Take the backup of PostgreSQL database using php

[crazycoder]

I am trying to take the backup of PostgreSQL database using php. I have written the below code to run a batch file which has the command to take the backup. I am using Wampserver for development and the below coed works perfectly. But the problem is that it is not working on the server which is Windows Server 2008 R2. Please help.

 

putenv("PGPASSWORD=postgres");
system("cmd /c D:\wamp\www\pentium\protected\data\backup\cron.bat");

 

 

Below is the content of cron.bat

 

pg_dump -i -U "postgres" -F c -b -v -f "D:\wamp\www\pentium\protected/data/backup/pentium.backup" "pentium"

[seandisanti]

Is it generating an error? is anything going into the event log? There's also the issue of your forward slashes in the path you've listed

[crazycoder]

There is no error. If I use a retun variable the it is having a value of '1';

 

system("cmd /c D:\wamp\www\pentium\protected\data\backup\cron.bat",$return_var);

echo $return_var;

 

 

I have tried escaping the slashes, but was of no use.

[seandisanti]

pg_dump -i -U "postgres" -F c -b -v -f "D:\wamp\www\pentium\protected/data/backup/pentium.backup" "pentium"

Your operating system may not like how you use backslashes through the word protected, and then switch it up to forward slashes. 

[crazycoder]

 

pg_dump -i -U "postgres" -F c -b -v -f "D:\wamp\www\pentium\protected/data/backup/pentium.backup" "pentium"

 

Seems there is no error here because if I double click to run the cron.bat file then the backup file is generated. Now I have tried changing the path to forward slashes in system() function,but it is not working.

[seandisanti]

Windows path is typically backslashes

[crazycoder]

Is there any other way I can run the pg_dump command using php. I have tried with exec() but that also was not working.

[seandisanti]

It's typically inadvisable to have your php executing external programs when it's avoidable. For regular maintenance tasks it's usually a better alternative to use a cron job, or a scheduled task in windows.

[crazycoder]

If I execute the PHP file through command line then it successfully executes and the back up file is generated. Problem is when I access through browser.

[seandisanti]

Then it sounds like a permission issue, like your apache user may not have write access where you're trying to put the backup. Again I'd like to point out that regular maintenance tasks like backups are typically delegated to cron jobs or scheduled tasks, which would not typically require browser interaction,

[crazycoder]

Finally I wrote the command in php and executed the php file using windows task scheduler.

$path = Yii::app()->basePath . '/data/backup/';
$file=$path."pentium.backup";
unlink($file);

putenv("PGPASSWORD=postgres");
$dumpcmd = array("pg_dump", "-i", "-U", escapeshellarg("postgres"), "-F", "c", "-b", "-v", "-f", escapeshellarg($file), escapeshellarg("pentium"));
exec( join(' ', $dumpcmd), $cmdout, $cmdresult );
putenv("PGPASSWORD");