PostgreSQL Backup Script

#!/bin/sh

DB_NAME=mydatabase
DATE=`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`
DIR=/backups/pgsql
PG_DUMP=/usr/bin/pg_dump

$PG_DUMP $DB_NAME | bzip2 > $DIR/$DB_NAME_$DATE.sql.bz2

find $DIR -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \;

This script is a simple shell script for automating the backup of a PostgreSQL database. It's written to be run in a Unix-like environment (such as Linux or macOS). Let me break it down for you:

#!/bin/sh: This is the shebang line. It tells the system that this script should be run with /bin/sh, which is the standard command interpreter for shell scripts on Unix-like systems.

DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S): This line sets a variable named DATE. The date command is used to generate a timestamp in the format of YearMonthDayHourMinuteSecond (e.g., 20240114235959 for January 14, 2024, at 23:59:59). This timestamp is used to uniquely name each backup file.

DIR=/backups/pgsql: Sets the DIR variable to the directory where the backups will be stored, /backups/pgsql in this case.

PG_DUMP=/usr/bin/pg_dump: This line sets the PG_DUMP variable to the path of the pg_dump utility. pg_dump is a utility provided by PostgreSQL to dump (backup) the contents of a database.

$PG_DUMP mydatabase | bzip2 > $DIR/mydatabase_$DATE.sql.bz2: This line is the core of the script. It uses pg_dump to dump the database named mydatabase. The output of pg_dump is piped (|) into bzip2, which compresses the data. The compressed backup is then redirected (>) to a file in the specified directory with the database name, the date, and the .sql.bz2 extension. For example, the backup file could be named mydatabase_20240114235959.sql.bz2.

find $DIR -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \;: This line cleans up old backups. It uses the find command to look for files in the backup directory ($DIR) that were modified more than 7 days ago (-mtime +7). For each of these files, the rm command is executed (-exec rm {} \;) to delete the file. This ensures that the backup directory doesn't get filled up with old backups.

This small shell script provides a simple way to regularly backup a PostgreSQL database and clean up old backups to conserve storage space. The script could be scheduled to run at regular intervals using a cron job or a similar scheduling utility.

postgresql (3) database (2) backup (1)