# Command-line interface / Commands

You've already learned how to use the command-line interface to do some
things. This chapter documents all the available commands.

To get help from the command-line, simply call `composer` or `composer list`
to see the complete list of commands, then `--help` combined with any of those
can give you more information.

## Global Options

The following options are available with every command:

* **--verbose (-v):** Increase verbosity of messages.
* **--help (-h):** Display help information.
* **--quiet (-q):** Do not output any message.
* **--no-interaction (-n):** Do not ask any interactive question.
* **--working-dir (-d):** If specified, use the given directory as working directory.
* **--profile:** Display timing and memory usage information
* **--ansi:** Force ANSI output.
* **--no-ansi:** Disable ANSI output.
* **--version (-V):** Display this application version.

## Process Exit Codes

* **0:** OK
* **1:** Generic/unknown error code
* **2:** Dependency solving error code

## init

In the [Libraries](02-libraries.md) chapter we looked at how to create a
`composer.json` by hand. There is also an `init` command available that makes
it a bit easier to do this.

When you run the command it will interactively ask you to fill in the fields,
while using some smart defaults.

```sh
php composer.phar init
```

### Options

* **--name:** Name of the package.
* **--description:** Description of the package.
* **--author:** Author name of the package.
* **--homepage:** Homepage of the package.
* **--require:** Package to require with a version constraint. Should be
  in format `foo/bar:1.0.0`.
* **--require-dev:** Development requirements, see **--require**.
* **--stability (-s):** Value for the `minimum-stability` field.

## install

The `install` command reads the `composer.json` file from the current
directory, resolves the dependencies, and installs them into `vendor`.

```sh
php composer.phar install
```

If there is a `composer.lock` file in the current directory, it will use the
exact versions from there instead of resolving them. This ensures that
everyone using the library will get the same versions of the dependencies.

If there is no `composer.lock` file, Composer will create one after dependency
resolution.

### Options

* **--prefer-source:** There are two ways of downloading a package: `source`
  and `dist`. For stable versions Composer will use the `dist` by default.
  The `source` is a version control repository. If `--prefer-source` is
  enabled, Composer will install from `source` if there is one. This is
  useful if you want to make a bugfix to a project and get a local git
  clone of the dependency directly.
* **--prefer-dist:** Reverse of `--prefer-source`, Composer will install
  from `dist` if possible. This can speed up installs substantially on build
  servers and other use cases where you typically do not run updates of the
  vendors. It is also a way to circumvent problems with git if you do not
  have a proper setup.
* **--ignore-platform-reqs:** ignore `php`, `hhvm`, `lib-*` and `ext-*`
  requirements and force the installation even if the local machine does not
  fulfill these. See also the [`platform`](06-config.md#platform) config option.
* **--dry-run:** If you want to run through an installation without actually
  installing a package, you can use `--dry-run`. This will simulate the
  installation and show you what would happen.
* **--dev:** Install packages listed in `require-dev` (this is the default behavior).
* **--no-dev:** Skip installing packages listed in `require-dev`. The autoloader
  generation skips the `autoload-dev` rules.
* **--no-autoloader:** Skips autoloader generation.
* **--no-scripts:** Skips execution of scripts defined in `composer.json`.
* **--no-plugins:** Disables plugins.
* **--no-progress:** Removes the progress display that can mess with some
  terminals or scripts which don't handle backspace characters.
* **--optimize-autoloader (-o):** Convert PSR-0/4 autoloading to classmap to get a faster
  autoloader. This is recommended especially for production, but can take
  a bit of time to run so it is currently not done by default.

## update

In order to get the latest versions of the dependencies and to update the
`composer.lock` file, you should use the `update` command.

```sh
php composer.phar update
```

This will resolve all dependencies of the project and write the exact versions
into `composer.lock`.

If you just want to update a few packages and not all, you can list them as such:

```sh
php composer.phar update vendor/package vendor/package2
```

You can also use wildcards to update a bunch of packages at once:

```sh
php composer.phar update vendor/*
```

### Options

* **--prefer-source:** Install packages from `source` when available.
* **--prefer-dist:** Install packages from `dist` when available.
* **--ignore-platform-reqs:** ignore `php`, `hhvm`, `lib-*` and `ext-*`
  requirements and force the installation even if the local machine does not
  fulfill these. See also the [`platform`](06-config.md#platform) config option.
* **--dry-run:** Simulate the command without actually doing anything.
* **--dev:** Install packages listed in `require-dev` (this is the default behavior).
* **--no-dev:** Skip installing packages listed in `require-dev`. The autoloader generation skips the `autoload-dev` rules.
* **--no-autoloader:** Skips autoloader generation.
* **--no-scripts:** Skips execution of scripts defined in `composer.json`.
* **--no-plugins:** Disables plugins.
* **--no-progress:** Removes the progress display that can mess with some
  terminals or scripts which don't handle backspace characters.
* **--optimize-autoloader (-o):** Convert PSR-0/4 autoloading to classmap to get a faster
  autoloader. This is recommended especially for production, but can take
  a bit of time to run so it is currently not done by default.
* **--lock:** Only updates the lock file hash to suppress warning about the
  lock file being out of date.
* **--with-dependencies:** Add also all dependencies of whitelisted packages to the whitelist.
* **--prefer-stable:** Prefer stable versions of dependencies.
* **--prefer-lowest:** Prefer lowest versions of dependencies. Useful for testing minimal
  versions of requirements, generally used with `--prefer-stable`.

## require

The `require` command adds new packages to the `composer.json` file from
the current directory. If no file exists one will be created on the fly.

```sh
php composer.phar require
```

After adding/changing the requirements, the modified requirements will be
installed or updated.

If you do not want to choose requirements interactively, you can just pass them
to the command.

```sh
php composer.phar require vendor/package:2.* vendor/package2:dev-master
```

### Options

* **--prefer-source:** Install packages from `source` when available.
* **--prefer-dist:** Install packages from `dist` when available.
* **--ignore-platform-reqs:** ignore `php`, `hhvm`, `lib-*` and `ext-*`
  requirements and force the installation even if the local machine does not
  fulfill these. See also the [`platform`](06-config.md#platform) config option.
* **--dev:** Add packages to `require-dev`.
* **--no-update:** Disables the automatic update of the dependencies.
* **--no-progress:** Removes the progress display that can mess with some
  terminals or scripts which don't handle backspace characters.
* **--update-no-dev:** Run the dependency update with the `--no-dev` option.
* **--update-with-dependencies:** Also update dependencies of the newly
  required packages.
* **--sort-packages:** Keep packages sorted in `composer.json`.

## remove

The `remove` command removes packages from the `composer.json` file from
the current directory.

```sh
php composer.phar remove vendor/package vendor/package2
```

After removing the requirements, the modified requirements will be
uninstalled.

### Options
* **--ignore-platform-reqs:** ignore `php`, `hhvm`, `lib-*` and `ext-*`
  requirements and force the installation even if the local machine does not
  fulfill these. See also the [`platform`](06-config.md#platform) config option.
* **--dev:** Remove packages from `require-dev`.
* **--no-update:** Disables the automatic update of the dependencies.
* **--no-progress:** Removes the progress display that can mess with some
  terminals or scripts which don't handle backspace characters.
* **--update-no-dev:** Run the dependency update with the --no-dev option.
* **--update-with-dependencies:** Also update dependencies of the removed packages.

## global

The global command allows you to run other commands like `install`, `require`
or `update` as if you were running them from the [COMPOSER_HOME](#composer-home)
directory.

This can be used to install CLI utilities globally and if you add
`$COMPOSER_HOME/vendor/bin` to your `$PATH` environment variable. Here is an
example:

```sh
php composer.phar global require fabpot/php-cs-fixer:dev-master
```

Now the `php-cs-fixer` binary is available globally (assuming you adjusted
your PATH). If you wish to update the binary later on you can just run a
global update:

```sh
php composer.phar global update
```

## search

The search command allows you to search through the current project's package
repositories. Usually this will be just packagist. You simply pass it the
terms you want to search for.

```sh
php composer.phar search monolog
```

You can also search for more than one term by passing multiple arguments.

### Options

* **--only-name (-N):** Search only in name.

## show

To list all of the available packages, you can use the `show` command.

```sh
php composer.phar show
```

If you want to see the details of a certain package, you can pass the package
name.

```sh
php composer.phar show monolog/monolog

name     : monolog/monolog
versions : master-dev, 1.0.2, 1.0.1, 1.0.0, 1.0.0-RC1
type     : library
names    : monolog/monolog
source   : [git] https://github.com/Seldaek/monolog.git 3d4e60d0cbc4b888fe5ad223d77964428b1978da
dist     : [zip] https://github.com/Seldaek/monolog/zipball/3d4e60d0cbc4b888fe5ad223d77964428b1978da 3d4e60d0cbc4b888fe5ad223d77964428b1978da
license  : MIT

autoload
psr-0
Monolog : src/

requires
php >=5.3.0
```

You can even pass the package version, which will tell you the details of that
specific version.

```sh
php composer.phar show monolog/monolog 1.0.2
```

### Options

* **--installed (-i):** List the packages that are installed.
* **--platform (-p):** List only platform packages (php & extensions).
* **--self (-s):** List the root package info.

## browse / home

The `browse` (aliased to `home`) opens a package's repository URL or homepage
in your browser.

### Options

* **--homepage (-H):** Open the homepage instead of the repository URL.

## suggests

Lists all packages suggested by currently installed set of packages. You can
optionally pass one or multiple package names in the format of `vendor/package`
to limit output to suggestions made by those packages only.

### Options

* **--no-dev:** Excludes suggestions from `require-dev` packages.
* **--verbose (-v):** Increased verbosity adds suggesting package name and
  reason for suggestion.

## depends

The `depends` command tells you which other packages depend on a certain
package. You can specify which link types (`require`, `require-dev`)
should be included in the listing. By default both are used.

```sh
php composer.phar depends --link-type=require monolog/monolog

nrk/monolog-fluent
poc/poc
propel/propel
symfony/monolog-bridge
symfony/symfony
```

### Options

* **--link-type:** The link types to match on, can be specified multiple
  times.

## validate

You should always run the `validate` command before you commit your
`composer.json` file, and before you tag a release. It will check if your
`composer.json` is valid.

```sh
php composer.phar validate
```

### Options

* **--no-check-all:** Do not emit a warning if requirements in `composer.json` use unbound version constraints.
* **--no-check-publish:** Do not emit an error if `composer.json` is unsuitable for publishing as a package on Packagist but is otherwise valid.


## status

If you often need to modify the code of your dependencies and they are
installed from source, the `status` command allows you to check if you have
local changes in any of them.

```sh
php composer.phar status
```

With the `--verbose` option you get some more information about what was
changed:

```sh
php composer.phar status -v

You have changes in the following dependencies:
vendor/seld/jsonlint:
    M README.mdown
```

## self-update

To update Composer itself to the latest version, just run the `self-update`
command. It will replace your `composer.phar` with the latest version.

```sh
php composer.phar self-update
```

If you would like to instead update to a specific release simply specify it:

```sh
php composer.phar self-update 1.0.0-alpha7
```

If you have installed Composer for your entire system (see [global installation](00-intro.md#globally)),
you may have to run the command with `root` privileges

```sh
sudo composer self-update
```

### Options

* **--rollback (-r):** Rollback to the last version you had installed.
* **--clean-backups:** Delete old backups during an update. This makes the
  current version of Composer the only backup available after the update.

## config

The `config` command allows you to edit some basic Composer settings in either
the local composer.json file or the global config.json file.

```sh
php composer.phar config --list
```

### Usage

`config [options] [setting-key] [setting-value1] ... [setting-valueN]`

`setting-key` is a configuration option name and `setting-value1` is a
configuration value.  For settings that can take an array of values (like
`github-protocols`), more than one setting-value arguments are allowed.

See the [Config](06-config.md) chapter for valid configuration options.

### Options

* **--global (-g):** Operate on the global config file located at
  `$COMPOSER_HOME/config.json` by default.  Without this option, this command
  affects the local composer.json file or a file specified by `--file`.
* **--editor (-e):** Open the local composer.json file using in a text editor as
  defined by the `EDITOR` env variable.  With the `--global` option, this opens
  the global config file.
* **--unset:** Remove the configuration element named by `setting-key`.
* **--list (-l):** Show the list of current config variables.  With the `--global`
  option this lists the global configuration only.
* **--file="..." (-f):** Operate on a specific file instead of composer.json. Note
  that this cannot be used in conjunction with the `--global` option.
* **--absolute:** Returns absolute paths when fetching *-dir config values
  instead of relative.

### Modifying Repositories

In addition to modifying the config section, the `config` command also supports making
changes to the repositories section by using it the following way:

```sh
php composer.phar config repositories.foo vcs https://github.com/foo/bar
```

## create-project

You can use Composer to create new projects from an existing package. This is
the equivalent of doing a git clone/svn checkout followed by a "composer install"
of the vendors.

There are several applications for this:

1. You can deploy application packages.
2. You can check out any package and start developing on patches for example.
3. Projects with multiple developers can use this feature to bootstrap the
   initial application for development.

To create a new project using Composer you can use the "create-project" command.
Pass it a package name, and the directory to create the project in. You can also
provide a version as third argument, otherwise the latest version is used.

If the directory does not currently exist, it will be created during installation.

```sh
php composer.phar create-project doctrine/orm path 2.2.*
```

It is also possible to run the command without params in a directory with an
existing `composer.json` file to bootstrap a project.

By default the command checks for the packages on packagist.org.

### Options

* **--repository-url:** Provide a custom repository to search for the package,
  which will be used instead of packagist. Can be either an HTTP URL pointing
  to a `composer` repository, or a path to a local `packages.json` file.
* **--stability (-s):** Minimum stability of package. Defaults to `stable`.
* **--prefer-source:** Install packages from `source` when available.
* **--prefer-dist:** Install packages from `dist` when available.
* **--dev:** Install packages listed in `require-dev`.
* **--no-install:** Disables installation of the vendors.
* **--no-plugins:** Disables plugins.
* **--no-scripts:** Disables the execution of the scripts defined in the root
  package.
* **--no-progress:** Removes the progress display that can mess with some
  terminals or scripts which don't handle backspace characters.
* **--keep-vcs:** Skip the deletion of the VCS metadata for the created
  project. This is mostly useful if you run the command in non-interactive
  mode.
* **--ignore-platform-reqs:** ignore `php`, `hhvm`, `lib-*` and `ext-*`
  requirements and force the installation even if the local machine does not
  fulfill these.

## dump-autoload

If you need to update the autoloader because of new classes in a classmap
package for example, you can use "dump-autoload" to do that without having to
go through an install or update.

Additionally, it can dump an optimized autoloader that converts PSR-0/4 packages
into classmap ones for performance reasons. In large applications with many
classes, the autoloader can take up a substantial portion of every request's
time. Using classmaps for everything is less convenient in development, but
using this option you can still use PSR-0/4 for convenience and classmaps for
performance.

### Options

* **--optimize (-o):** Convert PSR-0/4 autoloading to classmap to get a faster
  autoloader. This is recommended especially for production, but can take
  a bit of time to run so it is currently not done by default.
* **--no-dev:** Disables autoload-dev rules.

## clear-cache

Deletes all content from Composer's cache directories.

## licenses

Lists the name, version and license of every package installed. Use
`--format=json` to get machine readable output.

### Options

* **--no-dev:** Remove dev dependencies from the output
* **--format:** Format of the output: text or json (default: "text")

## run-script

### Options

* **--no-dev:** Disable dev mode
* **--list:** List user defined scripts

To run [scripts](articles/scripts.md) manually you can use this command,
just give it the script name and optionally any required arguments.

## diagnose

If you think you found a bug, or something is behaving strangely, you might
want to run the `diagnose` command to perform automated checks for many common
problems.

```sh
php composer.phar diagnose
```

## archive

This command is used to generate a zip/tar archive for a given package in a
given version. It can also be used to archive your entire project without
excluded/ignored files.

```sh
php composer.phar archive vendor/package 2.0.21 --format=zip
```

### Options

* **--format (-f):** Format of the resulting archive: tar or zip (default:
  "tar")
* **--dir:** Write the archive to this directory (default: ".")

## help

To get more information about a certain command, just use `help`.

```sh
php composer.phar help install
```

## Environment variables

You can set a number of environment variables that override certain settings.
Whenever possible it is recommended to specify these settings in the `config`
section of `composer.json` instead. It is worth noting that the env vars will
always take precedence over the values specified in `composer.json`.

### COMPOSER

By setting the `COMPOSER` env variable it is possible to set the filename of
`composer.json` to something else.

For example:

```sh
COMPOSER=composer-other.json php composer.phar install
```

### COMPOSER_ROOT_VERSION

By setting this var you can specify the version of the root package, if it can
not be guessed from VCS info and is not present in `composer.json`.

### COMPOSER_VENDOR_DIR

By setting this var you can make Composer install the dependencies into a
directory other than `vendor`.

### COMPOSER_BIN_DIR

By setting this option you can change the `bin` ([Vendor Binaries](articles/vendor-binaries.md))
directory to something other than `vendor/bin`.

### http_proxy or HTTP_PROXY

If you are using Composer from behind an HTTP proxy, you can use the standard
`http_proxy` or `HTTP_PROXY` env vars. Simply set it to the URL of your proxy.
Many operating systems already set this variable for you.

Using `http_proxy` (lowercased) or even defining both might be preferable since
some tools like git or curl will only use the lower-cased `http_proxy` version.
Alternatively you can also define the git proxy using
`git config --global http.proxy <proxy url>`.

### no_proxy

If you are behind a proxy and would like to disable it for certain domains, you
can use the `no_proxy` env var. Simply set it to a comma separated list of
domains the proxy should *not* be used for.

The env var accepts domains, IP addresses, and IP address blocks in CIDR
notation. You can restrict the filter to a particular port (e.g. `:80`). You
can also set it to `*` to ignore the proxy for all HTTP requests.

### HTTP_PROXY_REQUEST_FULLURI

If you use a proxy but it does not support the request_fulluri flag, then you
should set this env var to `false` or `0` to prevent Composer from setting the
request_fulluri option.

### HTTPS_PROXY_REQUEST_FULLURI

If you use a proxy but it does not support the request_fulluri flag for HTTPS
requests, then you should set this env var to `false` or `0` to prevent Composer
from setting the request_fulluri option.

### COMPOSER_HOME

The `COMPOSER_HOME` var allows you to change the Composer home directory. This
is a hidden, global (per-user on the machine) directory that is shared between
all projects.

By default it points to `/home/<user>/.composer` on \*nix,
`/Users/<user>/.composer` on OSX and
`C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Composer` on Windows.

#### COMPOSER_HOME/config.json

You may put a `config.json` file into the location which `COMPOSER_HOME` points
to. Composer will merge this configuration with your project's `composer.json`
when you run the `install` and `update` commands.

This file allows you to set [repositories](05-repositories.md) and
[configuration](06-config.md) for the user's projects.

In case global configuration matches _local_ configuration, the _local_
configuration in the project's `composer.json` always wins.

### COMPOSER_CACHE_DIR

The `COMPOSER_CACHE_DIR` var allows you to change the Composer cache directory,
which is also configurable via the [`cache-dir`](06-config.md#cache-dir) option.

By default it points to $COMPOSER_HOME/cache on \*nix and OSX, and
`C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Composer` (or `%LOCALAPPDATA%/Composer`) on Windows.

### COMPOSER_PROCESS_TIMEOUT

This env var controls the time Composer waits for commands (such as git
commands) to finish executing. The default value is 300 seconds (5 minutes).

### COMPOSER_DISCARD_CHANGES

This env var controls the [`discard-changes`](06-config.md#discard-changes) config option.

### COMPOSER_NO_INTERACTION

If set to 1, this env var will make Composer behave as if you passed the
`--no-interaction` flag to every command. This can be set on build boxes/CI.

&larr; [Libraries](02-libraries.md)  |  [Schema](04-schema.md) &rarr;