how to send email when script fails to run

bryanedwards05 · 04-17-2008, 03:38 PM

I have a script that will backup certain aspects of my linux server to a directory then that directory is copied to a mounted windows server.

I am going to place this script to run automatically in my cron, but I wold like to know if it fails or not.

Is it possible to have in that script an if statement or something that will trigger an email saying "hey your backup didn't work" and why it didn't work?

Thanks.
Bryan

bigrigdriver · 04-17-2008, 04:07 PM

How about if:

in your script there is a function which starts the backup, with a *wait* command to wait for the backup to complete; return a value (success or an error message)

then if the return value is anything other than success, mailto whomever@whereever.com subject "hey, your backup failed" body *the return from the function*

bryanedwards05 · 04-22-2008, 08:18 AM

I am pretty new to scripts, do you have any idea how to put what you said in your post into a script, here is my backup.sh as of right now:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
# A script to backup the server to a remote share

# Change directory to where the remote share is mounted
cd /mnt/backup

# Run some compression commands
# backup configs
tar -cjpf etc.tar.bz2 /etc/
# backup homedirs
tar -cjpf home.tar.bz2 /home/
# backup web content

# Copy to mounted harddrive
cp - R /mnt/backup/* /mnt/winserv/

andoni · 04-22-2008, 09:10 AM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by bryanedwards05

I am pretty new to scripts, do you have any idea how to put what you said in your post into a script, here is my backup.sh as of right now:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
# A script to backup the server to a remote share

# Change directory to where the remote share is mounted
cd /mnt/backup

# Run some compression commands
# backup configs
tar -cjpf etc.tar.bz2 /etc/
# backup homedirs
tar -cjpf home.tar.bz2 /home/
# backup web content

# Copy to mounted harddrive
cp - R /mnt/backup/* /mnt/winserv/

You should try mail "command" combined with for sentence in your bash script... man mail for more details...

If you backup OK, do not anything... if you backup fails: "mail -s "subject" < "text-file-with-hey-your-backup-failed"

Regards.

bryanedwards05 · 04-24-2008, 10:43 AM

Is it possible to take any errors that might result and have them placed in my log file. For example if the script runs and fails with the line "cp: target `/mnt/winserver/' is not a directory" can I have "cp: target `/mnt/winserver/' is not a directory" inputed into my backup_log?

ufmale · 04-24-2008, 12:02 PM

How about check if the tar.bz2 is exist ; othewise, send email