The ability to clone scripts within Softaculous is a valuable and often overlooked feature. It can quickly and easily provide a safe place for you to test updates or create an up-to-date development environment.
To start the cloning process, you’ll want to go to the All Installations section of Softaculous. For each installation you’ll then see the clone option.
Upon selecting clone, you’ll be prompted to configure where you would like to clone the installation to. We highly recommend creating a separate subdomain for this that is outside of the current site’s document root. This helps to avoid any cross contamination between the two sites, particularly as it relates to custom .htaccess settings.
Once you’ve cloned the installation, you’ll be able to see it listed on the All Installations page as shown below.
You can now safely work on the cloned copy of the script without causing any issues with the original. The entire process only takes a couple of minutes and provides an excellent safety net for testing changes without having to resort to restoring from a backup. If you’re testing something and it doesn’t work out, you can simply delete the clone and create another.