Last night, inspired partly by David’s recent Quick Guide, I migrated an existing WordPress site’s 180MB filesystem onto a new SiteGround hosting account in about five minutes.

When we think about “using a computer,” we usually think in terms of graphical user interfaces, or GUIs: interfaces (like Microsoft Word, the Mac OS, or the WordPress admin interface) that are specially and attractively designed, that have programs and windows and tabs that visibly open and close, and that let you click things and drag things and drop things and hover things.

To some, WP-CLI might seem like a nice but optional convenience for a WordPress developer who’s comfortable with the command line. For developers who’ve dealt with time-out issues in PHP processes, or who administer lots of websites, WP-CLI is more than that: it’s a time-saver and power-tool.

This week’s quick guide is a further practical exploration of the filesystem navigation of our most recent episode. In this one, our goal is instead the crude creation and manipulations of files within that filesystem. We cover a lot of stuff, but seeing someone doing this stuff with your own eyes if often the best way to really get a handle on it. The video: