Hi all,
I have a few cron jobs setup at the moment, but would like to have just one that will read from a txt file to process the commands.

I have written the following:

rm -f /home/planet/public_html/backup/Webmail.sql
rm -f /home/planet/public_html/backup/Forum.sql
rm -f /home/planet/public_html/backup/Site.tar.gz

mysqldump -h localhost -u example --password=example --opt planet_webmail > /home/planet/public_html/backup/Webmail.sql
mysqldump -h localhost -u example --password=example --opt planet_forums > /home/planet/public_html/backup/Forum.sql

tar cvf /home/planet/public_html/backup/Site.tar public_html
gzip /home/planet/public_html/backup/Site.tar

Will the above work?

you should write a shell script, and have your crontab run that.


myself, I'd write in PHP, just because I'm more comfortable in php than I am in BASH scripting.

crontab.php:
<?
`rm -f /home/planet/public_html/backup/Webmail.sql`
`rm -f /home/planet/public_html/backup/Forum.sql`
`rm -f /home/planet/public_html/backup/Site.tar.gz`

`mysqldump -h localhost -u example --password=example --opt`
`planet_webmail > /home/planet/public_html/backup/Webmail.sql`
`mysqldump -h localhost -u example --password=example --opt`
`planet_forums > /home/planet/public_html/backup/Forum.sql`

`tar cvf /home/planet/public_html/backup/Site.tar public_html`
`gzip /home/planet/public_html/backup/Site.tar`
?>
`

Thanks for the reply.

With the PHP file, would i still be able to run that by entering the details into the cron job section within cPanel?

It would be much better to do in shell scripting rather than php. That way you can at least check the return codes and take action on error or failure.

At a minimum there you would probably check for existance of files, and check return codes ($?) after each statement to ensure that everything worked as needed.

The php script above just escapes everything and passes it to bash, so there isn't much need for php.
----
#!/bin/bash
rm -f /home/planet/public_html/backup/Webmail.sql
rm -f /home/planet/public_html/backup/Forum.sql
rm -f /home/planet/public_html/backup/Site.tar.gz

mysqldump -h localhost -u example --password=example --opt \
planet_webmail > /home/planet/public_html/backup/Webmail.sql
mysqldump -h localhost -u example --password=example --opt \
planet_forums > /home/planet/public_html/backup/Forum.sql

tar cvf /home/planet/public_html/backup/Site.tar public_html
gzip /home/planet/public_html/backup/Site.tar
----

You may have to put the full path of the commands in for cron to be able to access them. For example rm on my server is found in /bin/rm so above you may need /bin/rm rather than just rm. (You can use whereis rm to find it).