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Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

#8926 Command Line backup.php is failing to run

Posted in ‘Akeeba Backup for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Akeeba Backup version
n/a

Latest post by nicholas on Thursday, 14 July 2011 01:52 CDT

MajorFusion
Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Have I searched the forum before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Joomla! version: 1.5.23
PHP version: 5.2.13
MySQL version: 5.0.92-community
Host: Future Hosting Managed VPS
Akeeba Backup version: 3.3.b1

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Please attach your Akeeba Backup log file in order for us to help you with any backup or restoration issue.

Description of my issue: I'm trying to automate my backups using the native CRON script, backup.php. I've done everything I can think of and I'm not having any success. The email that CRON is sending me is saying:

Akeeba Backup CLI 3.3.b1 (2011-06-25)
Copyright (C) 2010-2011 Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Akeeba Backup is Free Software, distributed under the terms of the GNU General
Public License version 3 or, at your option, any later version.
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY as per sections 15 & 16 of the
license. See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html for details.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starting a new backup with the following parameters:
Profile ID 1
Description "Command-line backup"

Configuration variables overriden in the command line:
engine.postproc.s3.accesskey, engine.postproc.s3.secretkey

Current memory usage: 202.66 Kb

Unsetting time limit restrictions.

The script doesn't appear to be running correctly and the Akeeba Log for the BACKEND (no CLI log exists) is saying:

DEBUG |110712 15:48:19|Kettenrad :: Attempting to load from database (backend)
DEBUG |110712 15:48:19| -- Stored Akeeba Factory (backend) not found - hard reset
DEBUG |110712 15:48:19|

My host support is looking into why this might not be working. I've tried using a terminal SSH connection and running the commands from command line and still get the same thing, it's not a CRON issue.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
This sounds like one of two issues:
a. Your PHP build doesn't allow using set_time_limit(), but does so in a way that doesn't allow us to detect it (see lines 292:299 of backup.php), ultimately leading to the script's halt of execution; or
b. PHP doesn't report the correct paths, causing a fatal error when we try to include Akeeba Engine's factory class file.

I would look for the following:

1. Make sure you're using the CLI (not the CGI) version of PHP. In an ssh terminal run
php -c
It should reply something like
PHP 5.3.5 (cli) (built: Jan 13 2011 17:45:50)
If it doesn't read "cli" inside the parentheses, you're using the wrong PHP binary. In this case, please ask your host for the exact location of the PHP CLI binary. If you are given such a path and it still doesn't work, please ping me so that I can send you a script with full debugging turned on so that we can track the issue down.
2. If Alternatively, try the altbackup.php or, if that is not possible, the front-end backup feature. These are our "safe fallback" scheduled backup method, but may not perform very well if you are trying to transfer large archives to a cloud storage provider like Amazon S3.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

MajorFusion
I've checked on the path to the php-cli. When I look at the php information from the SSH connection it says it's the Command Line Interface API somewhere in there. I've tried running the altbackup.php as well, and I'm getting the same results. It would appear that I am running the command line interface version and it's still not working. If you can send me that script with debugging turned on so I might be able to get this working that'd be great. This method of backup automation would be very helpful and I'd like to exhaust all my options. Thanks.

MajorFusion
My host pulled this from a log when trying to run the backup.php script:

[12-Jul-2011 13:00:07] PHP Fatal error: Class 'AEUtilTranslate' not found in /home/crosscom/public_html/administrator/components/com_akeeba/backup.php on line 310
[12-Jul-2011 13:37:01] PHP Fatal error: Class 'AEUtilTranslate' not found in /home/crosscom/public_html/administrator/components/com_akeeba/backup.php on line 310
[12-Jul-2011 16:18:01] PHP Fatal error: Class 'AEUtilTranslate' not found in /home/crosscom/public_html/administrator/components/com_akeeba/backup.php on line 310
[12-Jul-2011 19:08:13] PHP Fatal error: Class 'AEUtilTranslate' not found in /home/crosscom/public_html/administrator/components/com_akeeba/backup.php on line 310

does that help at all?

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
Yes, it does! It is a bug I had fixed in the developer releases, after 3.3.b1 was released. Please download and install the latest developer's release (svn785) and retry the command-line backup. It's the same version I am using on this site. The command-line backup should now work.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

MajorFusion
Yup, that did the trick! Now I'm having trouble getting the -override parameters to move the file to my Amazon S3 drive. I haven't done any troubleshooting with that part yet, but if you know of any reason why that wouldn't be running that would save me some time.

Thanks again!

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
Hi!

I am glad it's back on track right now.

I tested the overrides against the latest dev release just now and they do work. Make sure that the post-processing engine is set to "Upload to Amazon S3" in the Akeeba Backup configuration page. Everything else should work with overrides.

If you still have trouble, please send me a Personal Message with the exact command line you are using with CRON. Most likely you have forgotten something as mundane as a double quote somewhere. If I see the command line, I can figure it out and tell you what you need to do :)

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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