Cron Jobs with time not just date!

gelni · 12-01-2008, 07:14 AM

Hi all - my first post on here.

The command below works in respect of backing up a directly into a tgz file.

It adds the date - but how do I get it to add the time as well?

date=`date -I` ; tar -zcf public_html/backup_zip/backup_$date.tgz ./public_html/123/456/

Thanks

gelni
UK

datopdog · 12-01-2008, 07:35 AM

Code:

date +%d-%m-%g-%T

gelni · 12-01-2008, 09:41 AM

Thanks but - I've inserted that code everywhere - but it does not work! Where shoud it go?

colucix · 12-01-2008, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gelni

Thanks but - I've inserted that code everywhere - but it does not work! Where shoud it go?

What does "it does not work" mean? Do you know that the % sign has a special meaning if used in crontab?

gelni · 12-01-2008, 10:33 AM

What I mean is that if I use this code in cron – “date=`date -I` ; tar -zcf public_html/backup_zip/backup_$date.tgz ./public_html/123/456/”

It will back up the entire directly as a .tgz - with the day month and year – all good.

But what do I amend the code to if I want to add the “time” it was backed up not just the dd/mm/yy?

I’m sure it is pretty simple – but any ideas what it would be?

tredegar · 12-01-2008, 11:05 AM

Like datopdog said:

Code:

date=`date +%d-%m-%g-%T` ; tar -zcf /public_html/backup_zip/backup_$date.tgz ./public_html/123/456/

colucix · 12-01-2008, 11:14 AM

In addition you can embed the command substitution directly in the file name:

Code:

tar -zcf /public_html/backup_zip/backup_`date +%d-%m-%g-%T`.tgz ./public_html/123/456/

but beware of the usage of the % sign in a crontab entry.

gelni · 12-01-2008, 11:16 AM

Thanks for the response - but - cut and pasted your text - checked and double checked it - and now get this error!!!

/bin/sh: -c: line 0: unexpected EOF while looking for matching ``'
/bin/sh: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of file

I know this should be simple - but what is it?

colucix · 12-01-2008, 11:34 AM

I repeat for the last time: do you know about the meaning of the % sign in the crontab? See

Code:

man 5 crontab

to find out.

gelni · 12-01-2008, 11:52 AM

Yes – new line!

Problem solved by prefixing % with backslash

Thanking you all anyway.

colucix · 12-01-2008, 11:58 AM

Well done!