E-Mail Notification After Tar is Complete

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hi there --

I am going to be setting up a script that will run a tar job at a particular time every night. I would like to have an e-mail notification set up to let me know whether or not the job completed successfully. How would I go about doing that? Thanks.

[Jeff_Traigle · Accepted solution]

Just check the return code for the tar command:

tar c /some/path
RC=$?

if [ ${RC} -eq 0 ]
then
echo "tar was successful"
else
echo "tar was unsuccessful. Return code was ${RC}."
fi

[Ivan Krastev]

You can use last exit code - $?
For example :


tar .......

if [ $? ];
then
mail "tar is OK" ...
fi


regards,
ivan

[Jeff_Traigle]

And if you want the email to go to a user other than the one running the script via cron, you can pipe the echo commands above to the mail program:

echo "My message" | mailx -s "tar job status" yourname@company.com

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hi there --

I created a script using the syntax that was mentioned in a previous reply. Here is what it looks like so far:

# This script is designed to run selective nightly backups
# on the Hadron server to the locally attached tape drive
# via the tar utility. Once the tape backup is complete,
# an e-mail notification is sent out to nofify the system
# administrator on the success or failure of the backup.

# Prior to running this script, ensure there is a backup_list.txt
# file located in the /root directory. This file is necessary in
# order for there to be a selective backup job.

# cd /root

# Run the following command in order to complete the selective
# backup of the server.

sh -c 'tar -cf /dev/st0 $(cat /root/backup_list.txt)'

# The following commands determine if the above command was successful,
# and send the appropriate notification via e-mail.

RC=$?

if [${RC} -eq 0 ]
then
echo "Hadron nightly backup was completed successfully" | mailx -s "Hadron Nightly Backups" ahkaplan@partners.org
else
echo "Hadron nightly backup was not successfully completed. The return code was ${RC}." | mailx -s "Hadron Nightly Backups" ahkaplan@partners.org
fi

I have two questions:

1. I am encountering an error with the line if [${RC} -eq 0 ]. The error I get is [0: command not found. I am guessing the syntax is wrong, but I don't know what the correction should be.

2. Earlier in the script I want to check for the presence of a backup_list.txt file in the /root directory. What syntax would I use to check for the file, and if it is not there exit with and error 1 status, and continue if it is there? Thanks.

[Ivan Krastev]

For file checking see this article - http://linuxreviews.org/beginner/bash_GNU_Bourne-Again_SHell_Reference/#toc2


Best way is to use -s (Check if file has size greater than 0)


regards,
ivan

[Jeff_Traigle]

Make sure there's a space between [ and ${RC}.

[Jeff_Traigle]

And to check for the existence of the file:

if [ ! -f /root/backup_list.txt ]
then
echo "No backup list file. Exiting"
exit
fi

[Peter Nikitka]

Hi,

besides the missing space in the test operator: there is no need to wrap the tar command into a sh call:

Change
sh -c 'tar -cf /dev/st0 $(cat /root/backup_list.txt)'
to
tar cf /dev/st0 $(RC=$?

if [ $RC -eq 0 ]
then echo OK-message
else echo FAIL-$RC-message
fi | mailx -s Backup-Msg to_user@addr


The $(<..) can be used as a substitute in ksh/bash/zsh .

mfG Peter

[Andrew Kaplan]

Thanks to all for your help. I have the script completed, and it appears to be working quite well.