Background

Some commands support performing the same operation against multiple resources (e.g. updating two or more plugins wp plugin update akismet hello). If one of the operations fails (e.g. a plugin can't be installed), the command will display a warning, continue on, and exit with return code 0.

salty-wordpress ➜  wordpress-develop.dev  wp plugin install foobar edit-flow akismet
Warning: Couldn't find 'foobar' in the WordPress.org plugin directory.
Warning: edit-flow: An unexpected error occurred. Something may be wrong with WordPress.org or this server&#8217;s configuration. If you continue to have problems, please try the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/">support forums</a>.
Warning: akismet: Plugin already installed.
salty-wordpress ➜  wordpress-develop.dev  echo $?
0

There have been a few long-outstanding issues on this topic (#2002, #1430, #427). If we're going to change the behavior, the time to change the behavior is before WP-CLI v1.0.0.

Proposal

For the commands that perform the same operation against multiple resources, WP-CLI will exit with return code 1 if one or more of the operations failed.

The affected commands include:

• wp media (regenerate|import)
• wp menu delete
• wp menu item delete
• wp plugin (install|activate|update|toggle|deactivate|uninstall|delete)
• wp super-admin add
• wp theme (install|update)
• wp term delete
• wp widget (delete|deactivate|reset)

Rationale

For WP-CLI users who have integrated these commands into provisioning systems and other automation, return codes provide a helpful, machine-readable description of the results of the operation. Exiting with return code 1 will inform the system that some part of the operation has failed.

I'm most interested in feedback from WP-CLI users who have incorporated these commands into automated systems. If there are serious backwards compatibility concerns established, then we'll keep the existing behavior and make sure it's explicitly documented. Otherwise, the proposal will be accepted, we'll change the behavior of the mentioned commands, and document the new behavior.

The decision on this proposal will be made on Tuesday, November 22nd.