6. Reinstall Wordpress

Step 1: Make a Backup (Optional but Recommended)

Before making any changes, it is recommended to make a backup of your current installation, just in case you need to recover something later.

tar -czvf wordpress_backup.tar.gz /var/www/html/wordpress
mysqldump -u wordpress_user -p wordpress_db > backup_db.sql

Step 2: Delete WordPress Files

Go to the folder where your WordPress installation is installed. Usually, it is located in /var/www/html/wordpress or a similar path.

cd /var/www/html
rm -rf wordpress/*

This command will delete all WordPress files. Make sure there are no files you want to keep.

Step 3: Delete Database

If you want to delete the current database and create a new one, you can do so from the MariaDB console:

mysql -u root -p

Next, run the following commands:

DROP DATABASE wordpress_db;
CREATE DATABASE wordpress_db;

Step 4: Download and Install WordPress

Download the latest version of WordPress:

cd /var/www/html/wordpress
wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz --strip-components=1

This will unzip WordPress directly into the wordpress folder.

Step 5: Configure wp-config.php

Copy the sample configuration file and edit it:

cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
nano wp-config.php

Configure the database details:

define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress_db');
define('DB_USER', 'wordpress_user');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password');
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

Step 6: Set Permissions

Make sure the permissions for your files and folders are correct:

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/wordpress
find /var/www/html/wordpress -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find /var/www/html/wordpress -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Step 7: Install WordPress

Now, open your browser and go to the URL of your WordPress installation (e.g. http://your_domain/wordpress). You should see the WordPress installation screen. Follow the instructions to complete the installation.

Last modified: 14 January 2025