Install a Basic WordPress Site with WP-CLI

scottalanmiller

WP-CLI is an open source command line for WordPress. Here we will demonstrate a very basic install of WordPress assuming that we have a working web server and PHP stack with MariaDB or MySQL already installed. And assuming that you have installed WP-CLI and have it in your path as wp.

First change directory into your default web directory:

cd /var/www/html

Now to get you up and running quickly, here is a single line installer to just copy and paste so that you can use it quickly. Below we will break down the parts of it, but if you just want to get up and running, here you go:

wp core download; wp core config --dbname=dbname --dbuser=dbuser --dbpass='mysecret' --dbhost=localhost; wp db create ; wp core install --url=mysite.com --title="My Title" --admin_user="admin" --admin_email="[email protected]"

Now the breakdown:

In my example I am using CentOS, RHEL or Fedora. But the idea is the same regardless. Now we need to download the WordPress files.

wp core download

Once downloaded, we need to make a wp-config.php file, which we can do by copying the wp-config.php.sample file and filling in our credentials for our database server. We need only the server name (normally just localhost) and a username and password that have been set up with access to create databases on our server. You can specify here a dedicated database name (not yet created) or one that is already created and specify an unused prefix OR.... we can do this with WP as well...

wp core config --dbname=databasename --dbuser=databaseuser --dbpass=databasepassword --dbhost=localhost --dbprefix=prfx_
wp db create

This command takes the details in the wp-config.php file and creates the database that we need based on the specifications there. If you are doing this multiple times with a single database, most of these details can simply be copied from another installation.

Once the database is ready, we are free to set up our site:

wp core install --url=mysite.mydomain.com --title="My Cool Site" --admin_user="admin" --admin_email="[email protected]"

That's it. Your site should be up and running assuming that your infrastructure is ready for it. A very simplistic example, but just three commands from blank LAMP (or similar server) to working WordPress install.

BRRABill

One thing to note, that I missed.

When you run the command to make the admin account, the command will return a password to you. You may want to write that down.

If not, you can reset it as follows with WP-CLI:

wp user update admin --user_pass=Duhduhduh1

But this works out really well. Very easy.

Obsolesce

@scottalanmiller said in Install a Basic WordPress Site with WP-CLI:

In my example I am using CentOS, RHEL or Fedora. But the idea is the same regardless. Now we need to download the WordPress files.
wp core download

Do you run this command as root? It gives a warning about that.

black3dynamite

@tim_g said in Install a Basic WordPress Site with WP-CLI:

@scottalanmiller said in Install a Basic WordPress Site with WP-CLI:

In my example I am using CentOS, RHEL or Fedora. But the idea is the same regardless. Now we need to download the WordPress files.
wp core download

Do you run this command as root? It gives a warning about that.

Probably have to run sudo -u apache wp core download.

scottalanmiller

@tim_g said in Install a Basic WordPress Site with WP-CLI:

@scottalanmiller said in Install a Basic WordPress Site with WP-CLI:

In my example I am using CentOS, RHEL or Fedora. But the idea is the same regardless. Now we need to download the WordPress files.
wp core download

Do you run this command as root? It gives a warning about that.

As the Apache user.

NashBrydges

I know that manually installing it I can tell it if I want it to run as a subdomain or a subfolder (blog.domain.com or domain.com/blog). If I want to use the subfolder method, is it as simple as changing this section?

wp core install --url=mysite.com/blog

Alex Sage

@nashbrydges Seem so

https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/core/install/

Obsolesce

@nashbrydges said in Install a Basic WordPress Site with WP-CLI:

I know that manually installing it I can tell it if I want it to run as a subdomain or a subfolder (blog.domain.com or domain.com/blog). If I want to use the subfolder method, is it as simple as changing this section?

wp core install --url=mysite.com/blog

Yes, yoursite.com/path/to/wordpress. You need to anyways or it won't work correctly.

NashBrydges

Now getting a too many redirects error. I entered https://domain.com/blog as a URL.

Obsolesce

@nashbrydges said in Install a Basic WordPress Site with WP-CLI:

Now getting a too many redirects error. I entered https://domain.com/blog as a URL.

Try clearing your browser cache

NashBrydges

It allows me access when I set it up without https in the url. But once in settings, and I change the blog address from http://domain.com/blog to https://domain.com/blog I get the same too many redirects error. Cleared history and cache 3 times and still same issue.

I'm going to blow this install away and recover from backup and will have to install manually.

Still can't figure out why this issue. The root domain works perfectly with Let's Encrypt but as soon as I get to the blog folder it just shits all over itself.

NashBrydges

It's loading but had to allow unsafe script for the blog to load. Gotta go digging around for that now.

Obsolesce

@nashbrydges said in Install a Basic WordPress Site with WP-CLI:

It allows me access when I set it up without https in the url. But once in settings, and I change the blog address from http://domain.com/blog to https://domain.com/blog I get the same too many redirects error. Cleared history and cache 3 times and still same issue.

I'm going to blow this install away and recover from backup and will have to install manually.

Still can't figure out why this issue. The root domain works perfectly with Let's Encrypt but as soon as I get to the blog folder it just shits all over itself.

How did you set up the whole thing? Did you use my guide? It includes the SSL set up.

NashBrydges

@tim_g said in Install a Basic WordPress Site with WP-CLI:

@nashbrydges said in Install a Basic WordPress Site with WP-CLI:

It allows me access when I set it up without https in the url. But once in settings, and I change the blog address from http://domain.com/blog to https://domain.com/blog I get the same too many redirects error. Cleared history and cache 3 times and still same issue.

I'm going to blow this install away and recover from backup and will have to install manually.

Still can't figure out why this issue. The root domain works perfectly with Let's Encrypt but as soon as I get to the blog folder it just shits all over itself.

How did you set up the whole thing? Did you use my guide? It includes the SSL set up.

I used your guide up to the SSL setup. I'm running a website in the root directory and Nginx as a proxy.