Manage WordPress with WP-CLI command line

I often manage WordPress websites through the WP CLI command line interface to save time navigating the web interface, saving time and making it easier to debug in case of errors.

I. Install WP-CLI

WP-CLI is usually pre-installed when you create WordPress through tools like Centminmod, Cyberpanel, Cloudpanel, etc. You can check by going to the WordPress installation directory and typing the command

wp info --allow-rootCode language: Nginx (nginx)

If you don’t see any results, it means that your Server doesn’t have WP-CLI. In this case, install WP-CLI on your server using the following command

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar
php wp-cli.phar --info
chmod +x wp-cli.phar 
sudo mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wpCode language: Nginx (nginx)

If you install WordPress via Docker, you need to add the wpcli declaration to the file. docker-compose.yml similar to below.

  wpcli:
    depends_on:
      - db
      - wordpress
    image: wordpress:cli
    entrypoint: wp
    command: "--info"
    env_file: .env
    volumes:
      - ./wordpress/html:/var/www/htmlCode language: YAML (yaml)

You can refer to the example in the article on how to install WordPress using Caddy .

Below is a summary of commonly used WP CLI commands so that you can find them again in case you forget them.

II. Plugin Management

Show list of all available plugins

wp plugin listCode language: PHP (php)

Show active plugins

wp plugin list --status=activeCode language: PHP (php)

Show plugins with new updates available

wp plugin list | grep "available" | awk '{print $1}' 
wp plugin list | grep "available" | awk '{print $1}' ORS=' ' Code language: Nginx (nginx)

Install, activate, update, deactivate and delete new plugins, for example Advanced Custom Fields

wp plugin install advanced-custom-fields 
wp plugin activate advanced-custom-fields 
wp plugin update advanced-custom-fields 
wp plugin deactivate advanced-custom-fields 
wp plugin delete advanced-custom-fields 
Code language: Nginx (nginx)

Update all plugins

wp plugin update --allCode language: Nginx (nginx)

III. Theme management

Show theme list

wp theme listCode language: PHP (php)

Update theme, for example Kadence

wp theme update kadenceCode language: Nginx (nginx)

IV. Database management

Backup database

wp db exportCode language: JavaScript (javascript)

Restore database

wp db import Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Access the database CLI to type commands

wp db cliCode language: Nginx (nginx)

V. Change website URL

This command is used when you need to create a staging site for the main website, change from domain A to domain B, or vice versa.

wp search-replace 'https://markknow.dev' 'https://markknow.com' --skip-columns=guidCode language: Nginx (nginx)

VI. Using WP-CLI via Docker

In case of using WP-CLI via docker, the commands need to be changed to

docker-compose run --rm wpcli commandCode language: Dockerfile (dockerfile)

Command example

wp plugin listCode language: PHP (php)

should be replaced by

 docker-compose run --rm wpcli wp plugin list --allow-rootCode language: Dockerfile (dockerfile)

This command needs to be executed in the directory containing the file. docker-compose.yml WordPress setup.

There are many other WP-CLI commands, you can refer to them with the following command.

wp --helpCode language: Bash (bash)