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I wrote to my web host to ask whether I could use SSH and bash. Because I explained the situation, she checked and saw that the SYSTEM() function had been disabled on the server. She enabled it and the problem was fixed! Amazing. Thanks to you all for your persistence in helping me think about this problem. You're good!

Hello, Jazzman, I'm not sure I understand your last message. I've changed the permissions to 777 on both the backups and XXX files. It still does not work. Any other thoughts?

Yep. And my memory of SSH and bash is really rusty!

Thanks for the replies, Jazzman and Christian. I did a quick test of the script. The output of the SYSTEM() command is FALSE. So, the error is probably in that line. I have the folders' permissions set to 755. What should the permissions be set to? I've searched the mail folders and found only the emails that my php script sends. I'm on a virtual server, so I don't think I have access to the true root level for the mysql and php logs. (I could be wrong about that, but I didn't find them.) I've checked to see if there were changes in PHP5 that would make it not work. The only possibility I've seen is the MySQL has to be added manually to the configuration command. In my case, '--with-myql=/usr' was included in the configuration command for PHP. It's been years since I've used ssh. I may have to try that approach, since this one is failing.

Oh, that makes it easier! You're right. It is /usr/bin/mysqldump. I've striped most of the code to simplify it. $host = 'XXX'; // database host $dbuser = 'XXX'; // database user name $dbpswd = 'XXX'; // database password $mysqldb = 'XXX'; // name of database $filename_with_path = '/home/XXX/backups/XXX/tst.sql'; echo 'filename with path: ' . $filename_with_path; $command = "/usr/bin/mysqldump --host=$host --user=$dbuser --password=$dbpswd $mysqldb > $filename_with_path"; echo 'command: ' . $command; // IT WORKS OKAY UP UNTIL THIS POINT system ($command, $result); echo 'result: ' . $result; The command prints out to be what I expected with the correct values. I've tried putting single quotes around the password, too, without success. command: /usr/bin/mysqldump --host=localhost --user=XXX --password=XXX XXX Do you see anything suspicious in this code?

Thanks for you help. I've run the whereis mysql command and gotten this response: mysql: /usr/bin/mysql /usr/lib/mysql /usr/local/lib/mysql.sock /usr/include/mysql /usr/share/mysql /usr/share/man/man1/mysql.1.gzth Which of those is the correct path? Would it be one of these? /usr/bin/mysql/mysqldump or /usr/bin/mysqldump I've tried both (and others) without success yet.

Thanks for taking a look. Please let me know if there is more info I can provide you. MySQL server version: 5.5.28-cll PHP version: 5.3.18 Apache version: 2.2.23 Raw MySQL statement: mysqldump --user=$dbuser --password=$dbpswd --host=$host $mysqldb | gzip > $filename_with_path" Description of purpose: This script is used to create a backup of the entire database every night. The script then emails me a message if there is an error. Errors MySQL returns: using Cron job, so no errors are returned, except that I'm receiving the email, which says that the size of the backup is 0. What's wrong: It was working fine on a PHP4 server. I moved it to a new server running PHP5 at the same host. The back up is no longer being created. To help isolate the problem, I've marked the complete script (below) with this: // IT SEEMS TO WORK UNTIL THIS POINT Things I've attempted: I've made sure the backup file path is correct, and tried to add the mysql path (I'm not entirely sure that's correct, but I've tried several options). I've changed to single quotes in many places where double quotes were not needed, I've also tried rewriting the system(mysqldump...) command line. I'm stumped! Complete script: <?php $email_recipient = 'XXX'; $email_sender = 'XXX'; $website = 'XXX'; $host = 'localhost'; // database host // Must CHANGE all of these to use for a different DB $dbuser = 'XXX'; // database user name $dbpswd = 'XXXl'; // database password $mysqldb = 'XXX'; // name of database $db_used_with = 'XXX'; $script_name = 'backupMysql.php'; $file_path = '/home/XXX/backups/dbname/'; // Create the backup file name if ( date(w) == 0 ) // Sunday = 0 { $week = intval (( date(j) + 6 ) / 7 ); // integer_value((numeric_day_of_month + 6) / 7) = week of month: 1-5 $filename_with_path = $file_path . 'backupWeek' . $week . '.sql.gz'; } else { // date("D"): 3-letter day of week (MON, TUE) $filename_with_path = $file_path . 'backup' . date("D") . '.sql.gz'; } // IT SEEMS TO WORK UNTIL THIS POINT if ( file_exists($filename_with_path) ) unlink($filename_with_path); system("mysqldump --user=$dbuser --password=$dbpswd --host=$host $mysqldb | gzip > $filename_with_path", $result); $size = filesize($filename_path); switch ($size) { case ($size>=1048576): $size = round($size/1048576) . ' MB'; break; case ($size>=1024): $size = round($size/1024) . ' KB'; break; default: $size = $size . ' bytes'; break; } // $Result returns the last line of the command output on success (0) or failure (FALSE, usually?). // or send a report weekly on Sundays (w = 0) if (( $result !== 0 ) || ( date(w) == 0 )) { // prepare success or failure/error email notice if ( $result === 0 ) { $result_text = 'SUCCESS'; } else { $result_text = 'ERROR'; } $title = "Database Backup Report: $result_text"; $subject = "$title -- Website: $website -- Database for: $db_used_with -- Database: $mysqldb"; $msg = "$title\n\n\n"; $msg .= 'The database backup for ' . $mysqldb . " has been run.\n\n"; $msg .= "Website: $website\n"; $msg .= 'The return code was: ' . $result . " (typically FALSE on failure, 0 on success).\n"; $msg .= "Script: $script_name\n"; $msg .= 'The file & path is: ' . $filename_with_path . "\n"; $msg .= 'Size of the backup: ' . $size . "\n\n"; $msg .= 'Server time of the backup: ' . date("F d h:ia") . "\n\n"; $msg .= "Sender: $email_sender\n"; $msg .= "Recipient: $email_recipient\n\n"; $msg = wordwrap($msg, 70); mail($email_recipient, $subject, $msg, 'From ' . $email_sender); } ?>