system (mysqldump -u -p etc...) --> Not working.

jetta_gt

Ok, the code below seems like it should work... But it doesn't.

<?php
system("mysqldump -urootytooty -pqwerty customerdatabase > dumper.sql");
?>

if I enter

mysqldump -urootytooty -pqwerty customerdatabase > dumper.sql

it works fine, but when I try to do it from PHP with system(), it doesn't do anything...

i did read an obscure post I found on google that mentions that the password and/or username may have to be quoted, like:

<?php
system("mysqldump -u\"rootytooty\" -p\"qwerty\" customerdatabase > dumper.sql");
?>

but i have tried that, and it did not work, permissions should not be an issue, and i can issue other commands through system() without any problems...

Any ideas, I've tried just about every permutation of this code I can think of, to now avail. Would somebody try to get this to work, or at least confirm its failure on their server...

Thanks,

Stephen

P.S. - It's my first post, be gentle!

Quevas

Are you sure you have the permission to write?
If yes,try using exec instead of system...

Weedpacket

Another thing to try would be to drop the "> dumper.sql" from the command and use shell_exec. If that works, the stuff that would have gone to dumper.sql would instead be collected by PHP (and you'd then assign it to a variable).

If that runs, then it's much more likely it is a write-permission thing. See if you can't save the output of the shell_exec() command to a file yourself. (I wouldn't recommend that as a permanent solution, of course, more as a diagnostic test.)

jetta_gt

Is there a system() command I could use to make sure I really did have write permissions. This way I would know for sure... Just so you know, the reason I want to do this is that I'm building a blogging system and want to have an export feature that will let the user dump all their info into a file in case they move servers or just want to have a backup.... MyPHPadmin has a feature like this and I'm trying to emulate it on a VERY basic level...

Thanks.

Weedpacket

Well, the suggestion I gave would have told you whether the problem was write permissions or a problem executing mysqldump; since my suggestion doesn't involve writing any files, write permissions or lack thereof wouldn't be an issue.