UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Could someone advise of the code to get a filename to have the date of creation in it?

I've the code to dump an SQL DB to a file, but would like it to have the date it.

Also, what is the code to get cron to execute a PHP (or perl) script at a set time?

Thanks,
Ed Ludlow

For building a name with a datestamp, you can refer to what I have tried, quoted below, in the past in my auto build script. Just use the date command to formulate a date string:

Code:

TODAY=`date +%Y%m%d`

This creates a string like '20040602', which you can attach to the end of a fixed filename to create the final filename, like

Code:

mysql_$TODAY.sql

If you need to construct the date string in PHP, please consult the PHP manual.

As for invoking a PHP script from the command line, it should be as easy as something like

php script.php
perl script.pl

Just place this at the end of the cron line in place of the command to be executed.

THanks for the reply. I've made the today variable in the way you say, but when it makes the backup file, it simply returns the file name as "backup_forum-date + %d-%m-%Y.sql"!!

What's going wrong?

Thanks,
Ed

In the code snippit that cgkihong posted, he is using back quotes( `). Be sure you are too! The back quote is the key to the left of the number 1 key on a standard keyboard.

You can also rewrite his code TODAY=`date +%Y%m%d` as follows (assuming Korn Shell is used):
TODAY=$(date +%Y%m%d)

OK. Still having problems

So the first line of my crontab is:

TODAY=$(date +%d%m%Y)

and the filenamr part of the cron command is:

backup$TODAY.sql

So what is wrong?

That returns the filename: backup$(date +%d%m%Y).sql

Thanks,
Ed

Works for me in ksh. Are you sure you are using ksh? If not, as google mentioned do:

Code:

TODAY=`date +%Y%m%d`

It's also good practice when using a variable without spaces next to the next character to enclose in curly brackets. So your cron code would look like:

Code:

backup${TODAY}.sql

It's now returning

backup{`date +%d%m%Y`}.sql

as the filename!!!!!

I'm a newbie to Unix, so I hope I'm write in saying the declaration of the variable should go on the first line of the file that opens when you type "crontab -e"???

How do I find out if this is ksh or whatever?

Thanks,
Ed