Using a .php file to generate a MySQL dump

Question

Here's the information I have:

I am working with a Linux based system using MySQL and PHP5. I need to be able to generate a mysqldump from within a .php file, and then have that dump be stored in a file on the server in a location I would specify.

As I'm a PHP nooblet, I'd like someone to give me some assistance, guidance, or code, that would do what I require. This would have to be run remotely from the Internet.

Answer 1

global $wpdb;
$export_posts = $wpdb->prefix . 'export_posts';
$backupFile = $_GET['targetDir'].'export-gallery.sql';
$dbhost=DB_HOST;
$dbuser=DB_USER;
$dbpass=DB_PASSWORD;
$db=DB_NAME;
$path_to_mysqldump = "D:\xampp_5.6\mysql\bin";
$query= "D:\\xampp_5.6\mysql\bin\mysqldump.exe -u$dbuser -p$dbpass $db $export_posts> $backupFile";
exec($query);
echo $query;

Answer 2

MajorLeo's answer point me in the right direction but it didn't worked for me. I've found this site that follows the same approach and did work.

$dir = "path/to/file/";
$filename = "backup" . date("YmdHis") . ".sql.gz";

$db_host = "host";
$db_username = "username";
$db_password = "password";
$db_database = "database";

$cmd = "mysqldump -h {$db_host} -u {$db_username} --password={$db_password} {$db_database} | gzip > {$dir}{$filename}";
exec($cmd);

header("Content-type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$filename\"");

passthru("cat {$dir}{$filename}");

I hope it helps someone else!

Answer 3

<?php
    $toDay = date('d-m-Y');

    $dbhost =   "localhost";
    $dbuser =   "YOUR DB USER";
    $dbpass =   "USER PASSWORD";
    $dbname =   "DB NAME";

    exec("mysqldump --user=$dbuser --password='$dbpass' --host=$dbhost $dbname > /home/....../public_html/".$toDay."_DB.sql");


?>

Answer 4

If you want to create a backup to download it via the browser, you also can do this without using a file.

The php function passthru() will directly redirect the output of mysqldump to the browser. In this example it also will be zipped.

Pro: You don't have to deal with temp files.

Con: Won't work on Windows. May have limits with huge datasets.

<?php

$DBUSER="user";
$DBPASSWD="password";
$DATABASE="user_db";

$filename = "backup-" . date("d-m-Y") . ".sql.gz";
$mime = "application/x-gzip";

header( "Content-Type: " . $mime );
header( 'Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . $filename . '"' );

$cmd = "mysqldump -u $DBUSER --password=$DBPASSWD $DATABASE | gzip --best";   

passthru( $cmd );

exit(0);
?>

Answer 5

Here you can find a comprehensive solution to dump mysql structure and data like in PMA (and without using exec, passthru etc.):

https://github.com/antarasi/MySQL-Dump-with-Foreign-keys

It is fork of dszymczuk project with my enhancements.

The usage is simple

<?php
//MySQL connection parameters
$dbhost = 'localhost';
$dbuser = 'dbuser';
$dbpsw = 'pass';
$dbname = 'dbname';

//Connects to mysql server
$connessione = @mysql_connect($dbhost,$dbuser,$dbpsw);

//Set encoding
mysql_query("SET CHARSET utf8");
mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_general_ci'");

//Includes class
require_once('FKMySQLDump.php');


//Creates a new instance of FKMySQLDump: it exports without compress and base-16 file
$dumper = new FKMySQLDump($dbname,'fk_dump.sql',false,false);

$params = array(
    //'skip_structure' => TRUE,
    //'skip_data' => TRUE,
);

//Make dump
$dumper->doFKDump($params);

?>

works like a charm :-)

Answer 6

Please reffer to the following link which contains a scriptlet that will help you: http://davidwalsh.name/backup-mysql-database-php

Note: This script may contain bugs with NULL data types