MySQL Backup for lazy sysadmins

MySQL Backup for lazy sysadmins (also known as mysqlblasy) is an open source, cross-platform and completely free command-line script implemented in Perl and designed from the offset to be used for automatic backups of MySQL databases.

Features of MySQL Backup for lazy sysadmins

The software uses the ‘mysqldump’ command for dumping MySQL databases to the filesystem, and it’s capable of rotating backups automatically to prevent the backup disk from getting full.

The project provides a syslog facility on GNU/Linux systems, allows for optimized tables using UNIX style output (errors to stderr and loglevels), compresses dumps in the TAR, ZIP, BZ2 or GZ compression formats, and requires no root privileges.

Another interesting feature is the ability to dump single or multiple databases from a database instance. The program is designed for automation and very secure, as it features no shell on external commands.

Getting started with MySQL Backup for lazy sysadmins

To use the MySQL Backup for lazy sysadmins script on your GNU/Linux computer, simply download the latest version of the program from Softoware or via its official website (see link at the end of the article).

Save the archive somewhere on your computer, unpack it, drop the mysqlblasy.pl file on your Home directory and create a config file under $HOME/.mysqlblasyrc. Run the ‘./mysqlblasy --help’ command for more details on how to use it.

Under the hood, supported OSes and requirements

Looking under the hood of MySQL Backup for lazy sysadmins, we can notice that the program is written entirely in the Perl programming language. It requires the Perl 5.6.1 or later and MySQL 3 or higher to work properly.

Supported operating systems include Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. The program has been successfully deployed on computers supporting either of the 64-bit and 32-bit instruction set architectures.

What is new in this release:

• Moved code to https://github.com/infothrill/perl-mysqlblasy

What is new in version 0.8:

• Optional table optimization after dumping was added.
• Archive::ZIP is not required when running on Win32.

Requirements:

• Perl
• MySQL Community Edition