SSH into your server and run search-replace from the CLI

Changing a domain, moving from http to https, or migrating a site means updating URLs everywhere in the database. Do it with raw SQL and you’ll corrupt serialized data. wp search-replace does it right. But first you have to get onto the server.

Connect with SSH

SSH gives you a secure shell on the server. You need a username, a server address and often a port. The syntax is:

ssh youraccount@your-server.com -p 22

# with a specific key:
ssh -i ~/.ssh/my-key youraccount@your-server.com -p 22

Once inside, navigate to the WordPress root (see part one on cd and ls) until you see wp-config.php.

Always dry-run first

Rule number one: never run a real search-replace without first seeing what it would change. The --dry-run flag shows the number of matches without touching anything.

wp search-replace 'http://old.com' 'https://new.com' --dry-run

Does the count look reasonable? Drop --dry-run and run it for real.

wp search-replace 'http://old.com' 'https://new.com'

Why WP-CLI and not SQL

WordPress stores a lot of data serialized — widget and plugin settings, for example. Serialized strings contain their own length. A raw SQL replace changes the text but not the length number, and the data breaks. wp search-replace understands serialized data and recalculates the lengths for you.

Handy flags to know

• --all-tables — include tables without the WordPress prefix (e.g. after a migration).
• --precise — slower but handles tricky serialized data most safely.
• --skip-columns=guid — never touch the GUID column; it shouldn’t change.
• --export=dump.sql — write the result to a file instead of the database.

Take a backup first — always

Before you change the database, export it. One command, and you have a way back:

wp db export backup-before-replace.sql

Dry-run, back up, run. In that order — every time.

— Kepler Cloud

The full WP-CLI series

• Terminal basics: getting around with cd and ls
• SSH into your server and run search-replace
• Update plugins with WP-CLI
• Update your theme with WP-CLI
• The most important WP-CLI commands

Rather not do it yourself? At Kepler, WP-CLI and SSH access are part of Managed WordPress — we keep core, themes and plugins updated for you. And you can always SSH into your own cloud server and run the commands above whenever you like.