Title: Multiple WordPress Installations – One File Structure?
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# Multiple WordPress Installations – One File Structure?

 *  [Craig Watson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/craigwatson/)
 * (@craigwatson)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-wordpress-installations-one-file-structure/)
 * This may or may not be possible, but I thought I’d ask anyway.
 * Is there any way of running WordPress in such a way that you have multiple WordPress
   sites and databases, but one file structure?
 * The reason is that I run multiple WordPress websites (~3 at the moment but will
   probably expand) and have to remember to upgrade each site when a new version
   is released.
 * If I could have WordPress set out like the following, it would make the process
   a lot easier to manage:
 *     ```
       /home/user/wordpress: all WordPress base files (apart from wp-content)
       /home/user/public_html/site1, ./site2, ./hosted/site1 etc: site-specific wp-content and config.php files
       ```
   
 * I think this might be possible via Linux symlinks and .htaccess rewrites, but
   I’m unsure, and don’t really want to test things out on production blogs!
 * The idea behind having the base WordPress files below the public_html level is
   that only the relevant PHP files can be loaded via a browser, improving security
   and information hiding 🙂
 * Any help is appreciated 🙂

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  Thread Starter [Craig Watson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/craigwatson/)
 * (@craigwatson)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-wordpress-installations-one-file-structure/#post-1427291)
 * Nobody?
 *  [jjgp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jjgp/)
 * (@jjgp)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-wordpress-installations-one-file-structure/#post-1427337)
 * Hey Craig,
 * I am unsure exactly what you are after.
 * But I may have a suggestion.
 * I would recommend having sub-directories.
 * eg. [http://www.subdirectory.yourdomain.com](http://www.subdirectory.yourdomain.com)
 * Each sub-directory could be a new wp install.
 *  Thread Starter [Craig Watson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/craigwatson/)
 * (@craigwatson)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-wordpress-installations-one-file-structure/#post-1427553)
 * jjgp:
 * I’m a freelance web designer, with a few clients. Some already use WordPress,
   some I would like to migrate to WordPress. Having one complete WordPress installation
   per client soon gets hard to manage when I have to remember to apply updates 
   to four or five different WordPress installations every time.
 * All of my websites are hosted within the same file-structure, with domains being
   pointed to sub-folders. For example:
 * [http://www.cwatson.org/hosted/ukthrash](http://www.cwatson.org/hosted/ukthrash)
   is the same as [http://www.ukthrash.co.uk](http://www.ukthrash.co.uk)
 * What I would like to do is have one copy of the WordPress PHP files somewhere(
   ideally not accessible via HTTP but that’s a trivial issue) that each installation
   uses. Therefore when updating, all I have to do is update the one set of files,
   and run the database update for each installation.
 * I know it’s an unusual (and possibly) request, but it would make managing multiple
   WordPress installations a lot easier. I’m not after WordPress MU, as each website
   is a distinct, separate entity, with separate URLs.
 * Hopefully that’s a lot clearer 🙂
 * Craig

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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## Tags

 * [configuration](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/configuration/)
 * [file structure](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/file-structure/)
 * [wordpress installation](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/wordpress-installation/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Craig Watson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/craigwatson/)
 * Last activity: [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-wordpress-installations-one-file-structure/#post-1427553)
 * Status: not resolved

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