Am 06.03.2012 18:56, schrieb Bowie Bailey: > On 3/4/2012 10:25 PM, Tim Dunphy wrote: >> hello list, >> >> I am attempting to backup a centos 5.4 (x86_64) server running mysql >> with a cron job. Here's how the cron job looks: >> >> [root at cloud:/home/bluethundr/backupdb] #crontab -l >> * 3 * * * /usr/bin/mysqldump jfwiki > >> /home/bluethundr/backupdb/wiki-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql > > You do realize this is going to run 60 times per day, right? (every > minute from 3:00 - 3:59) > > I think you wanted this: > > 0 3 * * * /usr/bin/mysqldump jfwiki > > /home/bluethundr/backupdb/wiki-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql Just for the records: that still won't work. man 5 crontab "The "sixth" field (the rest of the line) specifies the command to be run. The entire command portion of the line, up to a newline or % character, will be executed by /bin/sh or by the shell specified in the SHELL variable of the cronfile. Percent-signs (%) in the command, unless escaped with backslash (\), will be changed into newline characters, and all data after the first % will be sent to the command as" Alexander