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Automate PostgreSQL Backups Daily

How to schedule a daily PostgreSQL database backup using cron.

This cron job uses the `pg_dump` utility to create a consistent backup of your PostgreSQL database. The command creates a new file each day using the date command `$(date +%Y%m%d)` to prevent overwriting previous backups. We recommend running this at midnight when traffic is low to minimize performance impact.

Cron Schedule

Every Day at Midnight0 0 * * *
Runs once per day at 00:00 (midnight).
Learn more about Every Day at Midnight

Command to Run

Copy and paste this command into your crontab or automation script

pg_dump -U username dbname > /backups/db_$(date +%Y%m%d).sql
This command will run according to the cron schedule above.

Implementation Examples

Here are code examples for implementing this cron job in different programming languages:
Unix/Linux Crontab
0 0 * * * /path/to/script.sh
Python (with schedule library)
schedule.every().day.at("00:00").do(job)
Node.js (with node-cron)
cron.schedule('0 0 * * *', () => {
  console.log('Running daily at midnight');
});
Go (with robfig/cron)
c.AddFunc("0 0 * * *", func() { fmt.Println("Run daily at midnight") })
GitHub Actions Workflow
- cron: "0 0 * * *"

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