Drupal module of the day, Drush
Image by tronathan via Flickr
Drush is, as the project website describes, a a command line script and shell interface for Drupal. If you are a Drupal developer pretty soon you end up using this tool. If you are a Drupal website administrator, the sooner you use it the more productive you are.
This “module” has a Drupal 7 pledge, so don’t worry about its upgrade and start using right away, that’s my advice.
Why use it? Lots of reasons. The main reason I use it is it simplifies my life while maintaining a Drupal site. Prevents lots of errors due to typing errors or working on wrong directories (just to give you two examples). Also it is the first step towards the automation of Drupal maintenance. For instance, the Drush Make extension, which can create a ready-to-use drupal site, pulling sources from various locations.
Drush detects your site based on your directory context. Let’s say your command shell is in /home/mysite/sites/all, it will read your config file from /home/mysite/sites/default/settings.php.
Some examples of using this tool are:
# drush dl drupal (downloads the latest stable version of Drupal)
# drush dl cck views (downloads the latest stable versions of cck and views)
# drush enable views (enables the views module)
# drush disable views (disables the views module)
# drush cron (runs all cron hooks)
How to install it? Well, it is not a Drupal module, you have to install it in a different way. These are the instructions for installing Drush on Ubuntu.
Well, it makes a lot of sense using this tool, so don’t hesitate to install and use it.
Related Articles
- Drupal 7 – faster than ever (googlecode.blogspot.com)
- Drupal Modules that Improve Accessibility | groups.drupal.org (groups.drupal.org)
- Open Atrium: A Drupal Based Intranet Ecosystem (cmswire.com)
