composer cheatsheet

All composer commands, depending on your install, may need to use php composer.phar in the install folder for composer, instead of global/plain composer.

Installing dependencies

Command	Description
`composer install`	Downloads and installs all the libraries and dependencies outlined in the `composer.lock` file. If the file does not exist it will look for composer.json and do the same, creating a `composer.lock` file.
`composer install --dry-run`	Simulates the install without installing anything

This command doesn’t change any file. If composer.lock is not present, it will create it.

composer.lock should always be committed to the repository. It has all the information needed to bring the local dependencies to the last committed state. If that file is modified on the repository, you will need to run composer install again after fetching the changes to update your local dependencies to those on that file.

Updating packages

Command	Description
`composer update`	Updates all packages
`composer update --with-dependencies`	Updates all packages and its dependencies
`composer update vendor/package`	Updates a certain `package` from `vendor`
`composer update vendor/*`	Updates all packages from `vendor`
`composer update --lock`	Updates `composer.lock` hash without updating any packages

This command changes only the composer.lock file.

Updating autoloader

Command	Description
`composer dumpautoload -o`	Generates optimized autoload files

Adding packages

Command	Description
`composer require vendor/package`	Adds `package` from `vendor` to composer.json’s `require` section and installs it
`composer require vendor/package --dev`	Adds `package` from `vendor` to composer.json’s `require-dev` section and installs it.

This command changes both the composer.json and composer.lock files.

Passing versions

Command	Description
`composer require vendor/pkg "1.3.2"`	Installs `1.3.2`
`composer require vendor/pkg ">=1.3.2"`	Above or equal `1.3.2`
`composer require vendor/pkg "<1.3.2"`	Below `1.3.2`
`composer require vendor/pkg "1.3.*"`	Latest of `>=1.3.0 <1.4.0`
`composer require vendor/pkg "~1.3.2"`	Latest of `>=1.3.2 <1.4.0`
`composer require vendor/pkg "~1.3"`	Latest of `>=1.3.0 <2.0.0`
`composer require vendor/pkg "^1.3.2"`	Latest of `>=1.3.2 <2.0.0`
`composer require vendor/pkg "^1.3"`	Latest of `>=1.3.0 <2.0.0`
`composer require vendor/pkg "^0.3.2"`	Latest of `>=0.3.0 <0.4.0` (for pre-1.0)
`composer require vendor/pkg "dev-BRANCH_NAME"`	From the branch `BRANCH_NAME`

Removing packages

Command	Description
`composer remove vendor/package`	Removes `vendor/package` from composer.json and uninstalls it

This command changes both the composer.json and composer.lock files.

Verifying

Command	Description
`composer outdated --direct`	Show only packages that are outdated directly required by the root package