State, logs and support with WP-CLI

On the command line you see with one command whether your website is backed up. You fetch the logs and the support report, switch debugging, check the notifications and watch or end the running job.

WP-CLI still missing? The guide is in Install WP-CLI. All commands of the plugin are named in The commands at a glance.

The outputs of the commands are in English. Some actions first check the user: the command must run as the user who owns the folders of the plugin. --force skips the check. The sections below name the parameter where it exists.

Showing the state of the website: status

status shows the same result as the status tile of the Overview page. The command has no actions and no parameters and changes nothing.

# Show the state of the website
wp cloneworx-backup status

The first line names the state. If several apply, the order of the table applies:

State	Colour of the status tile	Meaning
error	red	The last backup failed.
overdue	red	An active backup plan did not make a good backup in time.
disconnected	yellow	A target is disconnected.
warn	yellow	The website is backed up; the last backup ended with warnings.
ok	green	The website is backed up.
none	grey	There is no backup yet.

Below it come the details. The lines plans and operation are always there, the others only when there is something to name:

Line	Meaning
last backup	The last backup: job name, status, end, size and per target the state.
last good backup	The last good backup, if it is a different one than the last.
overdue	The overdue plan and how long it has been due or has not made a good backup.
disconnected	The disconnected target with the reason. If there are several, the line names the number.
warnings	The warnings of the last backup, counted by kind.
plans	How many plans are active, how many there are and the number of targets.
alarm	The plans for which a warning about an overdue backup is running.
operation	The operation: the result, the last automatic tick with its scheduler, WP-Cron and the self-request.

The result in the line operation is ok, late or missing. late means: there is an active plan, but no automatic scheduler has come for two hours. missing means: the server lacks a requirement of the plugin.

Fetching the logs: logs

logs lists the log files of the plugin or writes all of them into a tar file. There is the general log with its predecessor file and one log per job.

Parameter	Meaning	Allowed values
--to	Writes all logs into this tar file. The file must not exist yet, and its folder must be writable. Without the parameter the command only shows the list.	Path of a file

# List the log files
wp cloneworx-backup logs

# Write all logs to a tar file
wp cloneworx-backup logs --to=/tmp/cloneworx-logs.tar

The list names per file the name, the size and the last change, at the end the number of files and their size together. The tar file is not compressed and contains the folder cloneworx-backup-logs. It is the same file as with Download all logs on the Settings page.

How you read a log is shown in Read the log.

Creating the support report: support

support prints the support report as text or writes it to a file. It is the same report as with Copy support report on the Settings page.

Parameter	Meaning	Allowed values
--to	Writes the report to this file. The file must not exist yet. Without the parameter the report appears in the output.	Path of a file

# Show the report in the output
wp cloneworx-backup support

# Write the report to a file
wp cloneworx-backup support --to=/tmp/cloneworx-bericht.txt

The report has the sections website, server, plugin, settings, operation, targets, plans, the last ten jobs, scope, diagnosis and the last 40 lines of the general log. The report is in English.

Not in the report: job names and other identifiers of 32 characters, the names of targets and plans, the locations and credentials of the targets, email addresses and server paths. Targets and plans appear with their identifier, email addresses only as a number, paths as <wp>, <wp-content> and <uploads>. The report contains the address of the website, per target the target type and the state and per plan rhythm, roots, targets and the number for Max. backups.

Switching debugging: debug

With debugging the plugin writes detailed lines to the log. After 24 hours it switches itself off. In the interface the switch is called Debugging for 24 hours.

Action	Purpose
debug on	Switches debugging on and names the time until which it runs.
debug off	Switches debugging off.
debug status	Shows whether debugging is running and until when. Without an action wp cloneworx-backup debug does the same.

on and off know the parameter --force.

# Enable debugging
wp cloneworx-backup debug on

# Show the state
wp cloneworx-backup debug status

# Disable debugging
wp cloneworx-backup debug off

If the plugin cannot write its log, each of the three actions warns and names the reason.

Checking the notifications: notify

Action	Purpose
notify status	Shows the recipients, the three switches of the notifications, the running warnings about overdue backups, the last check, the last email sent and the last failure when sending. Without an action wp cloneworx-backup notify does the same.
notify check	Checks now whether a plan is overdue. If a warning begins or a reminder is due, the plugin sends the email if this notification is switched on.
notify test	Sends a test email to the entered recipients. If nobody is entered, it goes to the admin address of the website.

check and test know the parameter --force.

# Show the status of the notifications
wp cloneworx-backup notify status

# Check for overdue backups now
wp cloneworx-backup notify check

# Send a test email
wp cloneworx-backup notify test

A plan is overdue when its last good backup is older than its rhythm plus a tolerance. The tolerance is half the rhythm, at least 6 hours: a daily plan is overdue after 36 hours. On its own this check runs at every scheduler, at most every 15 minutes.

notify check names the overdue plans and counts how many warnings have begun, were reminded and have ended and how many emails were sent. notify test names the addresses the test email went to. If WordPress refuses to send, the command ends with an error and names the reason.

You change the recipients and the switches with wp cloneworx-backup settings; see Settings and scope with WP-CLI.

Subscribing to and unsubscribing from news: news

news shows, starts or ends the subscription to news on cloneworx Backup. In the interface this is the switch Inform me about important news and updates on cloneworx Backup.

Action	Purpose
news status	Shows the state: off, pending (the confirmation is outstanding) or subscribed. The address appears only shortened. Without an action wp cloneworx-backup news does the same.
news subscribe	Subscribes the address from --email.
news unsubscribe	Unsubscribes. In the plugin this applies at once.

Parameter	Meaning	Allowed values
--email	Only subscribe: the address that is subscribed. Required.	an email address
--force	Only subscribe and unsubscribe: also runs as another user.	without a value

# Show the state
wp cloneworx-backup news status

# Subscribe an address
wp cloneworx-backup news subscribe --email=admin@example.com

# Unsubscribe
wp cloneworx-backup news unsubscribe

If the plugin cannot reach the news server or the server refuses, news subscribe ends with an error and names the reason. Nothing is subscribed then. If the server does not confirm an unsubscription, news unsubscribe warns; in the plugin the subscription is ended nevertheless.

Watching, driving, aborting the running job: job

A backup, a restore, a check: everything that takes longer runs as a job in many short steps. Only one job ever runs per website. job works with the job that is running right now.

Action	Purpose
job status	Shows the running job. Without an action wp cloneworx-backup job does the same.
job run	Drives the running job in this process to its end, without pauses between the steps.
job abort	Registers the abort. The job stops at its next stopping point, cleans up and ends as aborted.
job probe	Starts a probe run: a job without data that measures the server.

# Show the running job
wp cloneworx-backup job status

# Drive the running job to the end here
wp cloneworx-backup job run

# Cancel the running job
wp cloneworx-backup job abort

job status names the job name, the kind of job, who started it and whether a step is working right now. Below it come the progress with phase, entries, bytes and remaining time and the counters: steps, hard-ended steps, attempts without progress, warnings. If no job is running, the command says so.

job run writes one line per step and at the end the result of the job. If another process is already driving the job, the command waits briefly and then gives up. The job continues without it.

The probe run: job probe

The probe run measures how long a step really survives on your server, which schedulers arrive, how fast the work folder writes and how much memory there is. It backs up nothing and touches no target.

Parameter	Meaning	Allowed values
--units	The number of work units.	whole number, default 200
--unit-ms	The simulated work per unit in milliseconds.	whole number, default 50
--background	The command starts the probe run and sends the first self-request. After that the job drives itself through the web server. The result then shows the limits of the web server, not those of the command line.	without a value
--force	Also runs as another user.	without a value

# A probe run over several steps: about 100 seconds
wp cloneworx-backup job probe --units=2000 --unit-ms=50

# The same probe run, driven by the web server
wp cloneworx-backup job probe --units=2000 --unit-ms=50 --background

Afterwards the result is also shown on the Settings page in the tile System and support, in the block Diagnosis of the Extended view.

Further diagnostic jobs

Three further actions start diagnostic jobs. None of them makes a backup; what they write, they remove again at the end.

Action	Purpose	Own parameters
job filelist	Builds the file list: what a backup would contain, what is left out and whether the free space is enough.	--roots, --targets
job dbexport	Exports the database into the work folder, reads the export back and compares the rows per table.	--tables, --no-snapshot
job files	Writes the file part of a backup into the work folder and checks every part. With --targets the job transfers the parts to these targets, checks them there and removes them again.	--roots, --targets, --part-limit (size of a part in MB, default 256)

All three also know --max-per-step, --background and --force.

# Show what a backup of uploads and plugins would contain
wp cloneworx-backup job filelist --roots=wp-uploads,wp-plugins

# Check the database export
wp cloneworx-backup job dbexport

See also

• Progress, messages and log
• Read the log
• Set up email notifications
• Get help: support report, troubleshooting and diagnostics
• Schedule and system cron with WP-CLI