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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>

If you _must_ run @composer install@ and the other commands above as root, e.g. if that's the only user we have access to on the server, you can do so by changing the @COMPOSER_HOME@ and @COMPOSER_VENDOR_DIR@ paths to @/opt/drush@ and @/opt/drush/8@, respectively.

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>
sudo 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.