5 Common uses for WP CLI to save time

WP-CLI gives you direct access to WordPress capabilities using the command line. This is helpful during regular development and also makes server automation possible. This is great for easily changing user credentials, deactivating plugins and more.

Logging into Server

ssh username@ip-address

You might be prompted with some additional questions, depending on server settings, then asked for the password.

Next you will want to get into the public_html directory of your WordPress install.

cd folder/public_html

Getting Users and Changing Credentials

Before changing any credentials you should verify the user ID and confirm that user exist. To view all users use the user list command

wp user list

After confirming the user ID and that the user exists you can now change credentials.

wp user update ID --user_pass=newPassWord

wp user update ID --display_name=John

wp user update ID --role=ROLE_SLUG 

// ROLE SLUGS
// administrator , editor, author, contributor, subscriber 

You can also do it all at once as well

wp user update ID --user_pass=newPassWord --display_name=John

Creating a new user

If you need to create a new user it is nice to be able to just do it via the WP CLI... saves you from having to login to the site.

wp user create bob bob@example.com --role=author

Deleting a user

To delete a user is similar to updating a user, as you use the ID to reference the user... it is also good to reassign any posts/pages to another when deleting.

wp user delete ID --reassign=EXISTING_ID

Disabling a plugin

Before disabling a plugin you want to get a list of all the current plugins.

ls wp-content/plugins

This gives you a list of all the plugin directory names.

To disable a plugin simply use the deactivate command.

wp plugin deactivate plugin-folder-name