WordPress Docker File Management Guide¶

Container Name: repumanagement
WordPress Path: /var/www/html

1. Access WordPress Container¶

# Access running WordPress container
docker exec -it repumanagement bash

# If bash is not available
docker exec -it repumanagement sh

2. Navigate to WordPress Root¶

# Move to WordPress root directory
cd /var/www/html

# List all files (including hidden)
ls -la

3. File Operations¶

Copy a File¶

# Copy file within container
cp /var/www/html/wp-config.php /var/www/html/wp-config.php.bak

# Copy directory recursively
cp -r /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/my-plugin /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/my-plugin-backup

Move / Rename a File¶

# Move file to another location
mv /var/www/html/oldfile.php /var/www/html/newlocation/oldfile.php

# Rename a file
mv /var/www/html/old-name.php /var/www/html/new-name.php

# Rename a directory (same command)
mv /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/old-plugin-name /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/new-plugin-name

Delete a File or Directory¶

# Delete a single file
rm /var/www/html/unwanted-file.php

# Delete a directory and all its contents
rm -rf /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/plugin-name

# Delete a theme
rm -rf /var/www/html/wp-content/themes/theme-name

# Delete with confirmation prompt (safer)
rm -i /var/www/html/file.php

Create a File or Directory¶

# Create an empty file
touch /var/www/html/newfile.php

# Create a directory
mkdir /var/www/html/wp-content/uploads/custom-folder

# Create nested directories
mkdir -p /var/www/html/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/custom

Find Files¶

# Find by name
find /var/www/html -name "*.php"

# Find by name pattern (case-insensitive)
find /var/www/html -iname "wp-config*"

# Find files modified in last 7 days
find /var/www/html -mtime -7

# Find and list files larger than 10MB
find /var/www/html -size +10M -ls

4. Edit Files Inside Container¶

Install nano if not available:

apt update && apt install nano -y

Edit a file:

# Using nano
nano /var/www/html/wp-config.php

# Using vi
vi /var/www/html/wp-config.php

5. Transfer Files Between Host and Container¶

Upload File from Host to Container¶

docker cp myfile.zip repumanagement:/var/www/html/

Download File from Container to Host¶

docker cp repumanagement:/var/www/html/wp-config.php ./wp-config.php

Upload Entire Folder¶

docker cp ./my-plugin/ repumanagement:/var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/

6. Fix File Permissions¶

# Set correct ownership for Apache
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html

# Set directory permissions
find /var/www/html -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

# Set file permissions
find /var/www/html -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

7. Backup WordPress Files¶

# Create backup archive inside container
docker exec repumanagement tar -czf /tmp/wp-backup.tar.gz /var/www/html

# Copy backup from container to host
docker cp repumanagement:/tmp/wp-backup.tar.gz ./wp-backup.tar.gz

8. Restore from Backup¶

# Copy backup to container
docker cp ./wp-backup.tar.gz repumanagement:/tmp/wp-backup.tar.gz

# Extract backup inside container
docker exec repumanagement tar -xzf /tmp/wp-backup.tar.gz -C /

9. Container Management¶

# Start container
docker start repumanagement

# Stop container
docker stop repumanagement

# Restart container
docker restart repumanagement

# View container logs
docker logs repumanagement

# View live logs (follow)
docker logs -f repumanagement

# View container status
docker ps -a

# View resource usage
docker stats repumanagement

# Remove container (must be stopped first)
docker rm repumanagement

# Remove container and volumes
docker rm -v repumanagement

10. Image Management¶

# List all images
docker images

# Pull latest WordPress image
docker pull wordpress:latest

# Remove an image
docker rmi wordpress:latest

# Remove unused images
docker image prune

11. Recommended Production Setup¶

Example docker-compose.yml:

version: '3.8'

services:
  wordpress:
    image: wordpress
    container_name: repumanagement
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    volumes:
      - ./wordpress:/var/www/html
    environment:
      WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: db
      WORDPRESS_DB_USER: wpuser
      WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: wppassword
      WORDPRESS_DB_NAME: wpdb
    restart: unless-stopped

  db:
    image: mysql:8.0
    container_name: repumanagement_db
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/mysql
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: rootpassword
      MYSQL_DATABASE: wpdb
      MYSQL_USER: wpuser
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: wppassword
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  db_data:

12. Security Tips¶

Never use 777 permissions on files or directories
Always back up before editing configuration files
Use volume mounts instead of modifying container files directly
Restart container after major configuration changes
Avoid storing sensitive credentials in wp-config.php in plain text
Use .env files for environment variables in docker-compose

End of Documentation