FAQs

If you buy WordShell, then you have the right to use it to manage, backup, etc., unlimited WordPress sites. The websites you manage can be on as many machines as you like), forever. You can use the wordshell.net website to get unlimited support and upgrades (if you purchased an upgrade subscription). If you purchase a subscription package then it is per-machine where you install WordShell (not per-website - those are unlimited).

See here.

We have looked for competitors, and reviewed how they measure up to WordShell, here.

Yes - read details about the support here.

See here.

Go here to download the latest available update. You may also find it helpful to subscribe via RSS to our blog feed, so that you hear about updates as soon as possible. (You will also receive email notifications - if you change your email address, then you should let us know).

Some users spend a while reading the --help output, trying to spot how to non-interactively add new sites to WordShell. It's not there. The correct way to do it is to simply add a new line to WordShell's configuration file (~/.wordshell/rc) - open that file up in a text editor and you'll quickly spot how trivial it is.

WordShell is a bash script, that calls upon several other helper programs (e.g. lftp) to perform its work. If you can hack bash, you can hack WordShell. WordShell also employs a PHP helper program, wp-wordshell-manager.php which by default is downloaded into ~/.wordshell/wp-wordshell-manager.php. If you can hack PHP, then you can also tweak that program to your heart's content. Please do send us any patches you make, and we can share them with others. If your patch is particularly notable, then we will give you a free subscription to future WordShell upgrades. You will need to give us a copyright grant without reservation to include your patch within future versions of WordShell. See also here and here.

WordShell is a bash script. Therefore, you simply copy it onto your machine and make it executable (run the command: chmod +x wordshell). To make it easily reachable, put it in one of your system's standard system folders (e.g. cp wordshell /usr/local/sbin/). Then, you can check that you have the other helper programs that are needed or helpful by running "wordshell --checkrequirements". You should then install anything that was missing. If you intend to work on remote FTP / SFTP / FTPS sites then lftp is not essential, but will make life a LOT faster (http://lftp.yar.ru), especially the first time you synchronise a site.

You need to be running the Bash shell. This is standard on many UNIX-like machines (e.g. most kinds of Linux - Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, Gentoo etc.). If not present, it can be very quickly installed on any BSD (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly), Mac OS X or Windows machine (for Windows, you must install the Cygwin tools). If you are using a smart-phone or tablet then you can of course also log in via SSH to a remote machine that is running Bash. If you are not sure if you have bash, then run the command "bash --version" to find out. After that, run the wordshell script with the --checkrequirements parameter.

When you purchase WordShell, you are purchasing a subscription to an update package. This subscription is per-machine. If you wish to deploy copies of WordShell provided to you under this agreement on multiple machines, then you must purchase a corresponding number of subscriptions. Note that the WordPress websites that you maintain can be on as many different machines as you like.

See here.