[Resolved] mysqldump creating 0k files

bunner_bob

I'm trying to run mysqldump on a client's site. I seem to have found the correct path to mysqldump - it's generating a file where I tell it to - but the file has a size of zero.

my command is:

$command = "/usr/local/bin/mysqldump --host=hostname --user=username --password=password db > destination_file.sql";

and when I do this:

if (exec($command))
{
echo "success";
} else {
echo "failure";
}

I get "failure". And the file of size zero.

I'm pretty sure I have the right path to mysqldump - I tested it with "is_file()", plus if I change the path I get no result file at all.

Tech support at the hosting company tells me my command appears to look as it should - which isn't much help.

I tried using a deliberate incorrect password and I still get the file of size zero. So maybe my user and password are incorrect, but I am using the "full access" user and password the host gave me when I set up the db, and the same user and pw work for phpMyAdmin (as well as the same hostname).

Is there any way to get a better idea of what's going on - a way to find out what error is happening when I run exec()? Where the process is stalling? I got this to work on a different host, but though I seem to be doing things mostly the same this time, I'm not getting the same results.

csn

system() is supposed to output more than exec(). Also, change error_reporting() to get more error/warning/etc. info.

bunner_bob

Got it working!

I tried using system() and echoing the result code, which was 2. I had no idea what 2 meant, or means. But there it was. Still file size zero.

Then I tried using a different user and password for the database (on my shared host there are three sets - a full-access set, a read/write, and a read only: I'd been using the full access, but i tried the read/write).

I got a result code of "0". Great I thought, even worse. But lo and behold, the dump worked and I got data.

Then I retyped the original, full access user & pw and the dump worked again.

All I can think is that, in copying the user and password from TextEdit (which is formatted text) into BBEdit, somehow something came through screwy. I've been noticing a similar problem when copying passwords and pasting into http access login windows. Hand-typing always works, copy/paste sometimes doesn't.

Anyway, it works now. And I think the result code of "0" means it worked. I'm back to using exec() instead of system(), fwiw.

With a few more gray hairs...

Thanks.