Backing up MySQL databases

You also need to create the tar directory under your $BACKUPPATH directory, for example /var/www/backup/tar

I keep my old backups, so I remove the rm command, and add the date to each tar file by changing the tar and gzip commands to be:

tar -cvf $BACKUPPATH/tar/${bbdd[$index]}.`date +%F`.tar ${bbdd[$index]}/* > /dev/null
gzip $BACKUPPATH/tar/${bbdd[$index]}.`date +%F`.tar > /dev/null

It’s also important to note that the mysqlhotcopy line has two double dashes in it, before password and allowold. WordPress is converting those into an em dash, which renders badly. Same problem with the quotes in the bbdd and let commands.