RMyBackup was created to solve a simple problem I had, and is hopefully useful to somebody else out there. RMyBackup is a quick way to backup up your mysql databases using mysqldump. It writes a gzipped .sql file using a date/time naming convention to a specified directory.

# gem install rmybackup

The gem will install an rmybackup binary. RMyBackup will read its configuration from ~/.rmybackup.conf or /etc/rmybackup.conf (a sample configuration file is shown below). The .rmybackup.conf file in your home folder will be used if present, next rmybackup will look for /etc/rmybackup. You may also specify an alternate config file on the command line using rmybackup --config-file /alternate/config/file. RMyBackup will backup all databases excluding the databases listed in the skip_databases: [] list in the configuration file.

To generate a sample config file, use the --instal-config option. Default location is /etc/rmybackup.conf, or if we can't write to /etc, ~/.rmybacukp.conf.

# rmybackup --install-config [/config/location]

Rmybackup --edit and --list will edit and list the config file respectively. Edit will use the EDITOR environment variable, or search for vim.

# rmybackup --edit
# rmybackup --list

If use_mycnf_credentials is set to true in the config file, mysqldump will not be passed --user, --password, or --host based on the values in the config file. The script will rely on your [mysqldump] configuration in either /etc/my.cnf or the user's ~/.my.cnf. This is more secure if running on a shared server.

# example my.cnf or ~/.my.cnf

[mysqldump]
user = root
password = roots_password

RMyBackup will also use rsync to sync to URIs listed in the push configuration file option. For example, if you set push: user@server:/remote/path, after the backups were completed, rmybackup would run rsync -rz /local/backup/path/ user@server:/remote/path/. Push can either be a list or URIs or a single URI.

push: [ "username@server:/directory/for/backups", 
        "another_user@another_server:/directory/for/backups" ]

Once everything is set up, simply run the rmybackup command. It will connect to the mysql server using the values in your config file and back up your databases.

# rmybackup

The default location for the configuration file is /etc/rmybackup.conf then ~/.rmybacukp.conf, it's formatted in YAML. You can specify a different config file on the command line using the --config-file (-f) option.

---
backup_dir: /Users/username/mysql_backups/

#Pruning. Remove_after is evaluated first, then only_keep

#Remove after x days
#remove_after: 7

#Only keep x number
#only_keep: 5

#Database
username: root
password: password
host: localhost

#If use_mycnf_credentials is set to true, no --user --password or --host switches will be passed to mysqldump
use_mycnf_credentials: false

#Databases to not back up
skip_databases: [ mysql, test, information_schema ]


#RMyBackup will use Rsync to push to the Rsync compatible URI's listed in push:. This can be a single value or a list.

#push: [ "username@server:/directory/for/backups", 
#        "another_user@another_server:/directory/for/backups" ]


#Command Locations
#You may override where to find the needed system commands
#RMyBackup will try to locate these files if they are not specified here

#mysqldump_command: /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqldump
#gzip_command: /usr/bin/gzip

#Rsync, only needed if you designate pushes
#rsync_command: /usr/bin/rsync