Running pg_dump under vcron
Hi there,
I'm having a bit of trouble running a particular script with vcron. The script does a pg_dump of a postresql database, compresses the sql file and copies it to a remote server. I can run the script manually, as in
./scriptname.sh
But if I set the script to be run by vcron, as in
crontab -u root -e
0 16 * * * /path/to/scriptname.sh
Nothing happens.
I have inserted code into the script that rings the hardware bell. When I run the script with vcron, the hardware bell beeps. There's still no pg_dump of my database, however. The pg_dump directive is written as follows:
#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/pg_dump -a -f /home/httpd/htdocs/db_name.sql db_name
Someone told me that the problem has to do with vcron not reading any rc. files to initialize its environment. So I tried sourcing my environment initiation files in the script as follows:
. /etc/profile
. ${HOME}/.profile
This caused the script to stop functioning altogether.
I should note that pg_dump runs for the particular database I want to backup under my user name. If I try to manually run the script as root, I get
pg_dump: [archiver (db)] connection to database "db_name" failed: FATAL: user "root" does not exist
Since cron is run as root, I modified the pg_dump as follows:
/usr/bin/pg_dump -S user -a -f /home/httpd/htdocs/db_name.sql db_name
This didn't help either.
If anybody has any suggestions, please tell me.
Mark
Hello,
/usr/bin/pg_dump -a -f /home/httpd/htdocs/db_name.sql db_name
Try to use a pipe
PG_PATH$/pg_dump [PARAMETERS] > BACKUP_PATH$/dumpfile.sql
HTH,
Daniel
--
postgreSQL on Netware - the red elephant
http://postgresql.dseichter.org
Last update: 26th May 2003
On Sun, 22 Jun 2003 19:57:18 +0200
"Daniel Seichter" <daniel@dseichter.de> wrote:
Hello,
/usr/bin/pg_dump -a -f /home/httpd/htdocs/db_name.sql db_name
Try to use a pipe
PG_PATH$/pg_dump [PARAMETERS] > BACKUP_PATH$/dumpfile.sql
As in
/usr/bin/pg_dump -a herboris > /home/httpd/htdocs/herboris_data.sql
This works manually but not from cron.
Show quoted text
HTH,
Daniel
--
postgreSQL on Netware - the red elephant
http://postgresql.dseichter.org
Last update: 26th May 2003---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster
On Sun, 22 Jun 2003 19:57:18 +0200
"Daniel Seichter" <daniel@dseichter.de> wrote:
Hello,
/usr/bin/pg_dump -a -f /home/httpd/htdocs/db_name.sql db_name
Try to use a pipe
PG_PATH$/pg_dump [PARAMETERS] > BACKUP_PATH$/dumpfile.sql
As in
/usr/bin/pg_dump -a herboris > /home/httpd/htdocs/herboris_data.sql
This works manually but not from cron.
Show quoted text
HTH,
Daniel
--
postgreSQL on Netware - the red elephant
http://postgresql.dseichter.org
Last update: 26th May 2003---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster
On Sun, 22 Jun 2003, MT wrote:
On Sun, 22 Jun 2003 19:57:18 +0200
"Daniel Seichter" <daniel@dseichter.de> wrote:Hello,
/usr/bin/pg_dump -a -f /home/httpd/htdocs/db_name.sql db_name
Try to use a pipe
PG_PATH$/pg_dump [PARAMETERS] > BACKUP_PATH$/dumpfile.sql
As in
/usr/bin/pg_dump -a herboris > /home/httpd/htdocs/herboris_data.sql
This works manually but not from cron.
Having not read the start of this I don't know if you've already posted it but
what is the error message(s) you get?
--
Nigel Andrews
Check your root email. STDERR should be emailed to the cron userthis will
tell you more specifically what is wrong. Also set PGUSER and PGPASSWORD
either in your crontab or script. Make sure pg_dump is in your path.
Keary Suska
Esoteritech, Inc.
"Leveraging Open Source for a better Internet"
On Mon, Jun 23, 2003 at 07:09:43PM -0600, Keary Suska wrote:
Check your root email. STDERR should be emailed to the cron user�this will
tell you more specifically what is wrong. Also set PGUSER and PGPASSWORD
either in your crontab or script. Make sure pg_dump is in your path.
The 7.3 documentation says:
"PGPASSWORD sets the password used if the backend demands
password authentication. This functionality is deprecated
for security reasons; consider migrating to use the
$HOME/.pgpass file."
But the release 7.3 notes say:
"Libpq
Add $HOME/.pgpass to store host/user password combinations (Alvaro Herrera)"
So I'm guessing $HOME/.pgpass does nothing for releases prior to
7.3. I think that means that before 7.2 cron activated stuff is
stuck using the less secure PGPASSWORD method.
I do something like this:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my $dfltSqlScriptDir=qq(/root/.secretscripts); # make sure /root/.secretscripts permission is 700
my $dataOutputDirectory=qq(/home/less_secret_output); # make sure /home/less_secret_output permission is 755
my $script2run = qq($dfltSqlScriptDir/sql_script.sh);
my $shell_script = <<END_OF_SCRIPT;
#!/bin/bash
set -x
export PGPASSWORD=so_secret_that_even_the_owner_cant_know_it
export PGUSER=manifest
/usr/bin/psql -f ${dfltSqlScriptDir}/sql_script.sql >> ${dataOutputDirectory}/output.log 2>&1
END_OF_SCRIPT
open SHELL_FILE, qq(>$script2run) || die qq(cant open output data file $script2run\n);
print SHELL_FILE $shell_script;
close SHELL_FILE || die qq(cant close output data file $script2run\n);
chmod 0700, $script2run;
system($script2run);
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This perl file is what cron executes.
Can anyone suggest a better method? This works, but I'm using a pile driver to set a ten penny nail.
Cheers,
--JPK