mu-plugin folder not loaded when using pre-existing install

[Zealth57]

If you run wp-now from a folder that has an existing WordPress install with an mu-plugins folder, the mu-plugins folder from that install is not loaded or parsed causing the site to fatal error if any plugins try to use a function in them. The code from them is not loaded at all, so also any code you wanted to use won't work resulting in a broken site. It does have the mu-plugin 0-allow-wp-org.php and it does load the theme / regular plugins fine. Can we fix this so the wp-now will look at both the built-in mu-plugins folder and also ones devs implement on a site level?

[danielbachhuber]

Thanks for the report, @Zealth57 !

0-allow-wp-org.php

Is this on a WordPress.org repository? Can you provide specific steps to reproduce?

[Zealth57]

@danielbachhuber the 0-allow-wp-org.php is something that presumably came with the wp-now infrastructure. The contents of that file are:

<?php // Needed because gethostbyname( 'wordpress.org' ) returns // a private network IP address for some reason. add_filter( 'allowed_redirect_hosts', function( $deprecated = '' ) { return array( 'wordpress.org', 'api.wordpress.org', 'downloads.wordpress.org', ); } );

The file is located on my computer (mac) in ~/.wp-now/mu-plugins and was not added by me.

Steps to reproduce/understand the issue:

• Create a folder on your computer
• Download WordPress from wordpress.org and install WordPress using the 5 minute install
• Create a folder named mu-plugins inside your wp-content folder and add a file test.php with the following:
• <?php add_action('wp_head', function(){ echo '<h1>test</h1>'; });
• Run wp-now start in a terminal window from the folder you installed WordPress from
• Visit the frontend of your site and expect to see an <h1> output in your header. You can also login to your WordPress admin and go to the plugins section expecting to see 2 must-use plugins in the plugin section. Observe you only see 1 must-use plugin, which is the 0-allow-wp-org.php (again presumably added by wp-now)
• If you move test.php from your site's wp-content folder into ~/.wp-now/mu-plugins then you will correctly see multiple mu-plugins in your plugins section, and the 'test' will be properly output on the frontend

Essentially wp-now with existing WordPress websites (not when it spins up its own version of WP and wp-content) respects and uses the plugins/themes properly but it does not use the mu-plugins folder properly for some reason.

[danielbachhuber]

the 0-allow-wp-org.php is something that presumably came with the wp-now infrastructure.

@Zealth57 Oh right, good point.

Steps to reproduce/understand the issue:

Thanks! I'll check this out when I have a moment.

[danielbachhuber]

Interesting!

I reproduced the issue with the following steps:

1. I created a new WordPress install with WP-CLI: wp core download --path=wptest, wp core config, wp db create, wp core install
2. I added the mu-plugin you suggested to the install.
3. I ran wp-now start within the directory and noticed the mu-plugin wasn't loaded.

This seems like a bug! I've logged it accordingly. If you'd like to try your hand at a fix, here's the relevant code:

playground-tools/packages/wp-now/src/wp-now.ts

Lines 206 to 228 in 5a91ad0

	async function runWordPressMode(
	php: NodePHP,
	{ documentRoot, wpContentPath, projectPath, absoluteUrl }: WPNowOptions
	) {
	php.mount(projectPath, documentRoot);
	const { initializeDefaultDatabase } = await initWordPress(
	php,
	'user-provided',
	documentRoot,
	absoluteUrl
	);
	if (
	initializeDefaultDatabase ||
	fs.existsSync(path.join(wpContentPath, 'database'))
	) {
	mountSqlitePlugin(php, documentRoot);
	mountSqliteDatabaseDirectory(php, documentRoot, wpContentPath);
	}
	mountMuPlugins(php, documentRoot);
	}

[adamziel]

Surfacing feedback from .org Slack:

@StevenDufresne said:

We want to leverage wp-now to replace wp-env for our local work environments but we share plugin functionality across our themes via a centralized mu-plugins repository. If we can't load our mu-plugins, our sites won't work.

Also @Zealth57 said:

This singular drawback prevents my org from using wp-now at all too unfortunately. Seems like a really cool tool but non-starter not to allow mu-plugins