Skip to content

index.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
80 lines (49 loc) · 3.96 KB

index.md

File metadata and controls

80 lines (49 loc) · 3.96 KB
layout doc
title Quick start
description Where to begin after you've installed WP-CLI for the first time.
category Guides
quick_links
Introduction
Common Terms
Example Usage

Congratulations! You've installed WP-CLI for the first time, and are ready to level-up your use of WordPress. This page contains a brief introduction to WP-CLI with some example usage.

Introduction

WP-CLI is a command line interface for WordPress. The project's goal is to offer a complete alternative to the WordPress admin; for any action you might want to perform in the WordPress admin, there should be an equivalent WP-CLI command.

For instance, because you can install a plugin from the WordPress admin, you can also install a plugin with WP-CLI:

$ wp plugin install akismet
Installing Akismet (3.1.8)
Downloading install package from https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/akismet.3.1.8.zip...
Unpacking the package...
Installing the plugin...
Plugin installed successfully.

And, because you can also activate plugins from the WordPress admin, you can activate a plugin with WP-CLI:

$ wp plugin activate akismet
Success: Plugin 'akismet' activated.

One key difference between using the WordPress admin and WP-CLI: performing any action takes many fewer clicks. As you become more familiar with the command line, you'll notice performing a given task with WP-CLI is generally much faster than performing the same task through the WordPress admin. Investing time upfront into learning how to better use WP-CLI pays dividends in the long term.

Common Terms

Throughout your usage of WP-CLI, you'll hear certain terms used over and over again.

For instance, a command is an atomic unit of WP-CLI functionality. wp plugin install is one such command, as is wp plugin activate. Commands represent a name (e.g. 'plugin install') and a callback, and are registered with WP_CLI::add_command() (doc).

The synopsis defines which positional and associative arguments a command accepts. Let's take a look at the synopsis for wp plugin install:

$ wp plugin install
usage: wp plugin install <plugin|zip|url>... [--version=<version>] [--force] [--activate] [--activate-network]

In this example, <plugin|zip|url>... is the accepted positional argument. In fact, wp plugin install accepts the same positional argument (the slug, ZIP, or URL of a plugin to install) multiple times. [--version=<version>] is one of the accepted associative arguments. It's used to denote the version of the plugin to install. Notice, too, the square brackets around the argument definition; square brackets mean the argument is optional.

WP-CLI also has a series of global arguments which work with all commands. For instance, including --debug means your command execution will display all PHP errors, and add extra verbosity to the WP-CLI bootstrap process.

Example Usage

Ready to dive in? Here are some examples of common WP-CLI commands:

Download latest [en_US] version of WordPress into the current folder

wp core download

If you have WordPress already installed in the current folder:

wp core download --force

Create WXR export files from site in a multisite install to current directory

wp export --url=sub.domain.com

Import WXR file from current directory into a specific site in a multisite install, create authors and skip image resize

wp import domain.wordpress.2014-01-01.xml --authors=create --skip="image_resize" --url=sub.domain.com

Regenerate all thumbnails for a specific site in a multisite install

wp media regenerate --url=sub.domain.com --yes

Delete all pages

wp post list --post_type=page --field=ID | xargs wp post delete

and for a specific site in a multisite install:

WP='wp --url=sub.domain.com'
$WP post list --post_type=page --field=ID | xargs $WP post delete