Using a .php file to generate a MySQL dump
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
You can use the exec() function to execute an external command.
Note: between shell_exec() and exec(), I would choose the second one, which doesn't return the output to the PHP script -- no need for the PHP script to get the whole SQL dump as a string : you only need it written to a file, and this can be done by the command itself.
That external command will :
- be a call to
mysqldump, with the right parameters, - and redirect the output to a file.
For example :
mysqldump --user=... --password=... --host=... DB_NAME > /path/to/output/file.sql
Which means your PHP code would look like this :
exec('mysqldump --user=... --password=... --host=... DB_NAME > /path/to/output/file.sql');
Of course, up to you to use the right connection information, replacing the ... with those.