Multiple separated blogs administration.

First and to cut the “use multisite feature” argument that I already can see coming, let’s make my point here:

• In my work environnement, sharing db’s and user base especially is not an option.
• Having the ability to use different version of the same plugin is often required
• The all idea behind multisite wordpress feature doesn’t apply perfectly to me. (but still its a great feature !)

So considering the points above, I’m currently looking into a solution to make the administration of multiple websites more convenient.

Kind of a command line equivalent of a tool like drush for drupal.

Well my first concerns are:

1) Ease up the “create” and “update” process for multiple website.
I was thinking of using rsync to make it possible to create or update a bunch of blogs with a simple command without having to worry about config files wp-content folders and so on.

2) Have a plugin download and install feature. It would also be nice to have a way to download plugins directly from the plugins directory and make them available for installation from a centralized directory.

I’ve achieved to make multiple instance work by sharing the same code base using hardlinks. Though I don’t fully like to rely on hardlinks. I think copying the source code is not really a concern as far as you have an effective way to update it.

I’m just throwing ideas here guys, I’d like to hear from you and I’ll try to keep this topic updated.

If I see people interested I may start a project on google code or github and see how the thing goes.

regards.