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Updating WPMUDev plugins without php write permissions

I have removed PHP write permissions for additional security and I am updating wordpress and plugins now using wp-cli.

This works fine for normal plugins but now I can’t update the WPMUDev plugins.

Is there any way to update WPMUDev plugins from command line?

Tue, 12 Apr 2016 18:42:45
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  • Nastia
    • Ex Staff

    Hello Mike

    I trust you are well!

    Auto update can be dangerous for your live site. After update there may be a a conflict with another plugin or theme that will crush your site.

    By default in WordPress, auto updates for core files (small releases of WordPress) and security updates for plugins are auto enabled.

    To enable auto update, please locate the following line inside the wp-config.php file:

    define( 'AUTOMATIC_UPDATER_DISABLED', flase );

    And change it to this:

    define( 'AUTOMATIC_UPDATER_DISABLED', true );

    Another solution is to paste this code inside the functions.php file of your theme:

    add_filter( 'auto_update_plugin', '__return_true' );

    You can also find more information here:

    https://codex.wordpress.org/Configuring_Automatic_Background_Updates

    I hope this helps!

    Kind Regards,

    Nastia

  • Mike
    • The Bug Hunter

    Hi,

    I don’t see the connection with what you are saying to my problem. I will try to elaborate.

    Usually to update a WordPress plugin you go into the dashboard and click the link to update. I have tightened up the security on my site so I have not given PHP the permission to write to disk. This makes my site more secure.

    I am using instead something called “WP-CLI” to update wordpress or plugins: http://wp-cli.org/

    In SSH terminal I can do something like “wp plugin update -all” or whatever I want and it uses the WP-CLI software to do the update instead of PHP.

    The problem now is how do I update wpmudev plugins? Your plugins dont update like normal plugins, you have your own updater. PHP doesn’t have permission to write so is there a way for me to update the plugins from the command line in the secure fashion like I do normal plugins, or a similar fashion with equal security?

    (To re-iterate, automatic updates here are totally irrelevant because the servers www-data user that PHP runs under doesn’t have permission to write to file. This is a security precaution so if my site gets hacked a hacker can’t write his own code to the server)

  • Panos
    • SLS

    Hello Mike ,

    I have not any experience with wp-cli more than testing. I think that the command you mention works only for plugind located in WP repo. It won’t be able to connect to our location, but you can download them to your desktop. For files on your desktop I have found for instllation the following command:

    # Install from a local zip file
    
wp plugin install ../my-plugin.zip

    It is possible that this command could replace existing files or could try replacing the “install” command with “update”. Unfortunately currently I haven’t any installation wp-cli, but if you have any troubles with above commands I could try it out to check.

    Kind regards,

    Panos