PT Commons

{{lastupdated_at}} by {{lastupdated_by}}

{{>toc}}

h1. Installing Drush for working with Drupal 6-8 and Backdrop

An important note: we no longer need to install any version of Drush except Drush 8, since that now supports "Drupal 6, 7, <8.3 _and_ Backdrop.":http://docs.drush.org/en/master/install/#drupal-compatibility

h2. Installing and updating Drush 8 for all users

I've followed the "Install a global Drush via Composer" instructions under in the "Drush 8 alternative installation documentation.":http://docs.drush.org/en/8.x/install-alternative/

Since running @composer install@ as root is a "security risk":https://getcomposer.org/doc/faqs/how-to-install-untrusted-packages-safely.md, you can use commands like these to install Drush in your home directory first, then move it to a globally-accessible location using @sudo@:

<pre>

COMPOSER_HOME=/home/jack/drush COMPOSER_BIN_DIR=/usr/local/bin COMPOSER_VENDOR_DIR=/home/jack/drush/8 composer require drush/drush:8.2.3

cd ~/drush/8/drush/drush

composer install

sudo mv drush /opt/

sudo ln -s /opt/drush/8/drush/drush/drush /usr/local/bin/drush

</pre>

Replace "8.2.3" (last updated in this documentation on 5/28/19) with the tag of the most recent stable 8.x release (see https://github.com/drush-ops/drush/releases)

Use the same commands with a new version number to update Drush as needed.

h2. Install Drush on May First/People Link (MFPL) and other shared hosting environments

Primarily drawn from "this MFPL ticket;":https://support.mayfirst.org/ticket/11691#comment:3 thanks Ivan!

First, install Composer following "these instructions":https://getcomposer.org/download/.

Then to install Drush:

<pre>

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.composer/vendor/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

source ~/.bashrc

cd ~/<organization.org>/bin

php composer.phar global require drush/drush:8.2.3

which drush

</pre>

Note that sometimes @cgi-bin@ is present on MF/PL sites instead of @bin@.

If using Drush aliases, you may need to specify the new Drush installation in the shared @aliases.drushrc.php@ file or a local aliases file. Here's an example:

<pre>

$aliases['organization'] = array(

  'remote-host' => 'organization.org',

  'remote-user' => 'organization',

  'root' => '/home/members/organization/sites/organization.org/web',

  'uri' => 'organization.org',

  'path-aliases' => array(

    '%drush-script' => '/home/members/organization/sites/organization.org/users/organization/.composer/vendor/bin/drush',

    '%dump-dir' => '~/drush-backups',

    '%files' => '/home/members/organization/sites/organization.org/web/sites/default/files',),

);

</pre>

h2. Install and update Drush Backdrop commands

In order for Drush to work with Backdrop, you must install the "Drush Backdrop commands":https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/drush within the Drush 8 installation itself.

Assuming that Drush 8 is installed in @/opt/drush/8/drush/drush@, as specified above:

<pre>

git clone https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/drush.git /opt/drush/8/drush/drush/commands/backdrop

</pre>

To update Drush Backdrop commands later, run @git pull origin@ from within the @drush/commands/backdrop@ directory.