Re: exec problem

> Hi I'm trying to create a script which my cron will run once a day to backup > my MySQL database, but the exec command doesn't want to work no matter what I > try... Uhhhhh. cron + PHP is cool, but using cron to run PHP to run mysqldump is kinda silly... :-) Just put the mysqldump line in your cron job, or create a "shell script" to do what you need. Basically, a shell script: 1. Starts with #!/usr/bin/sh (You can use any "shell" [bash, csh, ash, smrsh] instead of sh that feels good.] 2. Has stuff you would normally type on the command line, like: mysqldump -h localhost -u user -p pass --opt DataBase > BACKUPS/backup.mysql 3. Has permission to be run by one or more users: chmod 700 backup.sh You can then use /path/to/backup.sh as a command, or use that in a cron job. > exec("mysqldump -h localhost -u user -p pass --opt DataBase > > BACKUPS/backup.mysql") or die("Problem"); > > I have tried adding the full path to mysqldump, You need that. > I have tried using my root > access, machine root, or MySQL root? The former is a BAD IDEA... The latter ain't so hot either. Certainly don't be putting a script with database passwords in your web-tree. > I have tried using a different dir to store the files, changed > permissions all sorts and nothing works. It always returns "Problem" and if I > take out the or die then it just returns a blank screen. You can add more args to exec() to get more info about what went wrong/right: exec("...", $results, $errorcode); while (list(,$line) = each($results)){ echo $line, "<BR>\n"; } if ($errorcode){ echo "OS Error: $errorcode. Usually paths/permissions. Use 'man errno' to look it up.<BR>\n"; }