Drush in Drupal: a detailed guide to mastering the command line

If you administer, develop, or manage a Drupal website, you’ve probably heard of Drush. This powerful command-line tool has changed the way professionals interact with and manage their Drupal projects, saving time and eliminating dozens of repetitive day-to-day steps.

In this article you’ll discover what Drush is, what it’s used for in Drupal, and how you can take full advantage of it. We’ll cover installation, core commands, advanced use cases, and fixes for common issues so you can optimize both routine and complex tasks. If you want to become a pro at managing your Drupal site, read on—we explain everything clearly and to the point.

What is Drush and why is it so important for Drupal?

Drush (short for “Drupal Shell”) is a PHP-based command-line utility designed exclusively to streamline the administration and development of Drupal websites. It works both as a direct interface for everyday tasks—ones that usually take multiple clicks in the GUI—and as an essential tool for process automation, scripting, and deployment workflows.

Drush’s main advantage is the speed and efficiency it gives system administrators, developers, and power users alike. With a single terminal command you can, for example, enable or disable modules, clear caches, run database updates, or export and import configuration.

Its use has become a standard within the Drupal community thanks to the time it saves and the manual errors it reduces. Drush also slips neatly into CI/CD pipelines, daily operations, and maintenance tasks, making it a key piece for anyone who wants to professionalize Drupal project management.

Who is Drush for?

• Developers: If coding is your day-to-day, you customize modules, generate code, manage deployments, or need to automate processes, Drush is your best ally.
• System administrators: If you handle maintenance, backups, database tuning, or deployments, Drush lets you perform these operations far more quickly and safely.
• Power users: Those who aren’t necessarily programmers but are comfortable in the terminal and want to save time and gain control over Drupal management.

Key advantages of using Drush in Drupal

• Speed and efficiency in administration: Forget navigating countless menus and tabs. With Drush, tasks like clearing caches, managing users, or checking system status take seconds and happen in one place.
• Automation of repetitive tasks: Via scripts and customizable commands you can automate everything from updates to backups, cutting risk and boosting reliability.
• Advanced configuration management: Exporting and importing config, syncing environments, and keeping dev, staging, and production in step is much simpler and safer with Drush.
• Fast, safe updates: Updating modules, themes, or Drupal core can be a headache. Drush systematizes these processes and lets you perform multiple updates at once.
• Efficient database management: Backing up, restoring, optimizing, or importing/exporting databases is just a command away—vital for testing, recovery, or migration.
• Remote server interaction: Manage remote Drupal installs over SSH, letting you administer multiple sites centrally and efficiently.

Drush compatibility: Drupal and PHP versions

Before installing Drush, check that the Drush, Drupal, and PHP versions are compatible. Here’s a quick reference:

Tip: To install the latest Drush version, make sure you have PHP 8.2+ and Drupal 9.5+.

Installing Drush step by step

The recommended and safest way to install Drush is with Composer. Follow this standard process:

1. Open a terminal on your server: If you have SSH, connect to your server. If you use a control panel like cPanel, look for the Terminal option.
2. Go to your Drupal project root: Use cd /path-to-your-drupal-site.
3. Run the install: Add Drush as a project dependency:
   • composer require drush/drush
4. Confirm the install: Check with:
   • ./vendor/bin/drush --version
5. Make Drush easy to call: Add ./vendor/bin to your PATH so you can just type drush instead of the full path.

Note: If you need a specific Drush version, specify it explicitly, e.g. composer require drush/drush:^12

How to run commands with Drush

Once Drush is installed, stand in the project root and type drush. If PATH is set, you can run commands without the path prefix. Examples:

• drush en module_name – Enable a module
• drush pmu module_name – Disable a module
• drush cr – Clear all caches
• drush sql-dump --result-file=/path/backup.sql – Back up the database
• drush sql-cli < /path/backup.sql – Restore a database
• drush core:status – Show site status
• drush config:import and drush config:export – Import and export config
• drush updatedb – Run pending DB updates
• drush cron – Run Drupal cron tasks

Tip: To list all available commands, run drush or drush list. For command-specific help, run drush help command_name.

Must-know basic and advanced Drush commands

• Create and manage content: Everything from user creation to roles and permissions can be handled in the console.
• Module and theme management: Install, enable, disable, and update with straightforward commands—for example, composer require drupal/module_name then drush en module_name.
• Database management: Back up, restore, and optimize—ideal for moving environments or keeping the site safe.
• Automated deployments: Use drush deploy to run DB updates, clear caches, import config, and run update hooks in a single flow.
• Code generators: Drush includes utilities to scaffold custom modules, plugins, entities, and more, speeding development and reducing common errors.
• Remote interaction: Work against remote servers or multisite setups over SSH—great for distributed teams or high-availability environments.

Creating custom modules with Drush

Building a custom Drupal module is much faster with Drush thanks to its code generators.

1. Generate the module skeleton: Run drush generate module and answer the wizard prompts. You’ll get key files like .info.yml, .module, and .routing.yml.
2. Define routes: Edit .routing.yml to specify how Drupal should respond to your custom functionality.
3. Add the logic: Put your code in .module, setting up controllers, permissions, services, or whatever your project needs.
4. Enable and test: Run drush en module_name and thoroughly test the new routes and features.

This approach slashes the time needed to create a solid module skeleton and standardizes development to Drupal best practices.

Common issues and solutions when using Drush

• “PHP version not supported”: Ensure your PHP version matches your Drush version. Update PHP via your hosting panel or CLI if necessary.
• “Drupal site not found”: You’re probably not in the project root. Check the path and try again.
• “Database connection failed”: Verify credentials in settings.php; typos or password changes are typical culprits.
• “Drush requires the ‘drupal/core’ package”: Run composer require drupal/core to ensure the required Drupal core is installed.

Why is Drush so popular in the Drupal community?

Drush has become indispensable for any professional Drupal team. Its integration into daily workflows, the ability to create custom commands, its active development community, and constant support for new Drupal versions make Drush the natural, recommended choice.

Many third-party modules also expose extra functionality via Drush commands, enabling tasks such as rebuilding search indexes, purging advanced caches, or importing external data—all without leaving the terminal.

Putting it all into practice: real-world Drush workflows

Suppose you need to deploy changes to production. A typical flow might be:

1. Back up the database: drush sql-dump --result-file=/path/backup.sql
2. Update code via Composer
3. Apply database updates: drush updatedb
4. Import new config: drush config:import
5. Clear all caches: drush cr
6. Check site status: drush core:status

All from a single terminal in just minutes—safer and easy to automate in CI pipelines.

Advanced tips and handy tricks

• Increase verbosity: Use -v, -vv, or -vvv for more detailed output—great for debugging.
• Auto-confirm prompts: The -y flag skips confirmation questions—perfect for scripts and automation.
• Create your own commands: Drush’s API lets you craft custom commands tailored to your project.
• Leverage generators: Since version 10, drush generate can scaffold entities, modules, controllers, and more—saving hours of repetitive work.

Drush has established itself as the Swiss Army knife for anyone managing Drupal sites. Its ease of use, compatibility with modern environments, and the huge community behind it make this tool the reference for professionalizing, automating, and simplifying Drupal work. By integrating Drush into your workflow, daily management, deployments, and development become much faster, safer, and more efficient. If you’re not using it yet, now is a great time to start and unlock its full potential.