How to clone WP to my desktop (localhost)

  • joneall

    (@joneall)


    10 years, 6 months ago

    I support another web site using Joomla and my test and backup method is to clone the site to my own Linux desktop. It suffices to copy the files and export/import the Mysql db.

    As has been much discussed, this does not work with WP because WP insists on using absolute addressing, so the clone links back to the original site all the time.

    So the question, without offering my own solution, is how do I best maintain backups of my WP site while at the same time being able to test the backups on another computer. An untested backup is worthless.

    Related to that is how to move a WP site to another computer, i.e., in another domain. I tried export and import (from my own domain sjoneall.net to wordpress.com), but after the import, the links all still point to the original site.

    Without getting into the multiple discussions of why one would want absolute or relative addresses (I have mine, you have yours…), what can I do to transfer my site (with lots of pictures) to another domain? Or is it better to use another CMS for picture-heavy sites?

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • esmi

    (@esmi)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    Have you reviewed Moving_WordPress?

    Thread Starter joneall

    (@joneall)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    Thanks, Esmi. I think the case in there which concerns me starts with “Another procedure for making copies …”. I have a question, tho.

    What about permissons and names? Can the new blog DB have any old name and be controlled by any old user?

    I will give it a try … after breakfast. 😉

    Caramboo

    (@caramboo)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    Try this plugin. It does a find and replace on file paths and URLs when you export the DB:

    http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-migrate-db/

    Thread Starter joneall

    (@joneall)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    Thanks for all your advice. I have to say tho that WP does _not_ make it easy. Why the %^&*ç don’t they just allow relative links? (Ok, let’s not open that subject again…)

    I mean, if I uee this for a regular backup, which is my basic problem, I cannot see myself doing this at least once a week. Isn’t there an easier way? I repeat my basic need:

    How do I best maintain backups of my WP site while at the same time being able to test the backups on another computer?

    I do not understand why doesn’t everybody want to do this! Have I missed something?

    Thread Starter joneall

    (@joneall)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    Actually, WP Migrate DB sounds great. I decided to try it before purchasing. I installed it and then did a migrate with it, telling it to change the URLs from

    http://sjoneall.net/jon-blog

    to

    localhost/jon-blog

    Then I created a local blog with a DB and installed WP. So far, so good. Then I dropped all the tables and useed phpmyadmin to import the file freom WP Migrate DB. That seemded to work.

    But when I try to access the blog, all I get is a blank page.

    What did I do wrong? Or is this a topic for the WP Migrate DB people?

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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