Migration Flow

High-level flow

1. Validate input options and dependencies.
2. Transfer files with rsync (unless skipped).
3. Export database on source.
4. Import database on destination.
5. Run URL replacement.
6. Perform post-migration tasks.

Detailed steps

1) Validation

• Checks required options.
• Checks local tools like ssh and rsync.
• Checks remote tools and switches DB method if needed.

2) File transfer

• Uses rsync over SSH.
• Supports --exclude patterns.
• Can be skipped with --skip-files.

3) Database transfer

• Uses WP-CLI by default.
• Falls back to mysqldump/mysql if WP-CLI unavailable.
• Can be skipped with --skip-db.

4) URL replacement

• Uses wp search-replace for safe serialized replacement.
• Can be skipped with --skip-url-replace.

5) Finalization

• Cache flush
• Rewrite flush
• Permissions hardening