Date in automatic db backup

Hi,

We've been trying to create an automatic database backup with a date attached using Crontab. Using this code (available on the Cron help guide)

0 0 * * 1 mysqldump --defaults-file=$HOME/backups/db/database_name.cnf -u database_name database_name > $HOME/backups/db/database_name-'date +%Y%m%d'.sql 2>> $HOME/backups/db/cron.log

Unfortunately, the output doesnt display the date properly: database_name +%Y%m%d.sql

Does anyone know / see what we're doing wrong here?

Thanks in advance,

Kind regards,

Jochem

crontab

asked Sep 17 '12 at 10:06

comheroes
1●2

One Answer:

oldest newest most voted

In your example, you're using single-quote characters around the date command, eg:

1	'date +%Y%m%d'

What you would be using instead is backticks (grave accents), eg:

1	`date +%Y%m%d`

Hope that helps!

answered Sep 17 '12 at 10:29

seanf ♦♦
5989●1●2●20

Thanks Sean, I'm pretty sure that will work!

(Sep 18 '12 at 02:44) comheroes

Just for completeness, in some shells, it's necessary to escape the % symbols as well; like this:

1	`/bin/date +\%Y\%m\%d`

Hope that helps!

(Sep 18 '12 at 03:23) ryans ♦♦

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Asked: Sep 17 '12 at 10:06

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Last updated: Sep 18 '12 at 03:23

Date in automatic db backup

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