MySQL, change column encoding

I was having a problem when using characters with accents in a web application. After spending some time investigating the issue, I found out that the problem was in the default encoding applied by MySQL in the tables. I solved the issue using the following command to change the encoding of the desired column (I’ll convert the entire DB in the future):

UPDATE [Table] SET [column] = CONVERT(CONVERT(CONVERT([column] USING latin1) USING binary) USING utf8);

Note that It converts the data first from latin1 to binary and then from binary to utf8.

Now the web application is showing the appropriate characters.

MySql Database Backup & E-Mail (2)

Well, now that we have the email script working (at least it Worked for me), let’s create a job using cron to execute it on a regular basis.

First of all, I created a new cron file under /etc/cron.d/ called dbBackup.
The file contains a simple cron expression:

0 20 * * 5 root /etc/init.d/dbBackup &

Basically, this will:

Execute the command /etc/init.d/dbBackup

The execution will be as a background process (&)

The schedule will be every friday at 8:00pm

The user that will execute it will be root.

In this case, /etc/init.d/dbBackup is the script that I posted previously to make a backup of the MySql database.
I’ve just received the first scheduled email an hour ago!

For more info on cron syntax, you can visit this site.