From the course: WordPress: WP-CLI

What is WP-CLI? - WordPress Tutorial

From the course: WordPress: WP-CLI

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What is WP-CLI?

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- [Joe] Most of what we do on a computer is done through what's called a graphical user interface, or a GUI. This allows us to click on icons and menu items in order to execute commands and tell the computer what to do. But those commands can be executed directly, too, through an app called Terminal. When we use commands to directly interact with a computer, it's known as a command line interface, or CLI. Similarly, most of what we do with WordPress is done through the dashboard, but thanks to a program called WP-CLI, we can interact with WordPress, or WP, directly through the command line interface, or CLI. But why would we do that? While it's true that using a GUI, like the dashboard, is seemingly easier, using WP-CLI gives us some advantages. Sometimes it's faster to run a WP-CLI command than to use the GUI. One example is updating all of the themes in WordPress. Instead of clicking Themes and then updating every theme individually, we can write a single WP-CLI command that does the same thing. And because WP-CLI isn't bogged down by the GUI, it can also perform certain tasks more efficiently. I once had to delete millions of spam comments, but the dashboard kept crashing. I was able to do it thanks to WP-CLI. Finally, in WP-CLI you can write scripts on your server to automate certain processes. This could be things like running nightly backups, updating your plugins, or even doing a full WordPress installation. In fact, many hosting companies use WP-CLI to do these tasks and more. WP-CLI is an incredibly powerful and flexible tool and in this course you'll learn how to use it on your own WordPress sites. Hi, I'm Joe Casabona, a front end web developer and educator who's been using WordPress since 2004. So join me in my LinkedIn Learning course, which will show you everything you need to know to start using WP-CLI.

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