Composer & Cygwin

Question

Composer doesn\'t run correctly in Cygwin if you try to install it \"globally\".

Putting composer.phar into /usr/local/bin/composer, then trying to run it will result in

Answer 1

Just tripped over the same problem and found a solution. Posting it here, just in case I'll ever have to look it up again.

1. Set up a bin directory right under /home/my-username:

   cd ~
   mkdir bin
   

2. Move the composer.phar (or any other of those nifty new PHP imps that are on the rise) into the ~/bindirectory and make sure to set it's execution bit:

   # Notice how I got rid of the superfluous `.phar` extension
   mv /path/to/composer.phar ~/bin/composer
   chmod +x ~/bin/composer
   

3. Tell cygwin to include your ~/bin directory in the search path:

   Open up the file ~/.bash_profile and uncomment the following paragraph ...

   # Set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
   if [ -d "${HOME}/bin" ] ; then
     PATH="${HOME}/bin:${PATH}"
   fi
   

4. Now, for the most important part:

   A wrapper script that helps Win's native PHP resolve Unix style paths (which is causing the problem after all as Windows doesn't know how to handle /cygdrive/... paths).

   cd ~/bin
   touch php
   chmod +x php
   

   After editing the wrapper script ~/bin/php should read:

   #!/bin/bash
   
   # e.g. php="/cygdrive/c/Program Files (x86)/php/php.exe"
   php="/path/to/php.exe"
   
   for ((n=1; n <= $#; n++)); do
       if [ -e "${!n}" ]; then
           # Converts Unix style paths to Windows equivalents
           path="$(cygpath --mixed ${!n} | xargs)"
   
           case 1 in
               $(( n == 1 )) )
                   set -- "$path" "${@:$(($n+1))}";;
               $(( n < $# )) )
                   set -- "${@:1:$((n-1))}" "$path" ${@:$((n+1)):$#};;
               *)
                   set -- "${@:1:$(($#-1))}" "$path";;
           esac
       fi
   done
   
   "$php" "$@"
   

5. Now restart your shell and it should correctly invoke the PHP interpreter whenever it stumbles upon a #!/usr/bin/env php shebang. Simply issue a:

   composer --help
   

Answer 2

Getting composer to work globally inside Cygwin is a pain in the butt...

The solutions I have come up with:

1. Don't use it globally. If you are using the PHP CLI from a Windows installation, it won't recognize the Linux paths that Cygwin uses.

   What I have done is put it in the base directory of all the projects I use composer with, and do ../composer.phar to run it.

   It works fine this way, and it's almost globally available...

2. Download, and compile your own PHP binaries within Cygwin... Yea, kind of a overkill.

Answer 3

I solved the problem like this in a Cygwin/XAMPP setup:

• Install composer.phar to XAMPP's php directory

• Create an executable Bash script named composer in XAMPP's php directory:

  #!/bin/bash
  script_dir=$(cygpath -w $(dirname $0))
  php "$script_dir/composer.phar" $@
  

  It's important to use cygpath -w to convert the path to a path in Windows form.

• Make sure XAMPP's php directory is accessible in Cygwin's $PATH:

  $ export PATH=$PATH:/cygdrive/i/dev/server/xampp/php
  

Now it's possible to call composer from anywhere you like without problems:

    $ composer -V
    Composer version 264f433ca3f007d39568b3722b4bf418f58ba15b

Answer 4

How about this one?

1. In ~/.bashrc, add: alias composer='php c:\\your\\path\\to\\composer.phar'
2. Restart cygwin or reload the bashrc by running source ~/.bashrc

Works for me using both Cygwin's native php.exe and XAMPP's Windows-specific one.

Answer 5

What I did (very simple):

• Install Composer normally with the Windows installer
• Open a Cygwin console an type composer you will see something like Could not open input file: /c/route/to/your/composer/installation/bin
• Create an alias composer='composer.bat' on your bash profile or bashrc or whatever
• Done

I'm running Windows 8.1

Answer 6

I think what might work is to build a proxy instead:

• Put composer.phar in /usr/local/bin/composer.phar

• Create a bash proxy as /usr/local/bin/composer with the following:

  #!/bin/sh
  c:/path/to/php c:/path/to/composer.phar $@
  

• chmod +x /usr/local/bin/composer