backup.pl is one of three scripts that is suggested to be set up as a cron job. See WRE installation wiki for details.

The purpose of this wiki is my attempt to document what backup.pl does.

From what I can tell, it's purpose is to backup all webgui/wre related files.

First, it checks to see if backups are enabled. (See wre.conf backups->enabled is 1 or 0)

The location of these files are determined in the wre.conf backups->path.

Second, it backs up the following: (depending on wre.conf backups->items)

1. Backup Files (see wre.conf backups->rotations)
2. Mysql databases (uses wre.conf backups->mysql user- so make sure the user has read-only access)
3. Domains (web roots) directories
4. Webgui directory
5. Wre directory

Third, it runs external scripts (see wre.conf backups->externalScripts)

Fourth, it compresses the backup files.

Fifth, it copies the files to a remote server. (see wre.conf backups->ftp)

You can use wreconsole to configure these action items, or modify the wre.conf file directly.

Also, directories can be excluded by putting them in backup.exclude. Just put in a pattern that should be excluded from backup. These are fed into the exclude-from option from tar.