Here is my guide on setting up WordPress on an Ubuntu server via the command line. Here is my recent guide on the wp-cli tool.

Read my guide on setting up a Vultr VM and installing NGINX web server and MySQL database. Use this link to create a Vultr account.  This guide assumes you have a working Ubuntu VM with NGINX web server, MySQL, and SSL.

Consider setting up an SSL certificate (read my guide here on setting up a  free SL certificate with Let’s Encrypt). Once again read my guide on Setting up a Vultr server. Also moving WordPress from CPanel to a self-managed server and securing Ubuntu in the cloud. Ensure you are backing up your server (read my guide on How to backup an Ubuntu VM in the cloud via crontab entries that trigger Bash Scripts, SSH, Rsync and email backup alerts).

Ensure MySQL is setup.

mysql --version
mysql  Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.7.19, for Linux (x86_64) using  EditLine wrapper

Ensure your server is setup, firewall enabled (port 80 and 443 enabled), NGINX is installed and working.

Check NGINX version

sudo nginx -v
nginx version: nginx/1.13.3

Check NGINX Status

service nginx status
● nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Fri 2017-08-18 00:35:13 AEST; 3 days ago
 Main PID: 1276 (nginx)
    Tasks: 3
   Memory: 6.4M
      CPU: 3.218s
   CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
           ├─1276 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on
           ├─1277 nginx: worker process
           └─1278 nginx: cache manager process

Warning: Journal has been rotated since unit was started. Log output is incomplete or unavailable.

Check your PHP install status to confirm your setup, put this in a new PHP file (e.g /p.php) and load it to view PHP configuration and to verify PHP setup.

<?php
phpinfo()
?>

First I edited NGINX configuration to allow WordPress to work.

location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;
        index index.php index.html index.htm;
        proxy_set_header Proxy "";
}

Mostly I added this line.

try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;

I restated NGINX and PHP

nginx -t
nginx -s reload
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart
sudo service php7.0-fpm restart

If this config change is not made WordPress will not install or run.

Database

In order to setup WordPress, we need to create a MySQL database/database user before downloading WordPress from the command line.

From an ssh terminal type (and log in with your MySQL root password)

mysql -p
password:

Create a database (choose a database name, add random text).

mysql> create database databasemena123;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Create a user and assign them to the blog (choose a username, add random text)

grant all privileges on databasname123.* to 'blogusername123'@'localhost' identified by "siple-password";
ERROR 1819 (HY000): Your password does not satisfy the current policy requirements

If your password is simple you will get this warning.

ERROR 1819 (HY000): Your password does not satisfy the current policy requirements

A 50+ char password with 10 digits and 10 numbers should be ok

mysql> grant all privileges on databasname123.* to 'blogusername123'@'localhost' identified by "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxremovedxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";
Query OK, 0 rows affected, 1 warning (0.00 sec)

You can now apply the permissions and clear the permissions cache.

mysql> flush privileges;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
exit;
Bye

Go to your /www folder on your server and run this command to download WordPress.

sudo curl -o wordpress.zip https://wordpress.org/latest.zip

% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
 Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 8701k 100 8701k 0 0 6710k 0 0:00:01 0:00:01 --:--:-- 6709k

You can now move any existing temporary index files in your /www folder

mv index.html oldindex.html
mv index.php oldindex.php
p.php oldp.php

ls -al
total 8724
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    4096 Aug 21 11:17 .
drwxr-xr-x 27 root root    4096 Aug 13 22:27 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      37 Jul 31 11:51 oldindex.html
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      37 Jul 31 11:51 oldindex.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      19 Aug 21 11:04 oldp.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 8910664 Aug 21 11:16 wordpress.zip

Now I can extract wordpress.zip

First, you need to install unzip

sudo apt-get install unzip

Now Unzip wordpress.zip

unzip wordpress.zip

At this point, I decided to remove all old index files on my website

rm -R /www/old*.*

The unzipped contents are in a sub folder called “wordpress”, we need to move the WordPress contents up a folder.

ls /www/ -al
total 8716
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root    4096 Aug 21 13:22 .
drwxr-xr-x 27 root root    4096 Aug 13 22:27 ..
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root    4096 Aug  2 21:02 wordpress
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 8911367 Aug 21 11:22 wordpress.zip

“wordpress” folder contents.

ls /www/wordpress -al
total 196
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root  4096 Aug  2 21:02 .
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root  4096 Aug 21 13:22 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   418 Sep 25  2013 index.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 19935 Jan  2  2017 license.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  7413 Dec 12  2016 readme.html
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  5447 Sep 27  2016 wp-activate.php
drwxr-xr-x  9 root root  4096 Aug  2 21:02 wp-admin
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   364 Dec 19  2015 wp-blog-header.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1627 Aug 29  2016 wp-comments-post.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  2853 Dec 16  2015 wp-config-sample.php
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root  4096 Aug  2 21:02 wp-content
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  3286 May 24  2015 wp-cron.php
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 12288 Aug  2 21:02 wp-includes
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  2422 Nov 21  2016 wp-links-opml.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  3301 Oct 25  2016 wp-load.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 34327 May 12 17:12 wp-login.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  8048 Jan 11  2017 wp-mail.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 16200 Apr  6 18:01 wp-settings.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 29924 Jan 24  2017 wp-signup.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  4513 Oct 14  2016 wp-trackback.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  3065 Aug 31  2016 xmlrpc.php

Remove the wordpress.zip in /www/

rm -R /www/wordpress.zip

Move all files from the /www/wordpress/ up a folder to /www/.

sudo mv /www/wordpress/* /www/

Now we can create and upload folder

mkdir /www/wp-content/content/

Apply permissions (or you can never upload to WordPress).

chmod 755 /www/wp-content/uploads/

I think I need to apply permissions here (to allow plugins to upload/update)

chmod 755 /www/wp-content/

Edit the wp-config-sample.php

sudo nano /www/wp-config-sample.php

Add your database name to the WordPress config.

Before:

define('DB_NAME', 'database_name_here');

After:

define('DB_NAME', 'databasemena123');

Add your database username and password to the WordPress config.

Before:

/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'username_here');

/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password_here');

After:

/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'blogusername123');

/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxremovedxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx');

Go to https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ and copy the salts to your clipboard and replace this in your wp-config-sample.php

define('AUTH_KEY',         'put your unique phrase here');
define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  'put your unique phrase here');
define('LOGGED_IN_KEY',    'put your unique phrase here');
define('NONCE_KEY',        'put your unique phrase here');
define('AUTH_SALT',        'put your unique phrase here');
define('SECURE_AUTH_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('LOGGED_IN_SALT',   'put your unique phrase here');
define('NONCE_SALT',       'put your unique phrase here');

..with paste over whatever you generated (e.g)

define('AUTH_KEY',         '/[email protected];#Tr#6Tz6z^[LUdOvpNREUYT[|SmAN%%V% cyWk]-I%}E+t$#4c5n6vvp');
define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  'q_z-F-V#[[Lf<%_4,w#L_nyG|[email protected], YK0GR)R<Lk!.zqH< [email protected],vXmMzG');
define('LOGGED_IN_KEY',    'o}c^Vb$ fyh,J6v9PyF)mdt4(Q_J}`FNOJ9.ag^i+UAUS?lmzwGzp<tV7W(wbb#:');
define('NONCE_KEY',        '<y3&QvdAz;48ZFJBAdsRmC~ejXWiOw{dTWF_)p?^E%D&GdtK2LHGZ|.^rvRF-l$m');
define('AUTH_SALT',        ',e{|+H`i6}[email protected]`kvkF??^?IC&?6W~9SHkqSxvX~z,fR Xn:[email protected]_X^');
define('SECURE_AUTH_SALT', '|g2(y}8olAv_b]>|^jR|-.VU_E[P~PoWprwTKu-mM9-:NEc#2HikST~84ad-Ksyx');
define('LOGGED_IN_SALT',   'sd1:-|ai{<Ferj,|$2+ <ietEFT9 xEe89$[8%{[email protected]{FC(?[pF$oJ[[email protected]]');
define('NONCE_SALT',       '0D]kv-x.?_o^pwKtZI:g}~64vDb.Gdy1cBPQA{?;g(AE|0D)g:=1BrUbKF>T1oIv');

Now save changes to wp-config-sample.php

Rename the sample config file (to make it live)

sudo mv wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

You can now load your website ( https://www.yourserver.com ) and finish the setup in the WordPress GUI.

WordPress should now be installed and you can log in.

Don’t forget to update your options – /wp-admin/options-general.php

I would recommend you review the options to prevent comment spam – /wp-admin/options-discussion.php

Also if you are using the twentyseventeen theme consider updating your header image (remove the pot plant) 0 /wp-admin/customize.php?theme=twentyseventeen&return=%2Fwp-admin%2Fthemes.php

Signup for a Vulr server here for as low as $2.5 a month or a Digital Ocean server ($10 free credit/2 months, signup for G Suite email on google here and read my guide here.

Read this guide on using the wp-cli tool to automate post-install.

I hope this helps.

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v1.1 added wp-cli tool