How to use wp-cli with a non-standard wp-config.php location

01-walkthrough.md

Issue #1218

You are running a customized WordPress install where your configurations are NOT located in one of the two required locations (outside the webroot for example) and are receving the following error when running wp-cli commands:

Error: Strange wp-config.php file: wp-settings.php is not loaded directly.

###Solution Simply move the require_once ... wp-settings.php line from the actual configuration file to the end of file that is requiring/including it. See below for examples.

This works by tricking the wp-cli regex into correctly parsing the configuration files.

02-dir_layout.md

├── conf
│   └── the-real-conf.php   <----|
├── public                       |
│   ├── index.php                |
│   └──  wp-config.php      -----|  (required file)
└── wp-cli.yml

the-real-conf.php

<?php

// ... other code here... //

/* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */

/** Absolute path to the WordPress directory. */
if ( !defined('ABSPATH') )
	define('ABSPATH', dirname(__FILE__) . '/');
	
// ... remove lines 13 + 14 ... //

/** Sets up WordPress vars and included files. */
require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php');

wp-config.php

<?php

require dirname(__DIR__) . '/conf/the-real-conf.php';

// ... place them AFTER the call to the real conf file ... //

/** Sets up WordPress vars and included files. */
require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php');

There is a WP core feature: wp-config.php could be just above WP root.
If you additionally move wp-content to a sibling dir you could checkout WP core from GitHub/WordPress.

├── public
│   ├── wp-config.php
│   ├── index.php  (added: "/core")
│   ├── core
│   │   └── index.php 
│   └── content
└── wp-cli.yml

wp-config.php in document root is secure.

wp-config.php in document root is secure.

Why would it be secure? It is still inside the public webroot. This can lead to severe leaks - explained here

And @samstoller: Thank you for this useful gist!