WordPress with SQLite

by Daniel Loureiro - June 16, 2019

WordPress with SQLite

WordPress only supports MySQL, but with this plugin created by kjmtsh you can use SQLite instead.

The plugin was created a long time ago but still works like a charm on the current latest WP version (v5.2 – Jun 2019).

This solution is not meant to be used in production for large websites, but it can be an interesting option if you have a small blog with few visitors. An SQLite version works better than MySQL on a server with very limited resources.

By the way, this blog runs on SQLite ;)

To migrate an existing site, see instructions at the end.

0. Same tutorial as video (3 min, no sound):

1. Download WordPress and “SQLite Integration“:


wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
wget https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/sqlite-integration.1.8.1.zip
ls
(out)latest.tar.gz  sqlite-integration.1.8.1.zip

2. Extract files:


tar -xf latest.tar.gz
unzip sqlite-integration.1.8.1.zip
ls
(out)latest.tar.gz  wordpress  sqlite-integration.1.8.1.zip  sqlite-integration

3. Remove zip files (optional, for cleanup):


rm latest.tar.gz
rm sqlite-integration.1.8.1.zip
ls
(out)wordpress  sqlite-integration

4. Move plugin to wp-content/plugins:


mv sqlite-integration wordpress/wp-content/plugins/

5. Move db.php to wp-content:


cd wordpress
mv wp-content/plugins/sqlite-integration/db.php wp-content/
ls wp-content
(out)db.php  index.php  plugins  themes

6. Transform wp-config-sample.php into wp-config.php:


mv wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

7. Run the WP installer as usual:

Start webserver:


php -S localhost:3000
(out)PHP 7.3.6-1 Development Server started at Sun Jun 16 22:29:00 2019
(out)Listening on http://localhost:3000
(out)Document root is /home/daniel/wordpress
(out)Press Ctrl-C to quit.

Open the page (http://localhost:3000/) and proceed with the installation.

No need to provide database information (the step will be skipped):

Troubleshooting:

  1. If you see the “PDO Driver for SQLite is missing” error, install the php-sqlite package and restart the service:

Migrating an existing website:

NO NEED to convert MySQL to SQLite.
Just use Duplicator (or any other migration plugin).

Install a brand new copy of WordPress with SQLite, then:

  1. Install Duplicator plugin on both websites (existing and brand new copy instances);
  2. Do a backup of your existing website using Duplicator;
  3. Restore the backup on the brand new instance using Duplicator’s “restore”;
  4. Done!
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