Once a week a backup

Beryllos · 06-19-2015, 02:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alaios

Code:

if [[ $! -eq 0 ]]

This (in both places) should be

Code:

if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]

That is why you are getting the failure email when things are actually working.

Beryllos · 06-19-2015, 02:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alaios

I also still have commented the following

# 6. Remove the file that it was sent over email. Would not be dangerous to call rm and delete also other files?
#rm -f $COMPRESSEDFILENAME

I am scared that the $COMPRESSEDFILENAME might get some "funny" value and destroy my file system. I am running these scripts as root user and I still do not feel safe.

In order to gain confidence, you could add a line to report $COMPRESSEDFILENAME so you can see if it is correct:

Code:

echo $COMPRESSEDFILENAME

If you are running the script yourself at the command line, that will print $COMPRESSEDFILENAME. If you are running it by cron, I think it will email it to the cron user, which is root in your case.

By the way, why are you running it as root? If you own the files as a regular user, you should be able to run the script in that user's crontab. That would be safer. As a general security practice, I would only run a script as root if it really needed root privileges, and I would make sure no other user can modify or run the script.

sundialsvcs · 06-19-2015, 07:25 AM

If it were me, I would cut-short this effort to "homebrew" yet-another backup tool, and grab one of the great-many fully featured tools that are already out there: open-source or commercial. A backup process, in order to be truly effective, must run constantly throughout the day ... must secure the backup files where only the backup daemons can get to them ... and must be truly bulletproof. I've seen a lot of cases where the client kit-bashed something together which utterly let them down when they actually tried to use it. (And another case where an intruder was tapping into the backup datasets as a way of completely circumventing the security of the stored data!)

alaios · 06-20-2015, 07:12 AM

Thanks for the last suggestion.
What is your loved featured tool out there?
Regards
Alex

alaios · 06-22-2015, 03:44 AM

Hi all,
I have decided over the weekend to finish the script and not allow my self to go for external programs for a simple task like that.
Currently the code runs but after finishing with the zipped file, the script stays "hanging" (no command prompt returnd back nor I receive any email). Any ideas what might be causing this?

Regards
Alex

Code:

#!/bin/bash

# Description. This script is for compressing my thesis folder and then sending it over email. Once the email is succesfully sent remove the compressed file. 



SCRIPTNAME=$(basename ${0})
MAILADDRESS="HideForNow"
THESISFOLDER="HideForNow"
TEMPSAVEFOLDER="HideForNow"
TIMESTAMP=$(date +%F)
COMPRESSEDFILENAME="$TEMPSAVEFOLDER"myname_thesis"$TIMESTAMP".tar.bz2


doEmail() { case "$1" in
        4)      REASON="Failed To compress File. $(echo $SCRIPTNAME)"
                SUBJECT="Thesis Backup Script failed"
                ;;
        5)      REASON="Failed to send email $(date). $(echo $SCRIPTNAME)"
                SUBJECT="Thesis Backup Script failed "
                ;;
        6)      REASON="Failed to remove file$(date). $(echo $SCRIPTNAME)"
                SUBJECT="Thesis Backup Script failed "
                ;;

        7)      REASON="Backup Script Finished. $(echo $SCRIPTNAME)"
                SUBJECT="Thesis Backup Completed"
                ;;

 *) echo "Please don't do that, Dave..." >/dev/stderr;;
esac; echo "${REASON}" | mail -r $MAILADDRESS -s "${SUBJECT}" $MAILADDRESS; }





# 4. Compress Email 
tar -jcvf "$COMPRESSEDFILENAME" "$THESISFOLDER"


if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
    doEmail 4; exit 1; # Compressing the file failed
fi

#5. Send the File by email.
mail -r $MAILADDRESS -s "Thesis Backup $TIMESTAMP" -a $COMPRESSEDFILENAME $MAILADDRESS;


if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
    doEmail 5; exit 1; # Sending email failed 
fi


# 6. Remove the file that it was sent over email. Would not be dangerous to call rm and delete also other files? 
#rm -f $COMPRESSEDFILENAME

# 7. Everything went as planned. Bye By 
doEmail 7; exit 0; # Exit 0 when normally returns

alaios · 06-23-2015, 02:29 AM

Thanks the problem seems to be this command

mail -r $MAILADDRESS -s "Thesis Backup $TIMESTAMP" -a $COMPRESSEDFILENAME $MAILADDRESS;

that expects me to press Control+D in console to send the email and the script then to terminate succesfully..

Any ideas on how to make send the mail as it is without waiting for user confirmation?

Regards
Alex

schneidz · 06-23-2015, 06:54 AM

Code:

echo "This is the message body" | mail -s "This is the subject" mail@example.com

http://www.binarytides.com/linux-mail-command-examples/

alaios · 06-23-2015, 08:02 AM

but where is your attachment?

Beryllos · 06-23-2015, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schneidz

http://www.binarytides.com/linux-mail-command-examples/

Quote:

Originally Posted by alaios

but where is your attachment?

For sending attachments, the above-linked article recommends a mail utility called mutt.

Sefyir · 06-23-2015, 10:32 AM

Is there a specific reason to be using email to transfer the backup?
I can think of two specific reasons:

Method of getting file from Computer A to Computer B
Method of storing file on mail server (like on gmail account)

#1 would be a lot more efficient and easier with rsync or scp and #2 would be a lot more practical with a online cloud backup.
I know a few people who email files to themselves to back it up and it's generally because they don't know any better way.

chrism01 · 06-25-2015, 05:46 AM

mailx with attachment (RHEL6 or similar) https://access.redhat.com/solutions/104833