Note: The file descriptions on this page are for WordPress Version 2.x
Each file appearing in this list has been sorted into its directory of origin. A description of the purpose of the file and its possible dependencies appear after each.
WordPress Root
- index.php
- Core WordPress index. This is the file that produces the blog output.
- license.txt
- The WordPress GPL license file.
- my-hacks.php
- Contains supplemental routines that are processed before output is produced. This is not included in the default install, but is referenced by the administration page if available.
- readme.html
- Pre-install information about WordPress.
- wp-atom.php
- Produces Atom syndication output.
- wp-blog-header.php
- Decides what to display based on the parameters that are passed to the blog. Included from any page that wants to display WordPress content.
- wp-cron.php
- wp-comments-post.php
- Receives posted comments and adds them to the database.
- wp-commentsrss2.php
- Produces RSS2 syndication output of post comments.
- wp-config-sample.php
- A sample configuration file for connecting WordPress to your MySQL database.
- wp-config.php
- The actual configuration file used to connect WordPress to your MySQL database. This is not included in the default install, but must exist for successful operation of WordPress. You may need to edit this file to modify certain configuration settings.
- wp-feed.php
- Decides the type of feed to produce based on a request and re-routes to the correct feed-producing file.
- wp-links-opml.php
- Produces OPML output of Links that were added to the blog via the WordPress admin menu.
- wp-login.php
- The WordPress login page for registered users.
- wp-mail.php
- Used for obtaining blog posts that were submitted via email. The URL of this file is usually added to a cron job so that it is regularly retrieved, so that new email posts are accepted.
- wp-pass.php
- Accepts the password needed to view password-protected posts, then redirects back to the protected post.
- wp-rdf.php
- Produces RDF syndication output.
- wp-register.php
- Allows new users to register usernames in WordPress via an online form.
- wp-rss.php
- Produces RSS syndication output.
- wp-rss2.php
- Produces RSS2 syndication output.
- wp-settings.php
- Performs various pre-execution routines, including checking for correct installation, including auxiliary functions, applying user plugins, initializing execution timers, etc.
- wp-trackback.php
- Handles incoming trackback requests.
- wp.php
- A very simple template for displaying blog posts. Does not include a lot of the fancy but fragile features of index.php.
- xmlrpc.php
- Handles incoming xmlrpc commands. Among other things, this allows posting without using the built-in web-based administrative interface.
wp-admin
- wp-admin/admin.php
- The core of the admin files. Connects to the database, integrates the dynamic menu data, displays non-core console (dashboard) pages, etc.
- wp-admin/admin-db.php
- wp-admin/admin-footer.php
- Contains the bottom of the admin console. Included from each of the console pages.
- wp-admin/admin-functions.php
- Contains various functions used by the admin console.
- wp-admin/admin-header.php
- Contains the top half of the admin console. Includes menu-header.php for menu logic.
- wp-admin/bookmarklet.php
- The pop-up page that is displayed when using the bookmarklet. Uses the default edit-form.php page for post input.
- wp-admin/categories.php
- Admin console page for category management. See: Manage - Categories
- wp-admin/cat-js.php
- wp-admin/edit.php
- Admin console for post management. See: Manage - Posts
- wp-admin/edit-comments.php
- Admin console page for comment management. See: Manage - Comments
- wp-admin/edit-form-advanced.php
- Admin console page for the advanced post editing form. Included from post.php. See: Write - Write Post - Advanced
- wp-admin/edit-form.php
- Admin console page for the simple post editing form. Included from post.php. See: Write - Write Post
- wp-admin/edit-form-comment.php
- Edits a specific post comment.
- wp-admin/edit-form-ajax-cat.php
- wp-admin/edit-link-form.php
- wp-admin/edit-page-form.php
- Admin console page for editing pages. Included from post.php and page-new.php. See: Write - Write Page
- wp-admin/edit-pages.php
- Admin console for page management. See: Manage - Pages
- wp-admin/execute-pings.php
- wp-admin/import.php
- wp-admin/index.php
- The administrative default page. Redirects to an appropriate page based on user access.
- wp-admin/inline-uploading.php
- wp-admin/install-helper.php
- A set of functions for database maintenance, including the popular-in-plugins maybe_create_table() and maybe_add_column().
- wp-admin/install.php
- Installs WordPress.
- wp-admin/link-add.php
- Admin console page to add links. See: Links - Add Link
- wp-admin/link-categories.php
- Admin console page for link category management. See: Links - Link Categories
- wp-admin/link-import.php
- Admin console page used to import links. See: Links - Import Links
- wp-admin/link-manager.php
- Admin console page for link management. See: Links - Manage Links
- wp-admin/link-parse-opml.php
- Contains functions used to parse an OPML file when importing links.
- wp-admin/list-manipulation.js
- wp-admin/list-manipulation.php
- wp-admin/menu-header.php
- The file used to display the menu in the admin interface.
- wp-admin/menu.php
- The default admin menu structure.
- wp-admin/moderation.php
- Contains functions related to comments moderation.
- wp-admin/options.php
- Admin console file that can be used to change every settings in one update.
- wp-admin/options-discussion.php
- Admin console page to manage options regarding comments and trackbacks. See: Options - Discussion
- wp-admin/options-general.php
- Admin console page to manage options regarding basic configuartion settings. See: Options - General
- wp-admin/options-head.php
- wp-admin/options-misc.php
- Admin console page to manage options regarding file uploads, link tracking and support for custom "hacks". See: Options - Miscellaneous
- wp-admin/options-permalink.php
- Admin console page to manage options regarding permalinks. See: Options - Permalinks
- wp-admin/options-reading.php
- Admin console page to manage options regarding how the information from your site is sent to a reader's web browser or other application. See: Options - Reading
- wp-admin/options-writing.php
- Admin console page to manage options regarding the interface with which you write new posts. See: Options - Writing
- wp-admin/page-new.php
- Admin console page to create a new page.
- wp-admin/plugin-editor.php
- Admin console page to edit a plugin file.
- wp-admin/plugins.php
- Admin console page to manage plugins.
- wp-admin/post.php
- Admin console page to create a new post.
- wp-admin/profile-update.php
- wp-admin/profile.php
- Admin console page to manage your profile.
- wp-admin/setup-config.php
- Admin console page to create the wp-config.php file for the first time.
- wp-admin/sidebar.php
- wp-admin/templates.php
- Admin console page to edit any server-writeable file.
- wp-admin/theme-editor.php
- Admin console page to edit any file within a specific theme.
- wp-admin/themes.php
- Admin console page to manage themes.
- wp-admin/update-links.php
- wp-admin/upgrade-functions.php
- Contains functions related to version upgrading.
- wp-admin/upgrade-schema.php
- Contains default MySQL tables structure and default options, used when upgrading.
- wp-admin/upgrade.php
- Admin console page to upgrade froma lower version to a higher one.
- wp-admin/user-edit.php
- Admin console page to edit a user.
- wp-admin/users.php
- Admin console page to manage users.
- wp-admin/wp-admin.css
- The default stylesheet for the administrative console.
- wp-admin/xfn.js
wp-admin/images
This directory holds images associated and used by WordPress in the Administration Panels.
- wp-admin/images/box-bg.gif
- wp-admin/images/boxbg-left.gif
- wp-admin/images/boxbg-right.gif
- wp-admin/images/box-butt.gif
- wp-admin/images/box-butt-left.gif
- wp-admin/images/box-butt-right.gif
- wp-admin/images/box-head.gif
- wp-admin/images/box-head-left.gif
- wp-admin/images/browse-happy.gif
- wp-admin/images/fade-butt.png
- wp-admin/images/notice.gif
- wp-admin/images/toggle.gif
- wp-admin/images/wordpres-logo.png
wp-admin/import
- wp-admin/import/b2.php
- Used for importing posts from b2. See: Importing Content - b2
- wp-admin/import/blogger.php
- Used for importing posts from Blogger. See: Importing Content - Blogger
- wp-admin/import/dotclear.php
- wp-admin/import/greymatter.php
- Used for importing posts from Greymatter. See: Importing Content - Greymatter
- wp-admin/import/livejournal.php
- Used for importing posts from LiveJournal. See: Importing Content - LiveJournal
- wp-admin/import/mt.php
- Used for importing posts from Movable Type. See: Importing Content - Movable Type
- wp-admin/import/rss.php
- Used to import posts via RSS. See: Importing Content - RSS
- wp-admin/import/textpattern.php
- Used for importing posts from TextPattern. See: Importing Content - Textpattern
wp-content
This directory is typically not upgraded.
The /wp-content/ directory is for user-supplied content. WordPress upgrades are supposed to specifically avoid doing anything to any of the contents of this directory, unless the user wants the latest version of the default WordPress Themes.
WordPress Themes and WordPress Plugins are stored in this directory.
wp-content/plugins
All WordPress plugins are placed in this directory. The default plugin shipped with WordPress is an example plugin mostly for plugin developers, the Hello Dolly plugin, which displays random lines of the song "Hello Dolly." Current versions also inlude the Akismet comment spam fighting WordPress Plugin as an option.
- wp-content/plugins/hello.php
- wp-content/plugins/akismet.php
wp-content/themes
All WordPress Theme data is placed within this directory in its own folder such as example.com/wp-content/themes/themedirectory/.
wp-content/themes/themedir
All files associated with a WordPress Theme are stored in their own directory under the wp-content/themes/themedir directory. As an example of the Theme files, the typical files included in the WordPress Default Theme under /wp-content/themes/default/ would be:
- wp-content/themes/themedir/comments.php
- Used to manage how the comments are displayed.
- wp-content/themes/themedir/footer.php
- Used to manage the footer of the pages.
- wp-content/themes/themedir/header.php
- Used to manage the header of every page.
- wp-content/themes/themedir/index.php
- Used to manage how the posts are displayed in your homepage.
- wp-content/themes/themedir/search.php
- Used to display a search form to search for entries.
- wp-content/themes/themedir/sidebar.php
- Used to manage the sidebar.
- wp-content/themes/themedir/style.css
- The main CSS file of WordPress.
wp-content/themes/themedir/images
Some WordPress Themes store images in a subdirectory under their Theme folder. For example, images used by the default theme are in wp-content/themes/default/images/.
wp-includes
- wp-includes/cache.php
- wp-includes/capabilities.php
- wp-includes/class-IXR.php
- The Incutio XML-RPC Library. Contains XML RPC support functions. Supplied by http://scripts.incutio.com/xmlrpc/
- wp-includes/classes.php
- Contains basic classes including the core post-fetching mechanism, WP_Query, and the rewrite manger, WP_Rewrite.
- wp-includes/class-pop3.php
- Contains a support class for accessing POP mailboxes. Used by wp-mail.php
- wp-includes/class-snoopy.php
- Snoopy is a PHP class that simulates a web browser. It automates the task of retrieving web page content and posting forms, for example.
- wp-includes/comment-functions.php
- wp-includes/default-filters.php
- wp-includes/feed-functions.php
- wp-includes/functions-compat.php
- Contains support functions that are present in newer PHP versions that are used only when running on older PHP versions.
- wp-includes/functions-formatting.php
- Contains support functions for cleaning XHTML and formatting text correctly in certain character sets.
- wp-includes/functions-post.php
- Contains support functions for managing posts in the database, querying user capabilities, fetching and writing comments, etc.
- wp-includes/functions.php
- Contains numerous vital support functions. Largest file in WordPress -- almost double the next largest file.
- wp-includes/gettext.php
- Part of the PHP-gettext GPL translation library.
- wp-includes/kses.php
- Contains functions that are used to render and filter HTML in posts or comments.
- wp-includes/links.php
- Contains functions that are used to manage and use the Links feature of WordPress.
- wp-includes/locale.php
- Contains functions to replace default weekdays and months values.
- wp-includes/pluggable-functions.php
- wp-includes/registration-functions.php
- wp-includes/rss-functions.php
- wp-includes/streams.php
- Contains a class to wrap file streams, string streams.
- wp-includes/template-functions-author.php
- Contains theme functions related to the author of a post or a comment.
- wp-includes/template-functions-category.php
- Contains theme functions related to categories.
- wp-includes/template-functions-comment.php
- Contains theme functions related to comments.
- wp-includes/template-functions-general.php
- Contains general theme functions.
- wp-includes/template-functions-links.php
- Contains theme functions related to links
- wp-includes/template-functions-post.php
- Contains theme functions related to posts.
- wp-includes/template-functions.php
- Contains all the "template-" files above.
- wp-includes/template-loader.php
- wp-includes/vars.php
- Used to set miscellaneous variables.
- wp-includes/version.php
- Used to set the currently used WordPress version.
- wp-includes/wp-db.php
- Contains functions used to connect to the MySQL database.
- wp-includes/wp-l10n.php
- Contains functions used in multi-language support.
wp-includes/images
wp-includes/images/smilies
This is the directory that holds the smilies (emoticons) used in WordPress if the option is turned on. See Using Smilies for the full list.
wp-includes/js
- wp-includes/js/quicktags.js
- Javascript file that contains functions to manage the tags toolbox when editing posts or pages.
wp-includes/js/tinymce
This directory includes the files that run the Rich Text Editor in the Write Post panel.
wp-includes/languages
See: WordPress Localization