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

I had the same problem. After reading the final instruction from composer installer, it says that the $PATH variable should be reloaded. I rebooted my computer and then linked the Composer bin to /usr/local/bin.

First locate the composer bin : /cygdrive/c/ProgramData/ComposerSetup/bin/composer

Then according to Seldaek answer, after trying a non-working symlink, I did :

nano /usr/local/bin/composer

#!/bin/sh
/cygdrive/c/ProgramData/ComposerSetup/bin/composer $@

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/composer

And it's working.

Answer 2

I suggest you use babun, it is based cygwin, but you can install package by pact, you can do this:

pact install php php-json php-phar

php -r "readfile('https://getcomposer.org/installer');" | php

then enjoy yourself.

Answer 3

I was having trouble getting Composer to work in Cygwin and none of the solutions above were resolving my problem. Eventually I stumbled across this comment in the Composer github bugs discussion:

Yeah TBH using php from cygwin isn't a great idea, cygwin is just too different an environment. Too many hacks that create failures.. In any case closing here as there isn't much we can do I'm afraid :)

I don't know precisely where composer/Cygwin/php was tripping up, but, broadly, my problem was that I had two conflicting installations of PHP in environmental variables, one from an installation of WAMP, and another installed with Cygwin. The Cygwin PHP installation seemed to be struggling with some sort of path issue. I removed it, using only the WAMP PHP, and composer ran in Cygwin just fine.

Answer 4

The easiest way is to install composer using the Windows installer from their website and then copy the two files 'composer' and 'composer.phar' from "C:\ProgramData\Composer" into a directory which is in the PATH variable. E.g. you could copy the files into the /bin/ directory of cygwin. Afterwards you can again uninstall the "Windows version" of composer.

Update! This is what I did:

1. Install PHP and needed modules from the Cygwin Ports project
2. Download the latest composer snapshot
3. Rename 'composer.phar' to 'composer' and save it to /usr/local/bin
4. Open /bin/dash.exe and run '/usr/bin/rebaseall'
5. Also if 4. gives you an error, composer should run now

Answer 5

Try this:

• Install Cygwin PHP and use it to run composer in Cygwin.

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You can choose one of two ways to work fine with PHP+Composer in Cygwin:

1. Install Cygwin PHP and install composer.phar in Cygwin.

2. Install Windows PHP and install Winodows Composer, then call then from Cygwin. (Windows XAMMP+Composer with alias in cmd)

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Your problem is caused by that Cygwin Composer is ruining by Windows PHP on Cygwin, so it can not recognize the file path.

After install Cygwin PHP, the composer will integrates with Cygwin PHP then fit to Cygwin's filepath.

Cygwin PHP extensions for composer usage:

php
php-json
php-mbstring
php-phar 
php-zip
php-posix

You can install other PHP extension when composer's package is needed such as php-xmlwriter, php-tokenizer, php-ctype.

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Installation commands guide:

If you have already installed apt-cyg, there are installation command above:

apt-cyg install php php-json php-mbstring php-phar php-zip php-posix
apt-cyg install php-xmlwriter php-tokenizer php-ctype

Then install Composer via Cygwin PHP:

php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php composer-setup.php
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
chmod +x ./composer.phar
mv ./composer.phar /usr/bin/composer
composer -v

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Conclusion

I recommend using Windows PHP + Windows Composer, and call then in Cygwin, it because the Cygwin PHP is not much stable than Windows PHP.

Answer 6

I was having this issue. Most of the responses were over my head but I fixed it with no problems.

Step 1) Reinstall Composer globally as per https://getcomposer.org/download/

Step 2) Leave it alone. All the special stuff you want to do, don't do that.

Step 3) Download the latest setup-xxx.exe from https://cygwin.com/

Step 4) Click it with your mouse.

NOTE: During step 5 you will feel a sudden urge to read instructions, browse the web for info and start checking little boxes on the menu. Don't do that.

Step 5) Click 'next' until it stops asking. It will look at your existing settings, fix things up and add any missing dependencies.

This worked for me.