Essential WPCli Commands

How to install

Use curl to download the WP-CLI phar file:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar

Check if the file is executable:

php wp-cli.phar --info

Move the downloaded file to a directory in your system’s PATH (e.g., /usr/local/bin/):

sudo mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wp

Make it executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/wp

test install

wp --info

Create child theme

wp scaffold child-theme sample-theme --parent_theme=twentysixteen

Content Commands

wp post create --post_type=page --post_title="Your Page Title" --post_content="Your page content goes here." --post_status=publish

Database commands

Delete database

This command drops the database. No name is required as wpcli looks in the wp-config file to find the database name. You can run this command from anywhere within your Wordpress file structure.

wp db drop

Export database

Will export an SQL file to your Wordpress root directory.

wp db export

Export database into custom named file

The default will be to use the database name

wp db export custom_filename.sql

Import database

Ensure to provide the correct path to the file.

wp db import wordpress_dbase.sql

Search and Replace database

Find all occurences of a string in a database and replace it with another value. This can be really useful when you are migrating a site to a different domain.

wp search-replace 'http://example.test' 'http://example.com'

Plugin commands

List plugins

wp plugin list

Delete plugin

wp plugin delete akismet

Install Plugin

Here we install the query monitor plugin

wp plugin install query-monitor

Update All Plugins

wp plugin update --all

Update WP Core

wp core update

Flush the Permalinks

wp rewrite flush

User commands

Create a wp user account

wp user create bob bob@example.com --role=author

Get the ID of the user

This command is important for running other user related functions that take the user id as a requirement.

wp user list

Update the password of the user

Once you have the user ID then you can update the users password

wp user update 7 --user_pass=new_pass

Generate posts

Generate dummy / demo content

wp post generate --count=10 --post_type=page --post_date=1999-01-04

Regenerate Image sizes

As you may already know Wordpress supports custom image sizes. Now when you add a new custom image size your site, you will need to regenerate the images so that your new custom image files in the new size exists.

wp media regenerate --image_size=large

Older Gist

Create User - Password Generated

wp user create your_username ex@example.com.au --role=administrator

Gravity Forms Create Field - Requires Addon

wp gf field create 1 type label

Create Form in Gravity Forms

wp gf form create 'My Form Title' 'Description Here'

WP Admin

Open /wp-admin/ in a browser.

WP Cache

Adds, removes, fetches, and flushes the WP Object Cache object.

Available Commands

• wp cap: Adds, removes, and lists capabilities of a user role.
• wp cli: Review current WP-CLI info, check for updates, or see defined aliases.
• wp comment: Creates, updates, deletes, and moderates comments.
• wp config: Generates and reads the wp-config.php file.
• wp core: Downloads, installs, updates, and manages a WordPress installation.
• wp cron: Tests, runs, and deletes WP-Cron events; manages WP-Cron schedules.
• wp db: Performs basic database operations using credentials stored in wp-config.php.
• wp search-replace:
  • <old>: A string to search for within the database.
  • <new>: Replace instances of the first string with this new string.
  • [<table>…]: List of database tables to restrict the replacement to. Wildcards are supported, e.g. wp\__options or wp_post_.
  • [--dry-run]: Run the entire search/replace operation and show report, but don’t save changes to the database.
• wp dist-archive: Create a distribution archive based on a project’s .distignore file.
• wp embed: Inspects oEmbed providers, clears embed cache, and more.
• wp eval: Executes arbitrary PHP code.
• wp eval-file: Loads and executes a PHP file.
• wp export: Exports WordPress content to a WXR file.
• wp find: Find WordPress installations on the filesystem.
• wp help: Get help on WP-CLI, or on a specific command.
• wp import: Imports content from a given WXR file.
• wp language: Installs, activates, and manages language packs.
• wp media: Imports files as attachments, regenerates thumbnails, or lists registered image sizes.
• wp menu: Lists, creates, assigns, and deletes the active theme’s navigation menus.
• wp network: Perform network-wide operations.
• wp option: Retrieves and sets site options, including plugin and WordPress settings.
• wp package: Lists, installs, and removes WP-CLI packages.
• wp plugin:
  • Manages plugins, including installs, activations, and updates.
  • Examples:

    wp plugin delete akismet
    wp plugin install query-monitor
    

• wp post: Manages posts, content, and meta.
• wp post-type: Retrieves details on the site’s registered post types.
• wp profile:
• wp rewrite: Lists or flushes the site’s rewrite rules, updates the permalink structure.
• wp role: Manages user roles, including creating new roles and resetting to defaults.
• wp scaffold: Generates code for post types, taxonomies, plugins, child themes, etc.
• wp search-replace: Searches/replaces strings in the database.
• wp server: Launches PHP’s built-in web server for a specific WordPress installation.
• wp shell: Opens an interactive PHP console for running and testing PHP code.
• wp sidebar: Lists registered sidebars.
• wp site:
  • Creates, deletes, empties, moderates, and lists one or more sites on a multisite installation.
• wp super-admin:
  • Lists, adds, or removes super admin users on a multisite installation.
• wp taxonomy: Retrieves information about registered taxonomies.
• wp term: Manages taxonomy terms and term meta, with create, delete, and list commands.
• wp theme:
  • Manages themes, including installs, activations, and updates.
• wp transient:
  • Adds, gets, and deletes entries in the WordPress Transient Cache.
• wp user:
  • Manages users, along with their roles, capabilities, and meta.
  • Example:

wp user create instructor email@yoursite.com.au --role=instructor

• wp widget: Manages widgets, including adding and moving them within sidebars.

setup wordpress

wp core download

Troubleshooting

If you are getting some errors when trying to update plugins it could be due to permissions. Some plugins also require a valid license to update.

To fix a permission related issue. See the link below to reset the Wordpress file and directory permissions.

see wp file permissions commands

Switch to non root user

If you have installed WpCLI on a webserver. Before running any wpcli commands you probably want to switch to a non-root so that you are not flagged with warnings when running these commands as root.

Switch to non-root user

su non-root

Install WordPress with WpCLI

WpCLI Plays an important role when you installing WordPress on a barebones VPS. As there is no control panel there is no user interface for creating and installing the database. WpCLI steps into to help out and makes installation of Wordpress on a barebones VPS efficient and easy.

Install WordPress website on a VPS using WPCli

Official Documentation

WPCLI installed

Update wordpress with cron job

WP-CLI (WordPress Command Line Interface) is a powerful tool for managing WordPress installations from the command line. To set up a cron job on your Ubuntu server to keep your WordPress websites up to date using WP-CLI, follow these steps:

1. Install WP-CLI

If you haven’t already, install WP-CLI on your Ubuntu server by running the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y wp-cli

This will install WP-CLI and its dependencies.

2. Create a script to update WordPress

Create a new file (e.g., update_wordpress.sh) with the following contents:

#!/bin/bash

# Define the path to your WordPress installation(s)
WP_PATHS="/var/www/website1 /var/www/website2 /var/www/website3"

# Loop through each WordPress installation and update it
for WP_PATH in $WP_PATHS; do
  cd $WP_PATH
  wp core update
  wp plugin update --all
  wp theme update --all
done

Replace /var/www/website1, /var/www/website2, etc. with the actual paths to your WordPress installations.

Make the script executable by running:

chmod +x update_wordpress.sh

3. Add a cron job

Open the crontab editor for the root user (since WP-CLI requires root privileges):

sudo crontab -e

Add the following line to schedule the script to run daily at 2:00 AM:

0 2 * * * /path/to/update_wordpress.sh

Replace /path/to/ with the actual path where you saved the update_wordpress.sh script.

Save and exit the editor. The cron job will now run automatically every day at 2:00 AM to update your WordPress installations using WP-CLI.

Tips and Variations

• If you want to update only specific plugins or themes, modify the wp plugin update and wp theme update commands accordingly.
• To receive email notifications when updates are applied,
• add the following line before the done statement in the script: echo "WordPress updates applied" | mail -s "WordPress Updates" your_email@example.com
• If you have multiple WordPress installations with different versions (e.g., some using PHP 7.2 and others using PHP 7.4), make sure to update the WP_PATHS variable accordingly, and consider creating separate scripts or cron jobs for each version.
• Consider adding a log file to track updates and errors by modifying the script to append output to a file (e.g., >> /var/log/wordpress_updates.log)

Run the bash script manually

bash /var/www/update_wordpress.sh