Overview
WordPress Command Line Interface (wp-cli ) is a command-line WordPress tool installed on all DreamHost servers. wp-cli allows you to run WordPress commands from your Shell terminal to manage your WordPress site without the need to log in to the WordPress dashboard.
You will need to log in to your server via SSH to use wp-cli. View the following articles for information on how to create a Shell user and log into your server.
After you're logged in to your server, make sure you’re in your website’s directory. This is where you'll run all commands in this article.
General
These are a few general commands to get you started.
View all wp-cli commands
[server]$ wp
A list of all available commands displays.
Using --help to view command information
To get more information on a specific command, run the --help option.
[server]$ wp plugin --help
This prints a list of available subcommands. For example:
SUBCOMMANDS
activate Activates one or more plugins.
deactivate Deactivates one or more plugins.
delete Deletes plugin files without deactivating or uninstalling.
get Gets details about an installed plugin.
install Installs one or more plugins.
is-active Checks if a given plugin is active.
is-installed Checks if a given plugin is installed.
list Gets a list of plugins.
path Gets the path to a plugin or to the plugin directory.
search Searches the WordPress.org plugin directory.
status Reveals the status of one or all plugins.
toggle Toggles a plugin's activation state.
uninstall Uninstalls one or more plugins.
update Updates one or more plugins.
verify-checksums Verifies plugin files against WordPress.org's checksums.
You can then add one of these subcommands to the main command to perform an action. Here is how you’d install a plugin named hello-dolly:
[server]$ wp plugin install hello-dolly Installing Hello Dolly (1.6) Downloading install package from https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/hello-dolly.1.6.zip... Unpacking the package... Installing the plugin... Plugin installed successfully.
wp cli version
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
|
View the wp-cli version |
[server]$ wp cli version |
|
Check for updates |
[server]$ wp cli check-update |
|
Update wp-cli |
[server]$ wp cli update |
Top commands
These commands are the most commonly used.
Plugins
Obtaining the correct name of the plugin
The name you use when entering the PLUGIN_NAME must be the name from the plugin site's web page. For example, if you wanted to install W3 Total Cache you'd visit this page:
You can see it ends with w3-total-cache. This is the plugin name you would enter in the commands below.
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
|
View installed plugins |
[server]$ wp plugin list |
|
Install a plugin |
[server]$ wp plugin install PLUGIN_NAME |
|
Activate a plugin |
[server]$ wp plugin activate PLUGIN_NAME |
|
Deactivate a plugin |
[server]$ wp plugin deactivate PLUGIN_NAME
[server]$ wp plugin toggle PLUGIN_NAME |
Themes
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
|
View installed themes |
[server]$ wp theme list |
|
Install a theme |
[server]$ wp theme install THEME_NAME |
|
Activate a different theme |
[server]$ wp theme activate THEME_NAME |
|
Update a theme |
[server]$ wp theme update THEME_NAME |
Updating WordPress
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| View the current WordPress version |
[server]$ wp core version |
| Check for WordPress version updates |
[server]$ wp core check-update |
| Update WordPress to a newer version |
[server]$ wp core update |
|
Force download all core files.This forces the core WordPress files to be re-downloaded into your current directory and overwrite any core files that already exist. |
[server]$ wp core download --force |
Users
Creating users
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| View a list of all current users |
[server]$ wp user list |
|
Create a new username while assigning its email and role. A new password is printed to the terminal after the user is created. |
[server]$ wp user create newusername admin@example.com --role=administrator |
Changing a password
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| Run wp user list to obtain a user's ID#. Use that user ID# to update their password. This example is changing a user with an ID# of 3. You would then need to inform the user of their password change. |
[server]$ wp user update 3 --user_pass=NEW_PASSWORD |
Deleting a user
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| Run wp user list to obtain the ID# of the user you wish to delete and the user you wish to reassign its posts. You'll need to to reassign any posts to another user so they are not permanently deleted. This example deletes a user with an ID# of 13 and reassigns their posts to user 7. |
[server]$ wp user delete 13 --reassign=7 |
Troubleshooting
Cache
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| Flush your site's cache |
[server]$ wp cache flush |
| Clear the wp-cli cache |
[server]$ wp cli cache clear |
Database
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| Check the status of the database |
[server]$ wp db check |
| Optimize the database |
[server]$ wp db optimize |
| Repair the database |
[server]$ wp db repair |
| Search for text in the database. This searches for the word hello |
[server]$ wp db search hello |
| Upgrade the database version |
[server]$ wp core update-db |
Permalinks
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| Flush permalinks. This is the same as re-saving them in the dashboard. |
[server]$ wp rewrite flush |
Custom changes
Updating the home and siteurl
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| View the home and siteurl |
[server]$ wp option list | grep -E "^(siteurl|home)" |
| Update the home url |
[server]$ wp option update home https://example.com |
| Update the siteurl |
[server]$ wp option update siteurl https://example.com |
Importing and exporting a WXR file
You can use the import and export commands to manage your site data with a WXR file. View the following article for details.
Search and Replace
Search and replace text in your database. Make sure to use the --dry-run flag the first time to see what will change.
[server]$ wp search-replace http://example.com https://example.com/blog --dry-run
A list of fields that will be updated displays in your terminal. If you'd like to update all output displayed, run the command again without the --dry-run flag.
[server]$ wp search-replace http://example.com https://example.com/blog
wp-config.php
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| View all settings in your wp-config.php file |
[server]$ wp config list |
| Update a setting in your wp-config.php file. This updates the DB_HOST value. |
[server]$ wp config set DB_HOST mysql.example.com |
Updating the PHP version wp-cli uses
- View the current version of PHP and its location by running the following command:
[server]$ wp cli info OS: Linux 4.14.117-grsec-grsec+ #1 SMP Fri May 10 17:15:47 PDT 2019 x86_64 Shell: /bin/bash PHP binary: /usr/local/php74/bin/php PHP version: 7.4.15 php.ini used: /etc/php74/php.ini WP-CLI root dir: /usr/local/wp WP-CLI vendor dir: /usr/local/wp/vendor WP_CLI phar path: WP-CLI packages dir: WP-CLI global config: /usr/local/wp/config.yml WP-CLI project config: WP-CLI version: 2.4.0
- To change the version of PHP wp-cli uses, add the following line to your .bash_profile. Change the version as needed. This example uses PHP 8.0.
export WP_CLI_PHP=/usr/local/php80/bin/php wp
- Update the .bash_profile:
[server]$ . ~/.bash_profile
- Finally, check to confirm wp-cli is using this new version.
[server]$ wp cli info OS: Linux 4.14.117-grsec-grsec+ #1 SMP Fri May 10 17:15:47 PDT 2019 x86_64 Shell: /bin/bash PHP binary: /usr/local/php80/bin/php PHP version: 8.0.2 php.ini used: /etc/php80/php.ini MySQL binary: /usr/bin/mysql MySQL version: mysql Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.7.33, for Linux (x86_64) using EditLine wrapper SQL modes: WP-CLI root dir: /usr/local/wp WP-CLI vendor dir: /usr/local/wp/vendor WP_CLI phar path: WP-CLI packages dir: WP-CLI global config: /usr/local/wp/config.yml WP-CLI project config: WP-CLI version: 2.5.0-alpha
See also
- wp-cli.org – Official WP CLI website
- wp-cli commands
- How to log into your WordPress site
- WordPress overview
