Cheat Sheet – Get Going Quickly

Jump: Quick start | Site management | List plugins / themes / updates | Update / restore | Install/delete/(de)activate | Version control | WordPress core | Maintenance mode | Debugging | Hacking

N.B. When a site and/or plugin/theme is specified, the command-line format is always in this order:
wordshell >

Quick Start – Setting Up / Install

Install:

chmod +x wordshell
mv wordshell /usr/local/sbin
wordshell --checkrequirements

Start using, by adding a new site:

wordshell --addsite

Site management

These commands manage WordShell’s list of sites to work with (they do not do anything to the WordPress site itself.

wordshell --addsite
wordshell mysite --delsite
wordshell mysite --disablesite
wordshell mysite --enablesite
wordshell --listsites
wordshell --listsites --showpass

List plugins/themes/core and updates

wordshell mysite --list

wordshell mysite --listupdates

wordshell mysite --listonlythirdparty

wordshell mysite --list --everything

In the above, you can, replace mysite with a comma-separated list of sites, or with all to operate on all configured sites. e.g.

wordshell site1,site2 akismet --listupdates

wordshell all akismet --listupdates

wordshell --listupdates

Or add –theme to work with themes, not plugins, or –core to work with core

wordshell mysite,site2 --listupdates --theme

Or add –everything to work with plugins, themes and WordPress core all at once:

wordshell mysite --listupdates --everything

Update/restore plugins and themes

In the below, replace mysite with all to operate on all configured sites. You can also use all as a plugin name.

Also, note that –update is optional and can be omitted; it is shown below only for clarity.

wordshell mysite akismet --update --latest

wordshell mysite all --update --latest

More advanced:

# Use a zip you have downloaded yourself
wordshell mysite mytheme --new=/home/me/mytheme-1.0.0.zip --update --theme

# Specify a particular version
wordshell mysite akismet --new=2.5.4 --donotrequirenew

# Roll back to a previous version
wordshell mysite contact-form-7 --rollback='2 days ago'

# restores from present backup:
wordshell mysite contact-form-7 --restore

# Only update active plugins:
wordshell mysite all --active --update --latest

Install / activate / de-install / de-activate plugins/themes

wordshell mysite akismet --install

wordshell mysite akismet --activate

wordshell mysite akismet --install --activate

wordshell mysite akismet --delete

wordshell mysite mytheme --theme --activate

More advanced:

# Install and activate a zip you have downloaded yourself
wordshell mysite myplugin --new=/home/me/myplugin-1.0.0.zip --install --activate

# Delete all inactive themes
wordshell mysite all --inactive --delete --theme

# Delete akismet from every site where it is unused
wordshell all akismet --inactive --delete

You do not need to specify –deactivate when you –delete ; that is automatically assumed. You can add –skipdeactivate to skip that step.

Version and Change Control

# Roll back to a previously installed version of a plugin:
wordshell mysite contact-form-7 --rollback='2 days ago'

# List all available roll-back versions
wordshell mysite --listrollbacks
wordshell mysite contact-form-7 --listrollbacks

# Show and confirm what changes will happen before I update
wordshell mysite akismet --showchanges --confirm/

# Show which themes are modified
wordshell mysite all --checkmod --theme

# View modifications to a plugin
wordshell mysite akismet --checkmod=view

Working with WordPress core

# Find version of WordPress on a site
wordshell mysite --list --core

# Find all sites which need updating
wordshell all --listupdates --core

# Upgrade core
wordshell mysite --core --latest

# Downgrade to a specific old version
wordshell mysite --core --new=3.2.1

Working with the WordPress database

# Dump out the database
wordshell mysite --remotecli=dbdump

# Search and replace
wordshell mysite --database --searchandreplace=http://localhost/test^http://live.example.com

Maintenance mode

When successful, commands to change maintenance state give no output.

wordshell mysite --maintenancestate
wordshell all --maintenancestate
wordshell mysite --entermaintenance
wordshell mysite --exitmaintenance

Debugging the remote site

# Get a shell or FTP login
wordshell mysite --login

# Show the remote site’s PHP info
wordshell mysite --phpversion
wordshell mysite --phpinfo

# Use WordShell’s internal interface to poke around
wordshell mysite --remotecli

Hacking inside WordShell

cd ~/.wordshell ; ls
wordshell --debug
wordshell --debug --debug
wordshell --help