#!/usr/bin/perl
# dump_mysql.pl Copyright Peter R. Wood, 2006
# Website: http://prwdot.org/
# You may use this code as long as my name remains
# attached to it or any derivative works using it. 

use strict;

my $home     = "your home directory";
my $logfile  = "name of the logfile";
my $dump_dir = "directory to keep the backup files";

die "ERROR: Please specify the database you wish to back up" unless $ARGV[0];

my $db_prefix   = 'prefix for your databases, if you have one';
my $db          = $db_prefix . $ARGV[0];
my $db_host     = 'localhost';
my $db_user     = 'username to access your database';
my $db_password = 'your database password';

my $dump_command = <<DUMP;
/usr/bin/mysqldump --add-drop-table -h $db_host -u $db_user -p$db_password $db > $dump_dir/$db.dump
DUMP

my $dump_output = `$dump_command`;

open( LOG, ">>$logfile" ) || die "Couldn't open $logfile for appending: $!\n";
print LOG "=" x 80 . "\n";
print LOG scalar( localtime( time() ) ) . "\n";
print LOG "Dumping database $db...\n";
print LOG $dump_output;
print LOG "Dump complete.\n";
print LOG scalar( localtime( time() ) ) . "\n";
close(LOG);