1. db_backup.rb(1)
3. db_backup.rb(1)

NAME

db_backup.rb - backup one or more MySQL databases

SYNOPSIS

db_backup.rb database_name
db_backup.rb -u username -p password database_name
db_backup.rb -i|--iteration database_name

DESCRIPTION

db_backup.rb is a simple command-line tool for backing up a MySQL database. It does so safely and quietly, using a sensible name for the backup files, so it's perfect for use with cron as a daily backup.

It also has knowledge of our development process, so you can indicate that a backup is the canonical reference for an interation with the --iteration flag. This will allow you to easily keep one backup per iteration, easily identifying it, and differentiate it from daily backups.

By default, db_backup.rb will use your database credentials in ~/.my.cnf, however, you can override either the username or password (or both) via the -u and -p flags, respectively.

Finally, db_backup.rb will add a sanity check on your username, to make sure it fits with our corporate standard format of first.last.

FILES

Since this command ultimately calls mysqldump, if you omit the username or password options, ~/.my.cnf will be used for credentials. When running from cron, this is most likely not what you want to happen.

OPTIONS

-i, --iteration

Indicate that this backup is an "iteration" backup, and use a different naming scheme to allow for easy retention of daily backups and per-iteration backups

-u USER

Database username, in first.last format if the one in ~/my.cnf is not correct

-p PASSWORD

Database password if the one in ~/my.cnf is not correct

EXAMPLES

Backup the database "big_client"

$ db_backup.rb big_client

Backup the database "small_client", for which different credentials are required:

$ db_backup.rb -u dave -p d4v3 small_client

Make an iteration backup of the "big_client" database:

$ db_backup.rb -i big_client

2. June 2011
3. db_backup.rb(1)