Very Computer

Been trying to figure this out for an hour now. Here's the thing: I'm
trying to setup a cron job so that it automatically backsup my sql db
everyday of the week sun-sat. the problem is that i cant seem to get
the var passed in the path. below is a little bit of the code (my goal
here is to get the $day var passed into the path)

#!/bin/bash
#
sun='1. Sun'
mon='2. Mon'
tues='3. Tues'
wed='4. Wed'
thurs='5. Thurs'
fri='6. Fri'
sat='7. Sat'

mysqldump -u USERNAME -pPASS --opt MYSQLdB >
/home/me/backups/$day/SQLdB.sql

<rest of code here to change the $day=$mon etc>

whenever this much is executed it gives me
backups.cron: /home/me/backups/$day/SQLdb.sql: ambiguous redirect
even if i initialize $day as $sun ($day = $sun) or use $sun in the
code
(mysqldump -u USERNAME -pPASS --opt MYSQLDB >
/home/me/backups/$sun/SQLdb.sql)

hmm, just realized something. how would i even create a script
(ignoring the idea if i hardcoded $sun to the backup path) that can be
used to rotate days if it executes, dies, then rerun the next day; it
cant change its own code and doesnt say in memory forever.

Would (as a newbie) is not be simpler to setup seven scripts and execute
them from the crontab file?

I may be strange, but I like to get a simple solution working first, then
make it 'better'

0 4 * * sun <script for Sunday>
0 4 * * mon <script for Monday>
etc

I'm assuming you want to only keep the last seven days' backups.  Otherwise
you could take to output file and give it a name based on the date.  I'm not
sure of a simple way to do it, but you could tarball it and give the file a
name from the date.

Gareth

Quote:> Been trying to figure this out for an hour now. Here's the thing: I'm
> trying to setup a cron job so that it automatically backsup my sql db
> everyday of the week sun-sat. the problem is that i cant seem to get
> the var passed in the path. below is a little bit of the code (my goal
> here is to get the $day var passed into the path)

> #!/bin/bash
> #
> sun='1. Sun'
> mon='2. Mon'
> tues='3. Tues'
> wed='4. Wed'
> thurs='5. Thurs'
> fri='6. Fri'
> sat='7. Sat'

> mysqldump -u USERNAME -pPASS --opt MYSQLdB >
> /home/me/backups/$day/SQLdB.sql

> <rest of code here to change the $day=$mon etc>

> whenever this much is executed it gives me
> backups.cron: /home/me/backups/$day/SQLdb.sql: ambiguous redirect
> even if i initialize $day as $sun ($day = $sun) or use $sun in the
> code
> (mysqldump -u USERNAME -pPASS --opt MYSQLDB >
> /home/me/backups/$sun/SQLdb.sql)

> hmm, just realized something. how would i even create a script
> (ignoring the idea if i hardcoded $sun to the backup path) that can be
> used to rotate days if it executes, dies, then rerun the next day; it
> cant change its own code and doesnt say in memory forever.

Goku was touched by the minds of the terrible Old Ones, and imparted unto
us these blasphemous ravings:

Quote:> Been trying to figure this out for an hour now. Here's the thing: I'm
> trying to setup a cron job so that it automatically backsup my sql db
> everyday of the week sun-sat. the problem is that i cant seem to get
> the var passed in the path. below is a little bit of the code (my goal
> here is to get the $day var passed into the path)

> #!/bin/bash
> #
> sun='1. Sun'
> mon='2. Mon'
> tues='3. Tues'
> wed='4. Wed'
> thurs='5. Thurs'
> fri='6. Fri'
> sat='7. Sat'

> mysqldump -u USERNAME -pPASS --opt MYSQLdB >
> /home/me/backups/$day/SQLdB.sql

It might be because there's a space in the destination file; try putting
double quotes around it.

Also, it might be better to do:

  day=`date +%w-%a`

Which will gived you "0-Sun", "1-Mon" and so on; this way you won't have to
figure it out yourself.

Quote:> whenever this much is executed it gives me
> backups.cron: /home/me/backups/$day/SQLdb.sql: ambiguous redirect
> even if i initialize $day as $sun ($day = $sun) or use $sun in the
> code

You shouldn't do anything like

   $day = $sun

but

   day=$sun

Actually, that's how i have it setup now--7 different cron jobs for
each day of the week. the only difference between all 7 diff scripts
is the day directory such as "1. Sun" or "2. Mon" etc. I'd like to
make it a little more professional and a lot easier should i want to
backup more stuff (which i do) such as my sites and other parts in my
webhost (my webhost supports multiple websites in one account. ex:
/home/me/domain1.com, /home/me/domain2.com, /home/me/domain3.com,
etc).

this way i only need to type in the shell command once, in one file,
and only have to stick a variable which changes the day for me. doing
it 7 different times is too much work when i know there's a way to do
it once.

Thanks for the info. i'll try that out. one question, are %w and %a
auto system variables? because i only want to save one  or two week's
worth for backup.

ex:

0-sun
1-mon
2-tues
3-wed
4-thurs
5-fri
6-sat

then when next week rolls along it starts all over which overwrites
the previous week

0-sun
1-mon
2-tues
3-wed
4-thurs
5-fri
6-sat

thanks for all the help

goku