18 Nov 2003
Backing up MovableType
p. Continuing on the theme of paranoia, I've been paying serious--and very overdue--attention to backing up my MovableType installation and entries[1]. I've been really bad at remembering to export and backup the entries, and the thought that I could--at any moment--lose weeks of considered (and ill-considered) entries and comments started to really bother me. p. I did a search on the MovableType forums for an automated solution, and came upon "this brilliant solution":http://www.virtualvenus.org/archives/0309/create_an_export_blog.php by "girlie":http://www.thegirliematters.com/ at Virtual Venus. You can read the full story if you follow the link, but it involves setting up a new blog with index files for each blog you want to back up, which writes a text file in the export format. There's a rebuilding script which you can schedule withcron, and I've also set up a cron script running from my own machine to suck the backed-up files off the server and on to my computer using curl--just in case the server bursts into flames, or something. I did say that I was feeling a bit paranoid.
p. Girlie also has a cunning plan "here":http://www.thegirliematters.com/tips/archives/0309/configuration_listing_with_php_and_mysql.php to allow you to view your configuration settings and save them to a file too. Finally, I now have my templates linked to external files (which I'll also back up), so I should be ready for any self-inflicted disaster.
fn1. It must be the time of year, or something. In times gone by, people would have carefully preserved and stored their food at this time of year for the hard, lean season ahead. Perhaps my urge to back up my computer is a modern echo of this folk memory.
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I like the automated backup solution. I've gotten by with just exports whenever I remembered. At the very least, I remembered to make a backup right before I downed my site. I'll have to get this going. I'm starting to really like the things you can do with multiple blogs and Movable Type.by Nathan Ladd @ 19/11/2003 8:12 pm • Permalink
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That girlie is the cat's pajamas!by Jonathan Smith @ 20/11/2003 1:11 am • Permalink
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djn1: I use Transmit, and find the in-place editing very useful. Jonathon: You're not wrong there...5
Hi bsag; having made the switch to blogomania (and having re-established my image blog - diachrony will have to wait till the weekend), I've implement the rebuild.cgi thing from virtualvenus. However, I can't work out how to use cpanel to schedule the rebuild.cgi script to run via a cron job. Could you describe how to do it? I'd hate to lose another blog
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djn1: No problem. I'll put it here rather than emailing it to you in case anyone else would find it useful. p. Go to Cpan and choose the link for cron jobs (near the bottom of the page). You might as well choose the 'standard' button on the next page, as it's a bit easier. To trigger the rebuild script, put the following in the command box: p. ~/public_html/path_to_mt/rebuild.cgi p. I set that job to happen at midnight each day. p. Then I have another job to zip up the backup so that I can easily download it to my own machine to save a copy with the following which runs at 1am every day: p. zip -r ~/public_html/path_to_backup_folder/backup/backup.zip ~/public_html/path_to_backup_folder/backup/exports p. There's a space between those two paths. I also set my email in the box at the top so that I get an email every day confirming that the cron job ran OK. Hope that helps!7
Excellent, thanks. I've set it up. Could I ask one more question? What's the syntax for using curl to grab the zipped file? I know I should be able to work this out but I'd rather ask (and get it right) rather than experiment for days and not have a local backup
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Incidentally, I didn't notice that you'd posted a reply to my question as the comment wasn't included in your full news feed. Perhaps because it's a combined feed it wont add in comments on older entries.9
Thanks, I've set it up.10
p. djn1: Sure. You need to adjust the following with the details of your path and ftp user name and password. It's all on one line. p. curl -o /Users/yourusername/path_to_backup_folder/backup.zip -u user:password ftp://ftp.yourdomain/public_html/path_to/backup.zip p. Don't forget that you'll need to escape any spaces in the local path name (i.e. "My folder" becomes "My folder"). You could do something fancy to name the backups with the date so that they don't overwrite one another, but this should do to get the latest backup every day.11
I did see it - I subscribed to the comment feed for this entry
Incidentally, it seems as though this feed has an error - it's outputting a url that ends in .php rather than .html - i.e. following the link from a newsreader results in a 404 error.
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p. djn1: Oops, yes--I'd forgotten that you wouldn't see the new comment as the feed only includes the last 15 entries. That is a fairly deliberate choice, though. There are a few exceptions (when people find an old entry via Google and leave a comment), but most of the comments on older entries are spam. Come to think of it, you probably won't see this either... I'll get me coat...13
p. djn1: D'oh! I remember thinking when I set up the feed that I'd better make sure I changed the .php to .html, and then I utterly forgot to do it. Insufficient attention to detail around here, I think. It works now.14
Paranoia Strikes Deep - Donnie Darko Long, meaningful posts are always difficult to compose. First, let me say that I tend to identify strongly with movies in which the central character has some sort of schitzophrenic break with reality. Memento was one. So were A Beautiful... -----by Transient Savant @ 05/05/2004 3:05 am • Permalink
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i stumbled on to your site radnomly one day. i really like what you said about updating your computer for the winter. take care em.----- The really useful thing I've found about linking templates to external files (other than being able to back them up easily) is that you can use something like Transmit (http://www.panic.com/transmit/ ) to open the files directly (i.e. on the server rather than locally) with the editor of your choice (e.g. BBEdit) and save the amended file directly back to the server (there was probably a less convoluted way of putting that, but I guess you'll get the idea). It saves a lot of time, particularly when you're making a number of changes to several templates.by djn1 @ 19/11/2003 1:11 am • Permalink