This page describes the installation of Wordpress under Debian 7 and 8 (Wheezy and Jessie), in an lxc container.

Import a site from another machine

The shell script below assumes many things:

names of the sites, directories on the old machine match the ones to be used on the new machine
the ssh keys are properly forwarded, and you have your public key in the /root/.ssh/authorized_keys file of the old machine

So: YMMV (do not forget to use your brain).

SITE_NAME=my.site.org  ## Put the complete name (should match a valid, public DNS entry)
DB_NAME=$(hostname)  ## Please correct if the DB name does not match the host name
OLD_MACHINE=176.9.96.186  ## The name or IP of the machine to import the existing site from (default: the public IP address of CT108, aka WebPanel/ISPManager)
OLD_WP_CONTENT_DIR=/var/www/${DB_NAME}/data/www/${SITE_NAME}/wp-content  ## The directory of wp-content on the old machine (default: webpanel standard location)
NEW_WP_CONTENT_DIR=/var/lib/wordpress/wp-content  ## The directory of wp-content on the new installation, do not change unless you know what you are doing
apt-get install wordpress nginx mysql-server php5-fpm pwgen
DB_USER_PASSWORD=$(pwgen 8 1)  ## Generate a random password

mysql << EOF
CREATE DATABASE ${DB_NAME};
GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,DROP,ALTER
ON ${DB_NAME}.*
TO ${DB_NAME}@localhost
IDENTIFIED BY '${DB_USER_PASSWORD}';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EOF
 
cat > /etc/wordpress/config-${SITE_NAME}.php << EOF
<?php
define('DB_NAME', '${DB_NAME}');
define('DB_USER', '${DB_NAME}');
define('DB_PASSWORD', '${DB_USER_PASSWORD}');
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
define('WP_CONTENT_DIR', '/var/lib/wordpress/wp-content');

/** IN URI INDEXOF THE CATEGORY*/
define('NUMBER_SLASH', '2');
define('NUMBER_SLASH2', '3');
define('CAT26', 'courses');

define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8' );
define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');
?>
EOF

cat > /etc/nginx/sites-available/${DB_NAME} << EOF
server {
    listen 80;
    root /usr/share/wordpress;
    index index.php index.html index.htm;
    server_name ${SITE_NAME};
    access_log /var/log/nginx/${DB_NAME}.access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/${DB_NAME}.error.log;  

    location = /favicon.ico {
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    location /wp-content/ {
        root /var/lib/wordpress;
        location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
            expires 30d;
            log_not_found off;
        }
    }

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        #NOTE: You should have "cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0;" in php.ini
        include /etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
        #fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
    }
}
EOF

## Relax the permissions on wp-content, allowing the admin panel to install/update themes and plugins
chown www-data -R /var/lib/wordpress/wp-content

ln -s ../sites-available/${DB_NAME} /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/  ## Activates the nginx config
rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default  ## Remove the default nginx setting: not used
nginx -t  ## Test the nginx config
service nginx restart

## Copy and import an existing sql database
## It must have been generated from the "old" machine with:
## OLD_DB_NAME=foobar
## mysqldump --add-drop-table -h localhost -u root ${OLD_DB_NAME} > /tmp/${OLD_DB_NAME}.sql
rsync root@${OLD_MACHINE}:/tmp/${DB_NAME}.sql /tmp ## Copy from the "old" machine, assuming that $OLD_DB_NAME == $DB_NAME
mysql -u root --password=oji8eiVu ${DB_NAME} --default-character-set=utf8 --password=Pholaez2 < /tmp/${DB_NAME}.sql

## Copy the files from the "old" machine
rsync -r root@${OLD_MACHINE}:${OLD_WP_CONTENT_DIR}/uploads/* ${NEW_WP_CONTENT_DIR}/uploads/
rsync --exclude=index.php --exclude=akismet -r root@${OLD_MACHINE}:${OLD_WP_CONTENT_DIR}/plugins/* ${NEW_WP_CONTENT_DIR}/plugins
rsync --exclude=index.php --exclude=twentythirteen --exclude=twentytwelve -r root@${OLD_MACHINE}:${OLD_WP_CONTENT_DIR}/themes/* ${NEW_WP_CONTENT_DIR}/themes

Utilities

Fix encoding

Common problem importing from a Mysql dump generated with unknown method. We can somehow fix these directly in the database.

Adapted from http://www.boldelite.com/2015/11/importing-wordpress-database-with-special-characters/ . Adding another replacement (é alias acute):

UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '"', '&ldquo;');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '"', '&rdquo;');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, ''', '&rsquo;');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, ''', '&lsquo;');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '-', '&ndash;');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '—', '&mdash;');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '...', '&hellip;');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, 'é', '&eacute;');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, 'è', '&egrave;');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, 'ë', '&euml;');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, 'ä', '&auml;');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, 'ä', '&auml;');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '  ', ' ');
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, '"', '&ldquo;');
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, '"', '&rdquo;');
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, ''', '&rsquo;');
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, ''', '&lsquo;');
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, '-', '&ndash;');
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, '—', '&mdash;');
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, '...', '&hellip;');
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, 'é', '&eacute;');
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, 'è', '&egrave;');
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, 'ë', '&euml;');
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, 'ä', '&auml;');
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, '  ', ' ');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '"', '&ldquo;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '"', '&rdquo;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, ''', '&rsquo;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, ''', '&lsquo;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '-', '&ndash;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '—', '&mdash;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '...', '&hellip;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, 'é', '&eacute;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, 'è', '&egrave;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, 'ë', '&euml;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, 'ä', '&auml;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '  ', ' ');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_title = REPLACE(post_title, '"', '&ldquo;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_title = REPLACE(post_title, '"', '&rdquo;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_title = REPLACE(post_title, ''', '&rsquo;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_title = REPLACE(post_title, ''', '&lsquo;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_title = REPLACE(post_title, '-', '&ndash;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_title = REPLACE(post_title, '—', '&mdash;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_title = REPLACE(post_title, '...', '&hellip;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_title = REPLACE(post_title, 'é', '&eacute;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_title = REPLACE(post_title, 'è', '&egrave;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_title = REPLACE(post_title, 'ë', '&euml;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_title = REPLACE(post_title, 'ä', '&auml;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_title = REPLACE(post_title, '  ', ' ');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = REPLACE(post_excerpt, '"', '&ldquo;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = REPLACE(post_excerpt, '"', '&rdquo;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = REPLACE(post_excerpt, ''', '&rsquo;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = REPLACE(post_excerpt, ''', '&lsquo;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = REPLACE(post_excerpt, '-', '&ndash;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = REPLACE(post_excerpt, '—', '&mdash;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = REPLACE(post_excerpt, '...', '&hellip;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = REPLACE(post_excerpt, 'é', '&eacute;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = REPLACE(post_excerpt, 'è', '&egrave;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = REPLACE(post_excerpt, 'ë', '&euml;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = REPLACE(post_excerpt, 'ä', '&auml;');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = REPLACE(post_excerpt, '  ', ' ');

Create admin user

Connect to the DB with mysql, then:

SET @username = 'bluelight';
SET @password = MD5('BlueLight@WP');
SET @fullname = 'Blue Light Admin';
SET @email = 'bluelight@auroville.org.in';
SET @url = 'http://bluelightav.org/';
INSERT INTO `wp_users` (`user_login`, `user_pass`, `user_nicename`, `user_email`, `user_url`, `user_registered`, `user_status`, `display_name`) VALUES (@username, @password, @fullname, @email, @url, NOW(), '0', @fullname);
SET @userid = LAST_INSERT_ID();
INSERT INTO `wp_usermeta` (`user_id`, `meta_key`, `meta_value`) VALUES (@userid, 'wp_capabilities', 'a:1:{s:13:"administrator";s:1:"1";}');
INSERT INTO `wp_usermeta` (`user_id`, `meta_key`, `meta_value`) VALUES (@userid, 'wp_user_level', '10');