Shell Scripts for working with MySQL databases in Drupal

The commands

This repository contains a set of shell scripts to work with MySQL databases in Drupal.

The script presuppose a working Linux/OS X/*nix environemnt with a proper shell. It is written with bash in mind. I haven’t tested it in other environments.

1. drupal-db-create creates a drupal database given the database name, username, database password and optionally a hostname. Example:

   drupal-db-create -d my_drupalDB -u duser -p dpass creates a database named my_drupalDB with username duser and password dpass.

   Note that it’s a security loophole to invoke the script like this. The database credentials are stored in your shell history. Anyone with access to it can parse the credentials and connect to the database.

   My suggestion is to create an alias and give there the “usual” drupal user and password (in case you have one – yes I do and yes I’m lazy). Then do a chmod 600 ~/.alias to guarantee that only you can read the aliases file. I’m assuming here that your aliases file is called .alias. If not so change the command accordingly.

2. drupal-db-backup creates a dump of a Drupal database compressed with gzip. For multisites installs it parses each settings.php file in order to get the database connection string.

   This command receives an optional argument that is the base directory of a drupal install. It defaults to the current working directory.

   Example: drupal-db-backup issued in a drupal root directory creates a gzipped tarball of the database with database name, host name and a timestamp of the dumped database in the file name.

   Note that the backup only works with drupal 6.

In loci of a warning

These scripts do the work for me. You shouldn’t use them if you don’t grasp the basics of working with databases in Drupal. The database is a critical component in a Drupal site. Messing with it is not for the faint of heart. You’ve been warned.