Config Edit

WP-CLIWP-CLI WP-CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. The project page is http://wp-cli.org/ https://make.wordpress.org/cli/ has a series of global parameters (e.g. --path=<path> and --user=<user>) which work with all commands. They are called global parameters because they affect how WP-CLI interacts with WordPress, and have the same behavior across all commands.

# `--user=<user>` sets request to a specific WordPress user
$ wp --user=wpcli eval 'echo wp_get_current_user()->user_email;'
wpcli@example.com

For repeated usage, WP-CLI can also read options from a YAML configuration file (e.g. wp-cli.yml). WP-CLI automatically discovers configuration files on the filesystem based on rules defined below. These configuration files enable specifying default values for both global parameters and subcommand-specific arguments.

# WordPress develop includes a `wp-cli.yml` to enable easy use of WP-CLI
$ pwd
/srv/www/wordpress-develop.dev
$ cat wp-cli.yml
path: src/

Arguments are interpreted following an order of precedence, from highest priority to lowest:

  1. Command-line arguments.
  2. wp-cli.local.yml file inside the current working directory (or upwards).
  3. wp-cli.yml file inside the current working directory (or upwards).
  4. ~/.wp-cli/config.yml file (path can be changed by setting the WP_CLI_CONFIG_PATH environment variable).
  5. WP-CLI defaults.

Global parameters

The table below lists the available arguments (specified on the command-line) and options (specified in the configuration file).

Description Argument Option
Path to the WordPress files.

Default value: null
--path=<path> path: <path>
Perform operation against a remote server over SSHSSH Secure SHell - a protocol for securely connecting to a remote system in addition to or in place of a password..

Default value: null
--ssh=[<user>@]<host>[:<port>][<path>] ssh: [<user>@]<host>[:<port>][<path>]
Perform operation against a remote WordPress install over HTTPHTTP HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands..

Default value: null
--http=<http> http: <http>
Pretend request came from given URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org. In multisiteMultisite Multisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network., this argument is how the target site is specified.

Default value: null
--url=<url> url: <url>
Set the WordPress user.

Default value: null
--user=<id|login|email> user: <id|login|email>
Skip loading all or some plugins. Note: mu-plugins are still loaded.

Default value: ""
--skip-plugins[=<plugin>] skip-plugins: <list>
Skip loading all or some themes.

Default value: ""
--skip-themes[=<theme>] skip-themes: <list>
Skip loading all installed packages.

Default value: false
--skip-packages skip-packages: <bool>
Load PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. file before running the command (may be used more than once).

Default value: []
--require=<path> require: <path>
Execute PHP code before running the command (may be used more than once).

Default value: []
--exec=<php-code> exec: <php-code>
Load WordPress in a given context.

Default value: auto
--context[=<context>] context: <context>
(Sub)commands to disable.

Default value: []
Not available as a flag disabled_commands: <list>
Whether to colorize the output.

Default value: "auto"
--[no-]color color: <bool>
Show all PHP errors; add verbosity to WP-CLI bootstrap.

Default value: false
--debug[=<group>] debug: <group>
Prompt the user to enter values for all command arguments, or a subset specified as comma-separated values.

Default value: false
--prompt[=<assoc>] Not available as an option
Suppress informational messages.

Default value: false
--quiet quiet: <bool>
List of ApacheApache Apache is the most widely used web server software. Developed and maintained by Apache Software Foundation. Apache is an Open Source software available for free. Modules that are to be reported as loaded.

Default value: []
Not available as a flag apache_modules: <list>

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Config files

WP-CLI can automatically discover and read options from a few configuration file types (when present):

  1. wp-cli.local.yml file inside the current working directory (or upwards).
  2. wp-cli.yml file inside the current working directory (or upwards).
  3. ~/.wp-cli/config.yml file (path can be changed by setting the WP_CLI_CONFIG_PATH environment variable).

Besides the global parameters described above, configuration files can also contain defaults for any subcommand, as well as aliases to one or more WordPress installs.

Here’s an annotated example wp-cli.yml file:

# Global parameter defaults
path: wp-core
url: http://example.com
user: admin
color: false
disabled_commands:
  - db drop
  - plugin install
require:
  - path-to/command.php

# Subcommand defaults (e.g. `wp config create`)
config create:
    dbuser: root
    dbpass: 
    extra-php: |
        define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
        define( 'WP_POST_REVISIONS', 50 );

# Aliases to other WordPress installs (e.g. `wp @staging rewrite flush`)
# An alias can include 'user', 'url', 'path', 'ssh', or 'http'
@staging:
    ssh: wpcli@staging.wp-cli.org
    user: wpcli
    path: /srv/www/staging.wp-cli.org
@production:
    ssh: wpcli@wp-cli.org:2222
    user: wpcli
    path: /srv/www/wp-cli.org

# Aliases can reference other aliases to create alias groups
# Alias groups can be nested
@both:
 - @staging
 - @production

# '_' is a special value denoting configuration options for this wp-cli.yml
_:
    # Merge subcommand defaults from the upstream config.yml, instead of overriding
    merge: true
    # Inherit configuration from an arbitrary YAML file
    inherit: prod.yml

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Remote (SSH) configuration

Using the ssh option, WP-CLI can be configured to run on a remote system rather than the current system. Along with the SSH protocol, WP-CLI also supports connecting to Docker containers (including docker-compose) and Vagrant VMs.

The connection type can be passed via the scheme of the --ssh parameter or ssh option.

Supported types are:

  • docker:[<user>@]<container_id> – Runs WP-CLI in a running Docker container via docker exec [--user <user>] <container_id> ...
  • docker-compose:[<user>@]<container_id> – Runs WP-CLI in a running Docker container via docker-compose exec [--user <user>] <container_id> ...
  • docker-compose-run:[<user>@]<container_id> – Runs WP-CLI in a new Docker container via docker-compose run [--user <user>] <container_id> ...
  • vagrant – Runs WP-CLI in a running Vagrant VM via vagrant ssh ...
  • [<user>@]<host>[:<port>] (ssh) – Runs WP-CLI on a remote machine through an SSH connection via ssh [-p <port>] [<user>@]<host> ...

All connection types support an optional path suffix to specify a directory to cd to before running WP-CLI; path is a full system path starting with either / or ~. (If WP_CLI_SSH_PRE_CMD is specified, cd is run after this pre-command.)

The SSH connection type also supports two advanced connection configuration options, which must be specified via an alias in the YAML configuration:

  • proxyjump – Specifies a jumpbox connection string, which is passed to ssh -J
  • key – Specifies the key (identify file) to use, which is passed to ssh -i

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Context configuration

In WP-CLI v2.6.0, a new global flag --context=<context> was added which allows users to select the WordPress context in which WP-CLI is supposed to execute its command(s).

One of the main goals is to allow WP-CLI to run updates on premium plugins and themes without requiring any special setup. From our initial testing, this allows a large range of popular premium extensions to just work™ with WP-CLI in terms of their update procedures.

Possible values for this flag:

  • cli: The context which has been the default before introduction of this flag. This is something in-between a frontend and an admin request, to get around some of the quirks of WordPress when running on the console.
  • admin: A context that simulates running a command as if it would be executed in the administration backend. This is meant to be used to get around issues with plugins that limit functionality behind an is_admin() check.
  • auto: Switches between cli and admin depending on which command is being used. Currently, all wp plugin * and wp theme * commands use admin, while all other commands use cli.
  • frontend: [WIP] This does nothing yet.

By default, the --context flag was set to cli in the initial release (v2.6.0). In WP-CLI v2.7.0 and later versions, the default was changed to auto. This gradual deployment allowed hosters and site owners to run tests on v2.6.0 by manually setting the context before the default behavior was changed.

If you are still using WP-CLI v2.6.0 but you want to use the default of --context=auto, you can do so by adding the necessary context: auto line to your global wp-cli.yml configuration file. Feel free to check the documentation on WP-CLI configuration files if this is new to you.

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Environment variables

WP-CLI’s behavior can be changed at runtime through the use of environment variables:

  • WP_CLI_CACHE_DIR – Directory to store the WP-CLI file cache. Default is ~/.wp-cli/cache/.
  • WP_CLI_CONFIG_PATH – Path to the global config.yml file. Default is ~/.wp-cli/config.yml.
  • WP_CLI_CUSTOM_SHELL – Allows the user to override the default /bin/bash shell used.
  • WP_CLI_DISABLE_AUTO_CHECK_UPDATE – Disable WP-CLI automatic checks for updates.
  • WP_CLI_PACKAGES_DIR – Directory to store packages installed through WP-CLI’s package management. Default is ~/.wp-cli/packages/.
  • WP_CLI_PHP – PHP binary path to use when overriding the system default (only works for non-Phar installation).
  • WP_CLI_PHP_ARGS – Arguments to pass to the PHP binary when invoking WP-CLI (only works for non-Phar installation).
  • WP_CLI_SSH_PRE_CMD – When using --ssh=<ssh>, perform a command before WP-CLI calls WP-CLI on the remote server.
  • WP_CLI_STRICT_ARGS_MODE – Avoid ambiguity by telling WP-CLI to treat any arguments before the command as global, and after the command as local.
  • WP_CLI_SUPPRESS_GLOBAL_PARAMS – Set to true to skip showing the global parameters at the end of the help screen. This saves screen estate for advanced users.
  • WP_CLI_FORCE_USER_LOGIN – Set to 1 to force the value provided to the --user flag to be interpreted as a login instead of an ID, to get around ambiguous types.

To set an environment variable on demand, simply place the environment variable definition before the WP-CLI command you mean to run.

# Use vim to edit a post
$ EDITOR=vim wp post edit 1

To set the same environment variable value for every shell session, you’ll need to include the environment variable definition in your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc file

# Always use vim to edit a post
export EDITOR=vim

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