Installation using a command line interface (CLI)
From LimeSurvey Manual
Introduction
When doing automated installs like in a Virtual Machine setup, we can use use LimeSurvey's (v2.x referred to here) CLI (Command Line interface) to good effect. The files used for this purpose (and for resetting passwords as well) are in the WEBROOT/application/commands folder, the one of interest here being console.php.
Usage
cd /var/www/limesurvey/application/commands
php console.php
This will show:
Yii command runner (based on Yii v1.1.14) Usage: console.php <command-name> [parameters...] The following commands are available: - install - message - migrate - plugin - resetpassword - shell - webapp To see individual command help, use the following: console.php help <command-name>