Hello,

I have the following crontab listing:

00 04 * * * mysqldump -p<blah> <dbname> > /root/mydb-`date +%Y-%m-%d`.sql; gzip -f /root/mydb-`date +%Y-%m-%d`.sql; smbclient //mynetwork-dc/MySQLBackups <moreblah> -Usqlbackups -c "put mydb-`date +%Y-%m-%d`.sql.gz"

Leaving aside the kludgy nature of this for now, if i run the whole silly command directly, it works perfectly in just a few seconds. The DB is dumped, zipped, and thrown over the network to the target drive, where it lands safely.

When the cronjob runs, however, it chokes. I get this in the logs:

(root) CMD (mysqldump -p<blah> <dbname> > /root/mydb-`date +)

it eats it on the percentage sign. Now, inside the backtics, directly entered, it executes the command and substitutes the result as you'd expect. I have not yet been able to figure out a quoting scheme inside the crontab, however, that works. It dies there every time. i don't get it o_O.

TIA, and Halp!,

Rob

SOLUTION:
Assumed it was quoting, when i shoulda been escaping. Solution was to backslash the percent signs, thusly:

00 04 * * * mysqldump -p<blah> <dbname> > /root/mydb-`date +\%Y-\%m-\%d`.sql; gzip -f /root/mydb-`date +\%Y-\%m-\%d`.sql; smbclient //mynetwork-dc/MySQLBackups <moreblah> -Usqlbackups -c "put mydb-`date +\%Y-\%m-\%d`.sql.gz"

and, while even uglier than before, works perfectly and consistently.

have you considered using a pre-existing script such as this one ? I find it works out great and would work around your current dilema as I could not see why it would not work.

Regards
JKZfixme

Interesting script, but i think i end up with the same issue. The goal is a remote (Windows) server share, which i'm using smbclient to put the backup on.

The script you mention will run in crontab and make a mysql backup on the local disk. That part i have working; i'd still have to do something to move the backup to the remote server, which is my goal.

The problem is that crontab doesn't seem to like the %-signs in the date command; and since both my script and the one you mention timestamp the files, i'd need to include a way in the crontab of getting the current, timestamped file name.

Does anyone know what sort of quoting scheme i need to prevent cron from choking on the % arguments to the date command?

Solved: edited original post.