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Since WP 5.5 just released and now you can set plugins to auto-update, can this be done via wp-cli? Looking at the documentation, I don't see a sub-command for it: https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/plugin/

I manage a lot of Wordpress sites, most of which are OK to auto-update and would save me a lot of time if they did, as well as reducing security risks.

I'd like to enable auto-updates for plugins across over many wordpress sites. Any solutions?

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  • Sounds like a feature request to github.com/wp-cli/extension-command
    – leymannx
    Aug 11, 2020 at 21:14
  • Interesting question. I also manage a pile of WP sites, and use the excellent "Infinite WP" plugin to manage them; installing updates on all sites with just one click. Have used it for a couple of years, and it's well-maintained and supported. But a function to set all plugins to auto-update would be interesting.
    – Rick Hellewell
    Aug 11, 2020 at 21:37
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    @leymannx I have submitted a feature request. Thank you!
    – Alexnl
    Aug 13, 2020 at 14:05
  • @RickHellewell thanks for the information. I will look into that plugin. To date I was using the Easy Update Manager plugin, but this does not allow granular control from one dashboard for all sites. Although I would prefer this option was built into wordpress.
    – Alexnl
    Aug 13, 2020 at 14:07
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    Yes, that feature is now in the latest WP. But not available when question and comment was entered. @MikeEng - you should put your comment as the answer, for those that wander by here.
    – Rick Hellewell
    Feb 27, 2021 at 3:31

2 Answers 2

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The simplest way via wp-cli that comes to mind (while it's not supported yet as far as I can see) is something like:

wp eval "update_option( 'auto_update_plugins', array_keys( get_plugins() ) );"

that will update the auto_update_plugins option with the array of all plugin files to update.

This should probably be extended further to only update plugins that are truly updateable or e.g. from a json list to use the json format option of wp-cli.

One can also enable all plugin updates with a filter in a plugin:

add_filter( 'auto_update_plugin', '__return_true' );

That will show up as "Auto-updates enabled" for each plugin in the plugins admin table but the user will not be able to change it from the UI.

ps: this wp-cli command suggestion by Jeffrey Paul seems very useful.

Update: This seems to be supported in wp-cli/extension-command version 2.0.12 by this pull request:

wp plugin auto-updates status [<plugin>...] [--all] [--enabled-only] [--disabled-only] [--field=<field>]
wp plugin auto-updates enable [<plugin>...] [--all] [--disabled-only]
wp plugin auto-updates disable [<plugin>...] [--all] [--enabled-only]

but it looks like it's not merged into the main wp-cli yet in version 2.4.

It's possible to get the latest version with:

wp package install [email protected]:wp-cli/extension-command.git

according to the installing part of the wp-cli/extension-command docs.

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This is not using wp-cli, but maybe the next best thing:

From the Plugins page in WordPress Admin: siteurl.com/wp-admin/plugins.php

You can check all plugins and then from the bulk actions, choose “enable auto updates”.

enable auto updates

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