Installing PrestaShop from CLI

Since version 1.5.4, PrestaShop has a command-line installer.

This special installer makes it possible to install PrestaShop without the need to use a web browser: simply put the content of the zip archive on your web server or pull code from an official PrestaShop repository, and you can install PrestaShop through your command-line interface (CLI).

If deploying from sources (PrestaShop repository), you must first install Composer dependencies. Install them with composer install from project’s root directory.

The point of having a CLI installer in addition to the regular in-browser installer is to provide a solution to some advanced users, who often prefer command-line interfaces as they tend to give a more concise and powerful means to control a program or operating system. We can see the advantage of CLI installer in Continuous Integration processes.

How to use it

To use the CLI installer, use your terminal, go to the /install (or /install-dev) folder, and start the script with this command:

php index_cli.php

This command, by default, will display the various available options:

Argument Description Default value Allowed values
step Installation steps to execute all all, database, fixtures, theme, modules, postInstall
language Language ISO code to install en 2 letters ISO 639-1 code (ISO 639-1) with available translation files in /translations
all_languages Installs all available languages 0 0, 1
timezone Set timezone of instance Europe/Paris Valid timezone (TZ Database)
base_uri Base URI (appended after domain name) / Any URI
domain Domain name for the shop (without http/s) localhost Any domain name or IP address
db_server Database server hostname localhost Any valid MySQL valid server name or IP address
db_user Database server user root Any valid MySQL user name
db_password Database server password "" The valid password for db_user
db_name Database name prestashop string
db_clear Drop existing tables 1 0, 1
db_create Create the database if not exists 0 0, 1
prefix Prefix of table names ps_ string
engine Engine for MySQL InnoDB InnoDB, MyISAM
name Name of the shop PrestaShop string
activity Default activity of the shop 0 Id of an activity (Complete list of activities)
country Country of the shop fr 2 letters Alpha-2 code of ISO-3166 list(ISO-3166)
firstname Admin user firstname John string
lastname Admin user lastname Doe string
password Admin user password Correct Horse Battery Staple string
email Admin user email [email protected] string
license Show PrestaShop license after installation 0 0, 1
theme Theme name to install "" (classic) Theme name (located in /themes)
ssl Enable SSL (from PS 1.7.4) 0 0, 1
rewrite Enable rewrite engine 1 0, 1
fixtures Install fixtures. Equivalent of “Installation of demo products” in the GUI. 1 0, 1
modules Modules to install, separated by comma [] (all) array of module names (located in /modules)
  • All the options from the regular in-browser installer are available, with their default values listed above.
  • Almost all default option values can be left as is because you can edit them all from the PrestaShop Back Office once the installation is complete.
Note that the e-mail and password are used to create the administrator’s Back Office account.

To start the installation, we recommend that you provide at least these arguments :

  • domain. The domain name where your shop will be available.
  • db_server. The database server address.
  • db_name. The name of the database you want to use. We strongly recommend that you change the default prestashop value
  • db_user. The username for the database you want to use.
  • db_password. The password for the database username above.
  • prefix. We strongly recommend that you change the default ps_ value.
  • email. Your email to connect to the Back Office.
  • password. The password to connect to the Back Office.

Example:

php index_cli.php 
    --domain=example.com 
    --db_server=sql.example.com 
    --db_name=myshop
    --db_user=root 
    --db_password=123456789 
    --prefix=myshop_
    --email=[email protected]
    --password=mystrongpassword

If the installation completes without any errors, you should see the following confirmation:

-- Installation successful! --
Before running this command, please note that your database must be created with a CREATE DATABASE xxx; statement. If the database is not created, please use argument --db_create=1 to create the database.
If your MySQL server is configured on a different port than 3306, please specify it in the db_server argument like this : --db_server=sql.example.com:3307