Question

I need help executing a php script via CLI. Not sure if this is a Linux or PHP problem.

When I execute /usr/bin/php /var/www/backup.php in Ubuntu I get:

You are not permitted to execute this script

The code in backup.php is:

<?php

// Set default paths
define ("DOCUMENT_ROOT","/var/www");
define ("DATABASE_PATH","/var/lib/mysql/livedb");
define ("BACKUP_PATH","/var/sitebackups");

$filename_suffix = "_" . date("Ymd_his") .".tar.gz";

if ($_GET['key']!="xxx") {
        die ("You are not permitted to execute this script");
}

//change working directory to backup directory
if (!chdir(BACKUP_PATH)) {
        die ("Failed to change to working directory.");
}

// Tar the web files
$cmd = "tar -cvzf " . BACKUP_PATH. "/webfiles" . $filename_suffix . " " .DOCUMENT_ROOT ;
echo $cmd . "<br/>";
//echo shell_exec($cmd);

// Create link to web files backup

// Tar the mysql DB
$cmd = "tar -cvzf " . BACKUP_PATH. "/dbfiles" . $filename_suffix . " " .DATABASE_PATH ;
echo $cmd . "<br/>";
//echo shell_exec($cmd);

// Move to backup folder

// Create link to DB backups

// Email backup confirmation

?>

I even tried to add this is a scheduled task via crontab and I still get the same error in the logs.

Please help!

Answer 1

I can’t see a problem at all. The code is working correct.

The variable $_GET['key'] isn’t set in CLI and is always not the same as ‘xxx’, so the code stops by printing out your string.

Delete the if-clause and the code will do the rest, if permissions on files and folders are set correct.