WordPress backup script

While setting up my WordPress site, I was looking for backup solutions in the case where something goes wrong. WordPress offers a lot of plugins which will create and manage database backups but I did not find anything that would take care of the WordPress files themselves.

I know a lot of people hack and change the WordPress files, themes, and plugins to suite their own needs and, in a lot of occasions, a simple click on the “Upgrade” button trashes all the changes that have been made. I needed something that will create a backup of my entire WordPress installations files, database, and all.

So, I wrote a little script which takes care of exactly that. It creates backup files which contain packed versions of the WordPress installation along with a snapshot of the WordPress database. The files are protected by an MD5 sum and contain a timestamp of the time of the backup. The script is a pretty simple Python script. Here is a bit more information from the README file:

WP_BACKUP
=============================
Backup your WordPress installation/site with one script.

This script can be used to perform backup and restores of
a WordPress installation. The script can backup the WP
installation under the webserver Document Root directory,
preserving any modification that might have been made to
the source code. It also can backup the WP database,
preserving any WP content that is already there.

USAGE
==============================
The script has two modes of operation: backup and restore.

With both backup and restore, you can specify where the
backup files are located using the ‘–backupdir’ option. By
default, the script will look in the current directory.

To backup a WordPress instance, use the ‘–backup’ option.
The ‘–backup’ option requires the ‘–wordpress’ option,
which lets the script know where the WordPress files are
located.

To add the WordPress database to the backup file, add the
‘–db’ option.

To restore a WordPress instance, use the ‘–restore’ option.
There are two ways to restore a WordPress instance:

1. Let the script the script find the most recent
backup file in the BACKUP_DIR directory

2. Point the script to a specific backup file by
using the ‘–path’ option.

You can also tell the script whether you want it to restore the
MySQL database (dropping any existing database) or whether you
want it to extract the SQL statements to a file. If the
‘–db_to_mysql’ option is used, the script will restore the
database directly to the MySQL server. Otherwise, it will be
writen in the form of a text file containing all necessary SQL
statements in the current directory.

Related Posts

• Using the WordPress backup script
  05 February 2010 3:28 PM | No Comments

  I have had a request from a user of the WordPress backup script to provide more information about the usage of the script. As a result, I have expanded the [...]

  Read More
• WordPress backup script v0.3.2
  24 January 2010 1:36 PM | No Comments

  I have updated and made some changes to the WordPress backup script – the backup files now record the command line used to create the file, I have also added [...]

  Read More
• WordPress Backup v0.3.4
  18 February 2010 9:33 AM | No Comments

  Version 0.3.4 of the WordPress Backup script is ready. This version adds backup/restore over FTP enabling users who are hosting their WordPress site on remote hosts to perform backups and [...]

  Read More
• Version 0.3.6 of the WordPress Backup Script is out
  08 April 2010 11:22 AM | No Comments

  I have put up the next version of the WordPress Backup script. This new version (0.3.6) adds a new header version, which includes a new field – comment. The comment [...]

  Read More
• WP Backup script with encryption support
  25 April 2010 9:30 AM | No Comments

  Version 0.4.0 of the WP Backup script adds several new security features to the script: Password protection – allows the user to add a password to the BackupFile. The password is [...]

  Read More