WordPress

Choosing WordPress when you create a site runs the whole install: core downloaded, the database created, wp-config.php written, an admin user made. When it finishes you have a working site on real HTTPS.

WP-CLI 2.12.0 and Composer 2.10.2 are bundled, so nothing needs installing separately.

Magic login

One click opens wp-admin as an administrator. No password, no password manager, no admin/admin on twelve local sites.

rex site login myshop.rex
rex site login myshop.rex --print   # print the link instead of opening it

The manager

Everything below is in the app, and mirrored on the CLI as vetted WP-CLI operations. All of it reads the site’s database, so while that engine is stopped the WordPress tab says so — MySQL is stopped — and offers Start all, rather than spinning on Loading plugins… until WP-CLI gives up:

Plugins and themesInstall from wp.org, a zip, a git clone, or a folder on your disk.

MultisiteSubdomain or subdirectory networks, with the certificate to match.

Users, roles and passwords too:

rex wp myshop.rex user list
rex wp myshop.rex user create editor editor@example.com --role=editor
rex wp myshop.rex user set-password admin

Passwords are generated, not typed

user create and set-password generate the password and print it once. It never travels on the command line, so it never lands in your shell history, in ps output, or in a log file.

Everyday operations

rex wp myshop.rex search-replace old.rex new.rex --dry-run
rex wp myshop.rex cache-flush
rex wp myshop.rex cron run
rex wp myshop.rex maintenance on
rex wp myshop.rex core versions
rex wp myshop.rex core switch 6.7.1

search-replace defaults to showing you what it would do. Run it with --dry-run first — it is the operation most likely to be right in intent and wrong in scope.

Checking and repairing core

Sites made by rexenv 0.4.0–0.7.1 can be missing files

Those versions downloaded WordPress as a tarball that PHP read with every file name longer than 100 characters cut short — so the site was created without its long-named core classes and some default-theme fonts and patterns, with no error at the time. The site’s Overview now says so when it happens, for example:

WordPress 7.1: 25 core files with long names are missing, and code that loads them fails — usually because rexenv 0.4.0–0.7.1 cut long file names when it downloaded WordPress.

Repair core files beside it re-downloads that version’s core and puts back only the missing theme files. The database, wp-config.php and your own files in wp-content are not touched, and a theme file is written only where nothing is — never over a file that exists, never through a symlinked folder. rex doctor lists every affected site on its WP core line.

The check compares the docroot with wordpress.org’s file list for the installed version, so it needs the network. Offline, or for a version wordpress.org does not list, the Overview shows nothing and rex doctor reports the site as not checked. The cause is inferred, not proven: a long-named file you deleted by hand reads the same way, and is repaired the same way. A default-theme file is counted only while that theme’s folder is still there.

The site’s WordPress panel has a Core card. Only Update core is also on the CLI; the other two are in the app.

• Verify core checksums compares core files against wordpress.org’s checksums for the installed version and lists modified, missing and foreign files. Finder clutter such as .DS_Store is shown apart, as harmless, with an offer to delete it and verify again.
• Re-install core rewrites core files for the installed version from its no-content build, leaving wp-content, wp-config.php and the database alone.

Anything not covered

The manager is a vetted set of operations rather than an arbitrary WP-CLI passthrough. For anything outside it, the site’s Terminal tab gives you a real shell, already in the docroot, with the site’s own PHP and wp on PATH:

wp plugin list --status=active --format=json
wp db query "SELECT option_name FROM wp_options WHERE autoload='yes'"

Mail

Every message the site sends is caught by Mailpit and none are delivered. That includes the password reset you are about to trigger, which is usually how people discover it.

Distributable zips

wp dist-archive builds a distributable plugin or theme zip from a repository asset, into ~/Downloads. Useful when the thing you are developing locally has to ship as a zip.