Dependency Management with Composer:
PHP Reinvented

Nils Adermann

@naderman

Free Software Developer
https://github.com/naderman

phpBB Development Lead
https://www.phpbb.com

Composer Co-Author
https://getcomposer.org

Working at Forumatic
https://www.forumatic.com

Engine Yard Community Grant
https://www.engineyard.com

Package and Dependency Management elsewhere

Linux distros: RPM, APT, Portage, yum, Zypper
Java/JVM: Maven, Leiningen, sbt
Ruby: RubyGems, Bundler
Python: EasyInstall, PyPi
Javascript: npm, bower, component
PHP: copy 'n' paste, svn:externals, PEAR

Early 2011

phpBB Plugins

Symfony Bundles

The Composer Ecosystem

github.com/composer

The Composer Ecosystem

Composer - CLI Tool

Easy to use
Flexible and embeddable
Encourages best practices (PSRs, SPDX, semver)

The Composer Ecosystem

Packagist - Package Repository

Aggregates PHP libraries
Open to all OSS projects
Feeds on VCS (git, hg, svn) repositories

The Composer Ecosystem

Satis - Micro Repository

Minimalistic repository generator script
Useful for private projects

The Composer Ecosystem

Toran Proxy - Private Repository

Proxies Packagist & GitHub
Hosts private projects
Web Interface
Free for personal use, licenses support Composer

https://toranproxy.com

The Composer Ecosystem

composer/installers

Custom Package Installers for

MediaWiki
OXID
phpBB
PPI
SilverStripe
Symfony1
TYPO3 Flow
Wordpress
Zend Framework

CakePHP
CodeIgniter
Drupal
FuelPHP
Joomla!
Kohana
Laravel
Lithium
Magento

Usage Instructions

Using a project

git clone https://github.com/symfony/standard-edition myproject

Cloning into myproject...

cd myproject/

curl -s http://getcomposer.org/installer | php

All settings correct for using Composer
Composer successfully installed to: /home/bob/myproject/composer.phar

Use it: php composer.phar

Using a project

php composer.phar install

Installing from lock file
  - Package twig/extensions (dev-master)
    Downloading
    Unpacking archive
    Cleaning up

[...]

  - Package twig/twig (1.8.0)
    Downloading
    Unpacking archive
    Cleaning up

  - Package symfony/symfony (dev-master)
    Downloading
    Unpacking archive
    Cleaning up

Generating autoload files

Using a project

vendor/
    autoload.php
    composer/
    monolog/
        monolog/
    symfony/
        symfony/
        monolog-bundle/
    twig/
        twig/
        extensions/
    [...]

Downloading Project Dependencies

composer.json

Located in project root directory
Defines dependencies

{
    "require": {
        "silex/silex": ">=1.0.0-dev",
        "symfony/finder": "2.1-dev",
        "twig/twig": "1.*",
        "predis/service-provider": "dev-master"
        "symfony/console": "~2.1"
    },
    "require-dev": {
        "mikey179/vfsStream": "*"
    }
}

The composer.lock lifecycle

composer.json
↓

composer.lock
↓

vendor/

user defined, configuration, version constraints

composer update

generated, package metadata, specific versions

composer install

dependencies' code and autoloader

composer status

composer.lock

Must be committed in your VCS and shipped with your releases

Benefits

Same versions across a team
Same versions across servers
Tested versions for users

Autoloading

Libraries/projects define their namespaces:

"autoload": {
    "psr-0": {
        "Vendor\\Namespace\\Component": "oldsrc/"
    },
    "psr-4": {
        "Vendor\\Namespace\\Component": "src/"
    },
    "classmap": ["lib/", "VeryOld.php"]
}

PSR-0

oldsrc/Vendor/Namespace/Component/MyClass.php
oldsrc/Vendor/Namespace/Component/ThatClass.php

PSR-4

src/MyClass.php
src/ThatClass.php

Autoloading

Composer builds an autoloader for you:

vendor/autoload.php

Use the generated autoloader:

require __DIR__.'/../vendor/autoload.php';

use Silex\Application;
use Silex\Extension\TwigExtension;

use Symfony\Component\Finder\Finder;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;

$app = new Application();
// ...

Regenerating the autoloader

composer dump-autoload

composer dump-autoload --no-dev --optimize

Semantic Versioning

semver.org

MAJOR . MINOR . PATCH

1 . 2 . 3

MAJOR . MINOR . PATCH

Breaks Features Fixes

Dev
-> 0.1.0

Fixes
-> 0.1.1

Breaking changes
-> 0.2.0

First stable
-> 1.0.0

Fixes
-> 1.0.1

Fixes
-> 1.0.2

New features
-> 1.1.0

Breaking changes
-> 2.0.0

Version Constraints

Exact Match

1.0.0 1.2.3-beta2 dev-master

Range

1.0.* 2.*

Unbounded Range (BAD)

>=1.0

Operators

, = AND | = OR

Next Significant Release

~1.2 = >=1.2.0,<2.0.0

Next Significant Release ~

~1.2 = >=1.2,<2.0.0

~1.2.3 = >=1.2.3,<1.3.0

Next Significant Release ^

^1.2.3 = >=1.2.3,<2.0.0

Libraries should use ~ or ^

Composer Stabilities

Stabilities

dev -> alpha -> beta -> RC -> stable

Branches

2.0 -> 2.0.x-dev (dev)

master -> dev-master (dev)

lala-feature -> dev-lala-feature (dev)

Requiring Stability

"minimum-stability": "beta"

^1.2.3@alpha

>=1.2.3,<3.0.0@beta

composer update

--no-dev

--prefer-source

--prefer-dist

--prefer-stable

--prefer-lowest

--ignore-platform-reqs

Installing Satis

php composer.phar create-project composer/satis --stability=dev --keep-vcs

Configuring Satis

{
    "name": "My Repository",
    "homepage": "http://packages.example.org",
    "repositories": [
        {"type": "vcs", "url": "http://github.com/company/repo1"},
        {"type": "vcs", "url": "http://svn.example.org/repo"},
        {"type": "vcs", "url": "http://github.com/company/repo2"}
    ],
    "require-all": true
}

Configuring Satis

{
    "name": "My Repository",
    "homepage": "http://packages.example.org",
    "repositories": [
        {"type": "vcs", "url": "http://github.com/company/repo1"},
        {"type": "vcs", "url": "http://svn.example.org/repo"},
        {"type": "vcs", "url": "http://github.com/company/repo2"}
    ],
    "require": {
        "company/package": "*",
        "company/package2": "*",
        "company/package3": "2.0.0"
    }
}

Configuring Satis

{
    "archive": {
        "directory": "dist",
        "format": "tar",
        "prefix-url": "https://amazing.cdn.example.org",
        "skip-dev": true
    }
}

Building the Satis Repository

php bin/satis build config.json web/

Using a Satis Repository

"repositories": [{
    "type": "composer",
    "url": "http://p.example.org/"
}],

System-wide Satis Repository

*nix: /home/example/.composer/config.json

Windows: C:\Users\example\AppData\Roaming\Composer\config.json

{
    "repositories": [
        {
            "type": "composer",
            "url": "http://p.example.org/"
        }
    ]
}

Use composer config -g -e to open the file

PHP Reinvented?

PHP Depenency Management Reinvented

User describes system state

Tool maintains system state

Familiar?

Puppet/Chef/Ansible/Salt

Dependency Management with Composer:PHP Reinvented

Nils Adermann

@naderman

Package and Dependency Management elsewhere

Early 2011

phpBB Plugins

Symfony Bundles

The Composer Ecosystem

The Composer Ecosystem

Composer - CLI Tool

The Composer Ecosystem

Packagist - Package Repository

The Composer Ecosystem

Satis - Micro Repository

The Composer Ecosystem

Toran Proxy - Private Repository

The Composer Ecosystem

composer/installers

Custom Package Installers for

Usage Instructions

Using a project

Using a project

Using a project

Downloading Project Dependencies

composer.json

The composer.lock lifecycle

composer.json↓

composer.lock↓

vendor/

composer.lock

Must be committed in your VCS and shipped with your releases

Benefits

Autoloading

PSR-0

PSR-4

Autoloading

Semantic Versioning

semver.org

MAJOR . MINOR . PATCH

1 . 2 . 3

MAJOR . MINOR . PATCH

Breaks Features Fixes

Dev -> 0.1.0

Fixes -> 0.1.1

Breaking changes -> 0.2.0

First stable -> 1.0.0

Fixes -> 1.0.1

Fixes -> 1.0.2

New features -> 1.1.0

Breaking changes -> 2.0.0

Version Constraints

Exact Match

1.0.0 1.2.3-beta2 dev-master

Range

1.0.* 2.*

Unbounded Range (BAD)

>=1.0

Operators

, = AND | = OR

Next Significant Release

~1.2 = >=1.2.0,<2.0.0

Next Significant Release ~

~1.2 = >=1.2,<2.0.0

~1.2.3 = >=1.2.3,<1.3.0

Next Significant Release ^

^1.2.3 = >=1.2.3,<2.0.0

Libraries should use ~ or ^

Composer Stabilities

Stabilities

dev -> alpha -> beta -> RC -> stable

Tags

2.0.2 -> stable

2.0.0-beta2 -> beta

Branches

2.0 -> 2.0.x-dev (dev)

master -> dev-master (dev)

lala-feature -> dev-lala-feature (dev)

Requiring Stability

"minimum-stability": "beta"

^1.2.3@alpha

Dependency Management with Composer:
PHP Reinvented

composer.json
↓

composer.lock
↓

Dev
-> 0.1.0

Fixes
-> 0.1.1

Breaking changes
-> 0.2.0

First stable
-> 1.0.0

Fixes
-> 1.0.1

Fixes
-> 1.0.2

New features
-> 1.1.0

Breaking changes
-> 2.0.0