Skip to main content
Log inGet free account

Troubleshoot WP-CLI

Review solutions to common troubleshooting scenarios for WP-CLI.

Discuss in Slack
Edit this page on GitHub Report an issue with this doc

This section provides solutions to common WP-CLI troubleshooting scenarios.

Terminus WP-CLI Silent Failure

The silent failure shown below occurs when executing terminus remote:wp commands on environments that use redirect logic without checking to confirm that WordPress is running via the command line:

[notice] Command: $site.$env -- 'wp <command>' [Exit: 0]

Redirects cancel the PHP process before WP-CLI is executed.

Add php_sapi_name() != "cli" as a conditional statement to all redirect logic within wp-config.php to resolve this error:

wp-config.php
// Require HTTPS, www.
if (isset($_ENV['PANTHEON_ENVIRONMENT']) &&
  ($_ENV['PANTHEON_ENVIRONMENT'] === 'live') &&
  // Check if Drupal or WordPress is running via command line
  (php_sapi_name() != "cli")) {
  if ($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] != 'www.yoursite.com' ||
      !isset($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT_HTTPS']) ||
      $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT_HTTPS'] != 'ON' ) {
    header('HTTP/1.0 301 Moved Permanently');
    header('Location: https://www.yoursite.com'. $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
    exit();
  }
}

Request to a Remote API Does Not Return Expected Response

The PHP 5.5 default is & and the PHP 5.3 default is &amp;.

If the API expects & as an argument separator but receives &amp; (for example, when using http_build_query), you can override the default arg_separator.output value by adding the following line to wp-config.php:

wp-config.php
ini_set('arg_separator.output', '&');

Actions and Filters in wp-config.php

Actions or filters that require CLI tools like WP-CLI might fail from wp-config.php, because the functions required are not yet accessible. Put these directives in an MU Plugin to resolve this issue.

Changes to WP-CLI on the Platform (January 15th 2024)

Summary of changes
When using WP-CLI, the order of display for PHP errors and output is changing. This will affect CI/CD scripts that are specifically expecting to read and parse PHP errors as part of the output of a WP-CLI command. This is not a standard configuration and should not affect the majority of scripts.

Before January 15th 2024

When using WP-CLI in a non-live environment, errors are included in the standard output (stdout) part of the response. When used over Terminus, errors are printed before the command output. This example shows the current state with any notice or warning displayed before the command output of wp_.

$ terminus wp <site>.<env> -- config get table_prefix

Notice: A Notice. in phar:///opt/pantheon/wpcli/wp-cli-2.8.1.phar/vendor/wp-cli/config-command/src/Config_Command.php(444) : eval()'d code on line 78

Warning: A Warning. in phar:///opt/pantheon/wpcli/wp-cli-2.8.1.phar/vendor/wp-cli/config-command/src/Config_Command.php(444) : eval()'d code on line 79
wp_
 [notice] Command: <site>.<env> -- wp config get table_prefix [Exit: 0]

This makes it difficult to have a script that relies on capturing the value of a given command (i.e. config get or plugin list), as the errors also end up captured.

$ PREFIX=$(terminus remote:wp <site>.<env> -- config get table_prefix)
 [notice] Command: <site>.<env> -- wp config get table_prefix [Exit: 0]
$ echo $PREFIX

Notice: A Notice. in phar:///opt/pantheon/wpcli/wp-cli-2.8.1.phar/vendor/wp-cli/config-command/src/Config_Command.php(444) : eval()'d code on line 78

Warning: A Warning. in phar:///opt/pantheon/wpcli/wp-cli-2.8.1.phar/vendor/wp-cli/config-command/src/Config_Command.php(444) : eval()'d code on line 79
wp_

Starting January 15th 2024

When running WP-CLI, display_errors will be changed to standard error (stderr) in php.ini, so that errors can be handled separately from the actual command output. Three changes are notable here:

Errors go to stderr

With errors going to stderr, it is now possible to use the output of a WP-CLI command with no extra steps.

$ PREFIX=$(terminus remote:wp <site>.<env> -- config get table_prefix)
Notice: A Notice. in phar:///opt/pantheon/wpcli/wp-cli-2.8.1.phar/vendor/wp-cli/config-command/src/Config_Command.php(444) : eval()'d code on line 78
Warning: A Warning. in phar:///opt/pantheon/wpcli/wp-cli-2.8.1.phar/vendor/wp-cli/config-command/src/Config_Command.php(444) : eval()'d code on line 79
 [notice] Command: <site>.<env> -- wp config get table_prefix [Exit: 0]
$ echo $PREFIX
wp_

PHP errors will display in WP-CLI output

WP-CLI's error handling has been updated to direct PHP errors to stderr during CLI interactions across all environments. This change means that previously hidden notices or warnings from the Live environment are now visible in WP-CLI outputs. However, this update does not affect regular web requests and user interactions with the site, where these errors will continue to remain hidden.

Terminus now displays error messages after the command output

Because of Terminus’ specific handling of stdout and stderr, PHP errors now display after the command output instead of before.

$ terminus remote:wp <site>.<env> -- config get table_prefix
wp_
Notice: A Notice. in phar:///opt/pantheon/wpcli/wp-cli-2.8.1.phar/vendor/wp-cli/config-command/src/Config_Command.php(444) : eval()'d code on line 78
Warning: A Warning. in phar:///opt/pantheon/wpcli/wp-cli-2.8.1.phar/vendor/wp-cli/config-command/src/Config_Command.php(444) : eval()'d code on line 79
 [notice] Command: <site>.<env> -- wp config get table_prefix [Exit: 0]

More Resources