Export Database & Zip it using PHP shell_exec()

I create a quick route that triggering an fn that runs shell_exec() to back up my database.

mysqldump -u john -p123 db1 > /home/john/db1.04-20-21-11-28-am.sql

To save server space, I also want to zip what I dumped

tar -czvf db1.04-20-21-11-28-am.sql.tar.gz db1.04-20-21-11-28-am.sql && rm -rf db1.04-20-21-11-28-am.sql

I’m not sure why the zip command never runs even if I put a sleep() after the first one, and in betweens.

What did I do wrong?

Note : the tar command working perfectly if I copy and run it on the command line in the server.

---

Code

public function dbBackUp()
{

    $un = env('DB_USERNAME');
    $pw = env('DB_PASSWORD');
    $db = env('DB_DATABASE');

    $date = date('m-d-y-g-i-a');

    $cmd = 'mysqldump -u ' . $un . ' -p' . $pw . ' ' . $db . ' > /home/john/' . $db . '.'.$date.'.sql';
    $result = shell_exec($cmd);

    sleep(2);

    $cmd2 = 'tar -czvf '. $db . '.'. $date .'.sql.tar.gz '. $db .'.'.$date.'.sql && rm -rf '. $db .'.'.$date.'.sql';
    $result2 = shell_exec($cmd2);
    
    $un = env('DB_USERNAME');
    $pw = env('DB_PASSWORD');
    $db = env('DB_DATABASE_BABIES');
    $cmd3 = 'mysqldump -u ' . $un . ' -p' . $pw . ' ' . $db . ' > /home/john/' . $db . '.'.$date.'.sql';
    $result3 = shell_exec($cmd3);

    sleep(2);

    $cmd4 = 'tar -czvf '. $db . '.'. $date .'.sql.tar.gz '. $db .'.'.$date.'.sql && rm -rf '. $db .'.'.$date.'.sql';
    $result4 = shell_exec($cmd4);
    sleep(2);

    $data = []; 

    if($result != null ){
        return View::make('layouts.dbBackUp');
    } else {
        return $data;
    }
}

Answer

I think you’re missing “/home/john/” part from the tar command so it wont find the file.

Maybe this will help:

//change to the directory that contains the file you want to zip
chdir('/home/john/');

$cmd2 = 'tar -czvf '. $db . '.'. $date .'.sql.tar.gz '. $db .'.'.$date.'.sql && rm -rf '. $db .'.'.$date.'.sql';
$result2 = shell_exec($cmd2);