Linux Backup Shell Script for Files and MySQL

I assembled this script to backup my web server onto a USB thumbdrive. It mounts the thumbdrive (/dev/sdc1), backs up a couple of directories, does a MySQL dump, and then unmounts the drive. It appends the day of the week to the file name so you can run it daily as a cron job and you’ll get 7-days’ worth of backups on a rotating basis.

#!/bin/sh

####################################

#

# Backup to usb thumbdrive

#

####################################

# What to backup.

backup_files="/home/shared /etc"

# Where to backup to.

dest="/home/administrator/backup/usb"

# Create archive filename.

day=$(date +%A)

hostname=$(hostname -s)

archive_file="$hostname-$day.tgz"

sql_file="$hostname-$day.sql"

# Mount the usb thumbdrive

mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 /home/administrator/backup/usb -o uid=1000,gid=1000,utf8,dmask=027,fmask=137

echo "Thumbdrive mounted"

# Backup MySQL

echo "Backing up MySQL to $dest/$sql_file"

date

mysqldump --all-databases --password='XXXXXXX' > $dest/$sql_file

# Print start status message.

echo "Backing up $backup_files to $dest/$archive_file"

date

# Backup the files using tar.

tar czf $dest/$archive_file $backup_files

# Print end status message.

echo "Backup finished"

date

# Long listing of files in $dest to check file sizes.

ls -lh $dest

# Unmount the usb thumbdrive

umount /home/administrator/backup/usb

echo "Thumbdrive unmounted"

Combining PDFs with Ruby in OS X

I recently had to write a fairly complex script using Ruby to match-up and combine PDF documents. I thought I'd share the command I used to do the PDF work as I matched up the files. It uses an automator action that comes default in OS X Leopard.

Here's the relevant code snippet:

filepath1 = folder1 + "/" + filename1
filepath2 = folder2 + "/" + filename2
outfilepath = folder3 + "/" + filename3

command = "python '/System/Library/Automator/Combine PDF Pages.action/Contents/Resources/join.py' -o '" + outfilepath + "' '" + filepath2 + "' '" + filepath1 + "'"

`#{ command }`

I think you can see how it works with that much code. It currently is complaining about a deprecated call somewhere in the automator action, but it doesn't affect the outcome, and it will hopefully go away in a future release.