WP Copy Remote

Note: This repository was formerly named wp-push-remote.

Bash scripts to push or pull WordPress sites between servers using WP-CLI and rsync. Works on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and higher.

• wp-push-remote.sh — Push a site FROM local TO remote
• wp-pull-remote.sh — Pull a site FROM remote TO local

Features

• 🚀 Persistent Configuration: Configure once with --config, connection settings and per-site options saved automatically
• 🎯 Smart Auto-Detection: URLs and table prefixes detected via WP-CLI
• 📁 Custom Exclusions: Space-delimited exclusion lists via -e flag — saved to conf
• 🔌 Plugin Installation: Install multiple plugins with --install-plugins "plugin1 plugin2" — saved to conf
• 🪝 Post-sync Commands: Run custom commands on the destination after each sync via remote_commands in conf
• 🔄 Database Migration: Automatic export, transfer, import, and search-replace
• 🧹 Optional SQL Sanitizing: Use -f to strip privileged SQL statements before import — saved to conf
• 💾 DB Backup: Optionally back up the destination DB before import with --backup-db — saved to conf
• 🔐 Modern SSH Keys: Ed25519 key generation for better security
• ⚙️ Multiple Modes: Interactive, unattended, files-only, and dry-run modes
• 🔄 Table Prefix Sync: Automatic detection and synchronization of mismatched prefixes

Requirements

• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or higher (both servers)
• WP-CLI installed on both servers
• SSH access to the remote server
• rsync and openssh-client (usually pre-installed)

sudo apt update && sudo apt install openssh-client rsync
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar
chmod +x wp-cli.phar && sudo mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wp

Installation

sudo git clone https://github.com/WPNET/wp-copy-remote.git /opt/wp-copy-remote
cd /opt/wp-copy-remote
sudo chmod 700 wp-push-remote.sh wp-pull-remote.sh install.sh

Install a script to a site user's directory (run as root):

sudo /opt/wp-copy-remote/install.sh
# Interactive prompts will ask:
#   1. Push or pull script?
#   2. Which site? (lists /sites/*/files/ directories)
# Script installed as ~/.local/bin/wp-push-remote (or wp-pull-remote)

Important: Run as the site user, never as root.

Usage

wp-push-remote — Push local site to remote

su - siteuser
cd /sites/yourdomain.com
./.local/bin/wp-push-remote --config    # First time: configure settings
./.local/bin/wp-push-remote              # Push to remote server

wp-pull-remote — Pull remote site to local

su - siteuser
cd /sites/yourdomain.com
./.local/bin/wp-pull-remote --config    # First time: configure settings
./.local/bin/wp-pull-remote              # Pull from remote server

Both scripts use the same options and flags. Configuration is stored separately:

• Push: ~/.wp-push-remote.conf
• Pull: ~/.wp-pull-remote.conf

Command-Line Options

-h, --help                   Show help message
-u, --unattended             Run without prompts
-c, --config                 Configure and save settings (loads existing conf first)
-D, --del-ssh-key            Delete SSH key pairs for remote user
-f, --filter-sql             Strip privileged SQL statements before import  [saved to conf]
-e, --exclude "LIST"         Space-delimited paths to exclude from rsync    [saved to conf]
-p, --install-plugins "LIST" Plugins to install after sync                  [saved to conf]
-n, --dry-run                Simulate without making destructive changes
-v, --version                Show version and exit

--search-replace             Run wp search-replace (default: yes)
--no-search-replace          Skip wp search-replace
--files-only                 Skip all database operations
--no-db-import               Skip database import
--exclude-wpconfig           Exclude wp-config.php (default: yes)
--no-exclude-wpconfig        Include wp-config.php in sync
--disable-wp-debug           Disable WP_DEBUG temporarily
--all-tables-with-prefix     Use --all-tables-with-prefix for search-replace (default: yes)
--no-all-tables-with-prefix  Disable --all-tables-with-prefix for search-replace
--backup-db                  Back up destination DB before importing        [saved to conf]
--log FILE                   Write all output to FILE in addition to terminal

Options marked [saved to conf] are persisted to the conf file and automatically applied on every subsequent run. Requires an existing conf — run --config first to set up connection details. Edit the conf file directly to remove or change them.

Examples

# Configure settings (first time)
./.local/bin/wp-push-remote --config
./.local/bin/wp-pull-remote --config

# Push / pull (uses saved config)
./.local/bin/wp-push-remote
./.local/bin/wp-pull-remote

# Files only (no database)
./.local/bin/wp-push-remote --files-only

# Unattended with exclusions (exclusions saved to conf for future runs)
./.local/bin/wp-pull-remote -u -e "uploads cache .git"

# Install plugins on destination after sync (saved to conf)
./.local/bin/wp-push-remote --install-plugins "woocommerce contact-form-7"

# Enable SQL filtering (saved to conf)
./.local/bin/wp-push-remote -f

# Back up destination DB before import (saved to conf)
./.local/bin/wp-push-remote --backup-db

# Dry run — see what would happen without making changes
./.local/bin/wp-push-remote --dry-run

# Delete SSH key pairs
./.local/bin/wp-push-remote --del-ssh-key

Workflow

Push (local → remote)

1. Load config / SSH key setup
2. Detect local URL and connection test
3. Export database locally
4. Rsync files local → remote
5. On remote: import DB, search-replace (local URL → remote URL), cache flush
6. Run remote_commands if set in conf
7. Cleanup temp files

Pull (remote → local)

1. Load config / SSH key setup
2. Detect local URL and connection test
3. Export database on remote
4. Rsync files remote → local (includes DB export)
5. Locally: import DB, search-replace (remote URL → local URL), cache flush
6. Run remote_commands if set in conf
7. Cleanup temp files on remote and local

Configuration

Run --config once to save connection settings. Existing conf values are shown as defaults, so re-running --config only requires updating what has changed.

Fields prompted:

Field	Example
Local/Source path prefix	/sites/example.com/
Local/Source webroot	files
Remote IP/hostname	192.168.1.100
Remote SSH user	siteuser
Remote path prefix	/sites/example.com/
Remote webroot	files

URLs, table prefixes, and file paths are auto-detected via WP-CLI.

Persistent Options

The following options are saved to the conf file and applied on every run:

Conf key	Set via	Description
conf_excludes	-e / --exclude	Extra rsync exclusions beyond the built-in defaults
plugins_to_install	-p / --install-plugins	Plugins to install on destination after sync
backup_db	--backup-db	Back up destination DB before importing
filter_sql	-f / --filter-sql	Strip privileged SQL statements from dump
remote_commands	conf file only	Commands to run on destination after each sync

remote_commands (conf file only)

remote_commands is set directly in the conf file — it is not a CLI flag. Use it for commands that should run on the destination server after every push/pull, such as rebuilding plugin caches.

Commands are newline-delimited (one per line). Use single quotes within commands to avoid shell expansion issues:

# ~/.wp-push-remote.conf
remote_commands="wp cache flush
wp eval 'my_plugin_rebuild_cache();'"

Common examples:

# Rebuild WPCode snippet cache (fixes broken PHP shortcodes after push)
remote_commands="wp eval 'wpcode()->cache->cache_all_loaded_snippets();'"

# Rebuild Elementor CSS cache (fixes styling issues after push)
remote_commands="wp elementor flush-css"

# Multiple commands (one per line)
remote_commands="wp cache flush
wp elementor flush-css
wp eval 'wpcode()->cache->cache_all_loaded_snippets();'"

Default Exclusions

.git, .maintenance, wp-content/cache, wp-content/uploads/wp-migrate-db, /wp-content/updraft, wp-config.php

SSH Key Management

SSH keys are generated automatically on first run (Ed25519). To delete them:

./.local/bin/wp-push-remote --del-ssh-key

Important: Also manually remove the public key from the remote server's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.

Troubleshooting

SSH password prompt: Add the public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the remote server.

WP-CLI not found: Install from wp-cli.org.

MySQL privilege errors (ERROR 1227): Run with -f to strip privileged statements from the dump.

Database import fails: Check DB credentials in wp-config.php and available disk space.

Plugin shortcodes/features broken after push: Some plugins cache state in the database. Use remote_commands to rebuild the cache after each push. Example for WPCode:

remote_commands="wp eval 'wpcode()->cache->cache_all_loaded_snippets();'"

Security

• wp-config.php excluded by default to protect remote/local credentials
• Ed25519 SSH keys for better security
• Temporary SQL files cleaned up after import
• Table prefix sync requires confirmation before resetting database

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This script is provided as-is for use in WordPress deployments.

Author

gb@wpnet.nz