Support

I'm trying to implement daily backups of the DB using a native CRON Job. I've created a configuration for it - and this configuration works fine if invoked manually. When invoking it using a shell script however i get this output

Starting a new backup with the following parameters:
Profile ID 5
Description "Command-line backup"

Domain :
Step :
Substep :

Domain : init
Step :
Substep :

PHP Fatal error: Class 'JLoader' not found in /var/www/vhosts/t/httpdocs/libraries/joomla/client/ftp.php on line 164

A full site backup works fine using the shell script. There is no post processing specified - so the file is not uploaded somewhere. Experimenting a bit i noticed that it works fine with FTP Layer disabled. The problem appears both in alpha 5 and beta 1. There seems to be the completed sql file in the temporary folder but there is nothing in the output folder. Not even an akeeba.log file is created.

Is this a bug with Akeeba or a problem with my vhost configuration.

Thx in advance, Markus

This one is a question for Nicholas. I'll flag it for his attention.

Sadly i can't install developer release 122 - i get the error
* JInstaller::install: File '/var/www/vhosts/aestomed.at/httpdocs/tmp/install_4bd1d80eea45d/backend/plugins' does not exist.

I realised that all the files where in the installation package, but the folder structure was wrong (some files - especially the plugins - located in a Projects folder). After fixing this manually i was able to install the component. But the DB only backup with FTP Layer enabled still does not work - the output is now

Starting a new backup with the following parameters:
Profile ID 5
Description "Command-line backup"

Domain :
Step :
Substep :

Domain : init
Step :
Substep :

PHP Fatal error: Class 'JError' not found in /var/www/vhosts/aestomed.at/httpdocs/libraries/joomla/client/ftp.php on line 508

As before - backup with FTP Layer disabled is still working as is the full backup (both with ftp layer enabled and disabled)!

The installer was fixed, the JError issue only partly. The class JError is now found but then there is a PHP error in libraries/joomla/error/error.php - line 480. The global $mainframe isn't defined.

But that's just details ... the FTP Error was that the cron job is executed by a different user - therefore creating a file in the tmp folder that is not writeable by the FTP User - and the execution then fails when the file is renamed. I guess it's easy enought to fix by running the job with the ftp user. What I'm wondering - why does the full backup work then? Does it use different file operations?

I figured out the problem - my configuration is so that the backups are created in a folder that is below the path of the ftp user (backups are in var/www/backups and the ftp user only has access in /var/www/vhosts/domainname/httpdocs). Akeeba tries to use the function move in class AEPlatform to copy the files from the temporary folder to the final folder. The first choice there is to use JFile, followed by @rename, followed by JFile:copy, ...
JFile failes because the ftp layer can not handle the path, @rename would work however it is never executed due to the php error ($global mainframe is not defined) that halts the execution of the script.

A fix for the $mainframe issue should get the backup finally working (other than me hacking the code that is) - however I don't know if this is even possible since. Another solution would be to add a configuration parameter whether to try to using the JFile class for moving files or not - or simply use Exception handling for the JFile commands.

I thought creating the mainframe might not be feasible. :( I'm now using a hacked version with the JFile operations removed and i'm happy with that - just have to remember to always do this with future updates. Combination of FTP Layer (which we use for all sites) and no access for FTP user to the path is enought - native ftp_ commands don't play i role I think.

As for rare setup - It's standard Ubuntu Servers with Plesk as a control panel (various versions of both plesk and ubuntu - and apache and php as well). Can't get more common i think. I guess the problem is me insisting to get the files to someplace outside the regular paths (a mounted hd from another server) - but a backup that can be accessed (and deleted) by everbody with the ftp pass is not really a secure backup to me.