Backup MySQL DB

db_backup.php

// location of your temp directory
$tmpDir = "/var/www/_back/";

$dbs = array(
    array(
        'user' => 'the_db_user',
        'password' => 'the_db_password',
        'name' => 'the_db_name'
    )
);

// the zip file emailed to you will have this prefixed
$prefix = "db_";

// Create the database backup file
foreach($dbs as $db) {
    // sql file to be created upon backup
    $sqlFile = $tmpDir.$prefix.$db['name'].'_'.date('Y_m_d').".sql";
    
    $backupFilename = $prefix.$db['name'].'_'.date('Y_m_d').".tgz";
    
    // zip sql file to be created upon backup
    $backupFile = $tmpDir.$backupFilename;

    $createBackup = "mysqldump -u ".$db['user']." --password=".$db['password']." ".$db['name']." > ".$sqlFile;

    $createZip = "tar cvzf $backupFile $sqlFile";

    exec($createBackup);
    exec($createZip);

    // Delete the temporary files
    // if you wish, just uncomment below codes
    // unlink($sqlFile);
    // unlink($backupFile);
}