[Feature] Check for updates if WP-CLI checks for updates

[hirasso]

Hi there!

The Problem

The WP-CLI command wp plugin ... has a few commands where they automatically check for plugin updates, for example:

• wp plugin status
• wp plugin list

I just noticed that Plugin Update Checker doesn't check for updates if these commands are being executed.

Proposed Solution

Both these commands call wp_update_plugins directly if being executed.

Would it be possible to automatically check for updates in Plugin Update Checker as well, if one of those commands is being executed? I just checked and it seems like in wp_update_plugins there is no action being triggered. So it might be hard to achieve updates based on only that function.

Alternatives considered

Implement a custom wp cli command in userland, something like this:

$bb_checker = PucFactory::buildUpdateChecker(
  "https://bitbucket.org/user/$plugin_slug", // Metadata URL.
  $file_path, // Full path to the main plugin file.
  $plugin_slug, // Plugin slug. Usually it's the same as the name of the directory.
  24*7 // <-- update interval in hours
);

if (defined('WP_CLI') && WP_CLI) {
  \WP_CLI::add_command('bb-updater check', function() use ($bb_updater) {
    $bb_updater->checkForUpdates();
  });
}

That works, but it would be amazing to get this out of the box.

[YahnisElsts]

wp_update_plugins modifies the update_plugins transient, which triggers filters that could be used to hook into the function (e.g. pre_set_site_transient_{$transient}. However, that transient is also used in other places (in Cron, and potentially on every admin page load), so, for better performance, I would want a way to check if the filter is being called inside WP-CLI, preferably even a way to identify the current WP-CLI command.

I believe the first part can be covered by checking if the WP_CLI constant is defined, but I'm not sure about identifying the running command. Do you happen to know how to do that?

[hirasso]

@YahnisElsts thanks for getting back to me! I asked in the cli slack channel and got the following answer for how to get information about the current WP-CLI command:

For the current command, try:

$args = WP_CLI::get_runner()->arguments;

print_r( $args );

For wp cron event run wp_version_check, the output should be:

Array
(
   [0] => cron
   [1] => event
   [2] => run
   [3] => wp_version_check
)

Based on that, I played around a bit:

/**
 * Check for WP-CLI commands running wp_update_plugins
 */
function isWpCliUpdateCheck(): bool
{
  if (!defined('WP_CLI') || !WP_CLI) return false;

  // get the args of the current command
  $args = \WP_CLI::get_runner()->arguments;

  // convert the args array back to the command string
  $command = implode(' ', $args);

  // check for wp-cli commands that are known to trigger a check for plugin updates
  return match ($command) {
    'plugin list' => true,
    'plugin status' => true,
    'cron event run wp_version_check' => true,
    // 'foo bar' => true, ???
    default => false
  };
}

if (isWpCliUpdateCheck()) {
  // ... run the update checker
}

While this technically works, it will be a pain to maintain. These commands could change at any time, not even mentioning theme updates...

So I think we should continue to look for a reliably way to detect wp_update_plugins.

[hirasso]

Actually, re-reading your comment:

wp_update_plugins modifies the update_plugins transient, which triggers filters that could be used to hook into the function (e.g. pre_set_site_transient_{$transient})

Maybe we could get away with combining the two?

1. hook into the appropriate filter
2. check if currently running a WP_CLI command starting with "plugin"
3. run the update checker

[YahnisElsts]

It looks like WP-CLI provides a before_invoke:<command> hook that can be used to detect when certain (sub-)commands run more directly. I've written a basic implementation that hooks into the relevant plugin and theme commands. For consistency with wp_update_plugins(), this implementation doesn't check for updates every time but just triggers the normal scheduled update check logic.

This could use more testing - give it a try.

[hirasso]

Works like a charm! I tested it with two plugins – one managed by WordPress (relevanssi), one managed by plugin update checker (rh-admin-utils). Here is the relevant command output: Before updating puc, rh-admin-utils didn't detect that there was a new version available, after updating puc it detected the new version:

Before

❯ wp plugin list
+---------------------------------------+--------+-----------+------------+
| name                                  | status | update    | version    |
+---------------------------------------+--------+-----------+------------+
| relevanssi                            | active | available | 4.22.0     |
| rh-admin-utils                        | active | none      | 1.9.4      |
+---------------------------------------+--------+-----------+------------+

After

❯ wp plugin list
+---------------------------------------+--------+-----------+------------+
| name                                  | status | update    | version    |
+---------------------------------------+--------+-----------+------------+
| relevanssi                            | active | available | 4.22.0     |
| rh-admin-utils                        | active | available | 1.9.4      |
+---------------------------------------+--------+-----------+------------+

Also, sorry for keeping you waiting for so long... your help means a lot!

[YahnisElsts]

Sounds good. I've made a new release (5.4) that includes this feature, so I'll close the issue now.