If you are using any of the backup scripts on my site, it is useful to know a few things to get them up and running, and to keep existing things on your server sane.

These scripts can be used together; they are friendly to each other and do not mess with one another. It is completely safe (and recommended) to have the same backup directory for all of the scripts.

How to use the scripts:

You can copy the code directly from the site and paste into a plain text editor. Make sure the editor saves files as plain text; i.e. it does no word processing. Save the file and upload it to your server (unless you're working on the server so you won't have to transfer anything), preferably in the root of your home directory (not a big deal, though). It is a good idea to save each of the scripts with similar names like backupmysql.sh, backupldap.sh, etc.

File permissions:
Once the file is on the server, make it executable. If you have ssh or other command-line access, type chmod +x [filename]. If you are using FTP, CHMOD the scripts to make them executable.

Testing the script:
If you have ssh, you can test the script by going to the script's directory and typing ./backupmysql.sh (or whatever the filename is). If the script works with no problems, you can now move forward and create a cron job.

Creating a cron job:
If you are using cPanel, the 'simple' cron creation method is simple enough to run without explanation. Just type the full script's path in the field and select the desired timings.

If you are using the 'advanced' method in cPanel or are entering the cron job using ssh, entering something like 0 0 * ~/backupmysql.sh should do the trick (will run the script every midnight). To edit your cron jobs in ssh, type crontab -e, which will open an editor with your current cron jobs listed. Update that file and save.

If you get the error bad interpreter: No such file or directory, then you probably saved the file in Windows and transferred it over to the server. Windows, Linux, and Macs save files differently, so the shell script can't run unless it is Linux-ready. cPanel is pretty good with this. If you have access to cPanel, all you have to do is open the script in the filemanager and click 'save'. cPanel will save the file in the correct format. If you don't have cPanel access, you can open the file in a text editor in ssh and save it.