exec() question

[mrbuter]

Hi,

 

quick question: are exec() commands vulnerable to timeouts?

 

I'm going to use it to run a mysqldump with a $date command so that it doesn't overwrite (among other things). Then I'm going to make a cron to run it every 24 hours.

 

I tried to append a date to the file using cron jobs and cPanel but it wasn't working...lol.

 

So yeah, my question is if I use exec(), can the dump time out and leave me with a broken backup?

[MadTechie]

Hope this help (background won't be affect by timeouts)

 

Note: If a program is started with this function' date=' in order for it to continue running in the background, the output of the program must be redirected to a file or another output stream. Failing to do so will cause PHP to hang until the execution of the program ends.[/quote']

[trq]

If your going to write a script to execute a mysqldump via cron there is no point in using php at all. exec simply executes shell commands, you may as well write your script using your shell in the first place.

[MadTechie]

WOW.. i don't belive i missed that!

[trq]

Heck, depending on the task at hand you can simply execute mysqldump directly via cron. eg;

 

0 * * * * /usr/bin/mysqldump -u'uname' -p'upass' dbname > ${HOME}/dump.sql