WP-CLI

Developers delight! You can now manage your WordPress site right from the command line using WP-CLI. Managing your site directly from the command line is definitely faster than managing it from a web browser. For more information about WP-CLI, you can refer to the WP-CLI Handbook. 👩‍💻

Also, check out An Introduction to WP-CLI by Pascal Birchler.

Default WP-CLI Commands

Since there are a lot of functions that are supported by WP-CLI, there are separate commands to execute each action. But most of them are straight forward. For example, the ‘wp admin’ command opens your admin area in the web browser whereas the ‘wp config’ command generates and reads the wp-config.php file.

Some commands have subcommands which allow you to fine-tune your query.

For example, the ‘wp media’ command allows you to list, create, assign, and delete an active theme’s navigation menu. But to perform each of this action, you need to use different subcommands –

• wp menu to create a new menu
• wp menu delete to delete one or more menus
• wp menu list to get a list of menus

Here is a list of all the default WP-CLI commands – WP-CLI Commands.

Other useful commands

• wp profile command – Quickly identify what’s slowing your WordPress site
• wp doctor command – Diagnose problems within WordPress by running a series of checks for symptoms

Create custom commands in WP-CLI

Apart from the default commands, you can also create your own custom WP-CLI commands. That’s the level of flexibility it offers. Also, there’s no limit to what you can do with WP-CLI when you are managing your website from the command line.

For more information on how to create custom WP-CLI commands, have a look at the Commands Cookbook.

How to export or import DB with WP-CLI

Using WP-CLI’s ‘wp db’ command, you can even export or import your database right from the terminal. Have a look at the below subcommands to read more about them.

• wp db export – Exports the database to a file or to STDOUT.
• wp db import – Imports a database from a file or from STDIN.

Useful links

• An Introduction to WP-CLI
• Learn WP-CLI