="moodle_db_backup_$NOW.sql"
>> mysqldump -uuser -ppassword databasename > /dbbck/$FILENAME
>>
>>
>>  Don't forget, ofcourse if you want the script to actually run you need
>> a shebang too, e.g.:
>> #!/usr/bin/bash
>>
>> The date format you are using will likely cause you problems as it
>> will give you something like "09-Apr-09_ 8:30", a filename with a
>> space in it.  With either a %I (12 hour, with leading zero) or %H (24
>> hour, with leading zero) rather than %l (12 hour, leading space).
>> Something else that is important to remember when writing cron scripts
>> is that you can't always be certain that the path variable isn't
>> necessarily the same as you would have when running running the script
>> from an interactive shell.  So I would recommend changing 'mysqldump'
>> to '/fullpath/mysqldump'.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  The cron entry is
>>
>> 30 20 * * * /usr/local/script/dbbackup.sh
>>
>> I can run the script from for command line OK with the expected output.
>> However wathcing /var/log/messages I see the cron job run but no output
>> file...
>>
>>
>>  One final thing, if your script running but you aren't getting the
>> results you expect, it may be worth checking the output of the
>> command.  Normally the output from cron scripts is emailed to the user
>> using the local mail system.  You can check this by using (say) mutt
>> or 'vi /var/spool/mail/root'.
>>
>> I think that is everything, but I don't use cron often, so I could
>> have forgotten something.
>>
>> Regards.
>>
>> Jeremy
>>
>>
>>
>>  Cron is so reliable you tend to just set it and forget it, until you find
>> the backup hasn't been working for 6 months because the destination was
>> unreachable, or the mysql password changed or someting..
>>
>> I find it useful therefore to interrogate the exit code of  mysqldump so
>> you could also have the script mail you if someting went wrong, so right
>> after the mysqldump command use:
>>
>> EXITSTATUS=$?
>> if [ "$EXITSTATUS" != "0" ] then
>>    == send email notifying a problem with the backup==
>> fi
>>
>> [googling..]  here's a nice little revelation on bash exit code [arrays!]:
>>
>> http://www.briandowney.net/blog/2008/05/05/bash-pipeline-exit-codes/
>>
>> Alan
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Kent mailing list
>> Kent at mailman.lug.org.uk
>> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/kent
>>
>
>
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