Simple database backup rake task for Rails using mysqldump

gistfile1.rb

namespace :backup do
  desc "Backup database"
  task :db do
    RAILS_ENV = "development" if !defined?(RAILS_ENV)
    app_root = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "..", "..")
    
    settings = YAML.load(File.read(File.join(app_root, "config", "database.yml")))[RAILS_ENV]
    output_file = File.join(app_root, "..", "backup", "#{settings['database']}-#{Time.now.strftime('%Y%M%d')}.sql")
    
    system("/usr/bin/env mysqldump -u #{settings['username']} -p#{settings['password']} #{settings['database']} > #{output_file}")
  end
end

many people will need the host parameter as well

thanks for the rake task though

my updated version

# Simple database backup rake task using mysqldump
namespace :backup do
  desc "Backup database"
  task :db do
    RAILS_ENV = "development" if !defined?(RAILS_ENV)
    app_root = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "..", "..")

    settings = YAML.load(File.read(File.join(app_root, "config", "database.yml")))[RAILS_ENV]
    output_file = File.join(app_root, "..", "backup", "#{settings['database']}-#{Time.now.strftime('%Y%m%d')}.sql")

    system("/usr/bin/env mysqldump -h #{settings['host']} -u #{settings['username']} -p#{settings['password']} #{settings['database']} > #{output_file}")
  end
end

This can be simplified quite a bit, actually, to get the config from rails

namespace :backup do
  desc "backup database"
  task db: :environment do
    settings = Rails.configuration.database_configuration[Rails.env]
    output_file = Rails.root.join('backups', "#{settings['database']}-#{Time.now.strftime('%Y%m%d-%H:%M')}.sql")

    system("/usr/bin/env mysqldump -h #{settings['host']} -u #{settings['username']} -p#{settings['password']} #{settings['database']} > #{output_file}")
  end
end

But there is Command Injection