svnbak.pl: perl Subversion repository backup script

svnbak.pl executing

What is it?

A Perl cron script that creates and rotates backups of one or more Subversion repositories.

What does it do?

1. Verifies repositories (svnadmin verify)
2. Hot copies -or- dumps repositories (uses svnadmin hotcopy -or- svnadmin dump)
3. Archives all repositories to a single tar file
4. Gzips tar file
5. Backup rotation

Other Features

• Email notifications
• Nice output
• Free

Requirements

Operating System: *nix
Perl (5.8.5 or higher)
Subversion
tar
gzip

Proc::Reliable
MIME::Lite
Math::Round

Configure

svnbak.pl Configuration Section

At the top of svnbak.pl is a "Configuration Section" that you must add specific information to in order for the script to work.

• reposDir: full path to your Subversion repository, or the parent directory of all your repositories.
• destDir: full path to the directory where the backups should be saved. To save backups to a network file system, first mount the file system, then specify the mounted path.
• maxBaks: maximum number of backups to retain. Once this limit is reached, the script will automatically remove the oldest backup based on it's last modified time.
• svnBakMethod: type of Subversion backup to create ('hotcopy' or 'dump').
• tarballName: the name of the backup file. Each backup file will be appended with a 14 digit time stamp to preserve singularity.
• tmpDir: full path to a new temporary directory to store files before tarballing. This directory should not be an existing directory - it will be deleted!
• emailPref: when the admin should receive emails ('always', 'errors', 'none').
• displayTime: display execution time in seconds, per task.

Change Log

0.0.7 - 20100209

• fixed failure of external commands running longer than 60 seconds

0.0.6 - 20091116

• fixed fatal error when backing up a single repository
• destination directory is created if it does not already exist
• changed elapsed time format: 'seconds' -> 's'

0.0.5 - 20090326

• added backup option of dumping repositories via svnadmin dump
• increased error checking
• fixed: some repositories skipped when there was a large number of repositories

0.0.1 - 20090108

• initial release