id,summary,reporter,owner,description,type,status,priority,milestone,component,version,severity,resolution,keywords,cc,focuses 41783,allow loading wp-config.php (values) without DB bootstrap,drzraf,,"Directly related issue: [https://github.com/wp-cli/extension-command/issues/26 wp-cli plugin download command] ''wp-config.php'' is a fundamental and unique source of information about the WP instance. It contains information about database, but some others about languages/paths/... In some case we may want to provide preprovisionned WP instance but also about the to-be-instanciated installation: filesystem/plugin/themes/... to be provided in the filesystem *before* WP got installed). This may be the case when a team share a common WP filesystem image / Docker image / ... External tool (ex `wp-cli`) may benefit from loading not only the WP-core helpers (like, eg, `plugins_api()`), but also to know about some constants inside ''wp-config.php'' although DB is not yet available. An issue is that currently, loading ''wp-config.php'' forcefully attempt a DB connexion. This happens via the unconditional call to `wp_set_wpdb_vars()` inside ''wp-settings.php'' We rather should provide a mechanism to optionally disable such a behaviour. There already exist a '''SHORTINIT''' define. Could we introduce another one that may allow to load `wp-config.php` in a database-less environment? Indirectly related: [https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/41710 WP_* configuration constants from the environment] ",enhancement,new,normal,Awaiting Review,Bootstrap/Load,4.8.1,normal,,,,