Composer, Root, Hell...

sudogetconfused

I'm certain this has been asked before. I've searched, found threads, still pulling my hair out. This installation has been a disaster.

I have a dedicated Linux box (CentOS 7). I am running WHM/Cpanel. I have multiple websites, but I'll only be using Flarum on "Website 1".

Every. Single. Installation. Guide. says to install Composer as ROOT. This would make sense, because if I installed it as user, I wouldn't have permission to install it globally, right?

So then, of course, I am forced to install Flarum as root. I figured I'll just disable the plugins to prevent security hacks:


**composer create-project flarum/flarum  --stability=beta**

**Installing flarum/flarum (v0.1.0-beta.8.1)

  [ErrorException]
  mkdir(): File exists**

Guys and gals, what the hell am I doing wrong? 16 years of programming and network admin and I can't even figure this install out.

jordanjay29

sudogetconfused Every. Single. Installation. Guide. says to install Composer as ROOT. This would make sense, because if I installed it as user, I wouldn't have permission to install it globally, right?

I'm not sure which installation guide you were following, but Flarum's does not encourage you to use root.

In fact, Composer itself will warn you not to run as root in the terminal output. Its installation instructions gives you a way to run it in a single user.

sudogetconfused

  [ErrorException]
  mkdir(): File exists**

And this has nothing to do with running composer as root. Check your preferred installation folder ls -lA and you'll likely find existing files or folders inside it. Remove those, or create a new directory, and run the create-project command again.

luceos

sudogetconfused 16 years of programming and network admin and I can't even figure this install out.

Welcome. Allow me to take your arm and point you to the following.

Install/download composer:

$ php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
$ php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === '93b54496392c062774670ac18b134c3b3a95e5a5e5c8f1a9f115f203b75bf9a129d5daa8ba6a13e2cc8a1da0806388a8') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
$ php composer-setup.php
$ php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"

You run the above as your normal (non elevated) user and you now have a composer.phar inside your directory.

The next step is to allow every user to use composer:

sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

This step is executed using sudo to allow moving the binary to a location it can be used by all users.

Whenever you want to update composer, simply run:

$ sudo composer selfupdate

from https://getcomposer.org/doc/00-intro.md#globally

jordanjay29

sudogetconfused Congrats, you're very popular apparently. We didn't mean to overwhelm you, just three people responding simultaneously. Enjoy the attention and let's hope we can resolve this. 😉

andreherberth

Hi, installing as root on a cpanel server is mainly to ensure it will be available globally for all Cpanel SSH users.
https://documentation.cpanel.net/display/CKB/How+to+Set+Up+%28PHP%29+Composer

If you do most of those correctly, you should be able to log in with your cpanel users SSH details, and run the create-project command from there (Non Root)

As for "file Exists" - It simply means that the folder you try to run the create-project in contains files, or a folder. create-project can only be used in a completely empty folder.

luceos

jordanjay29 I am so glad all three of us covered different topics entirely 😊

Digital

@sudogetconfused consider yourself a very lucky guy. 😃

FBI

Yeah, lucky @sudogetconfused 🙂
Since Composer getting popular, I decide to install it on my own Webhosting server globally. So, everyone (my clients) could enjoy Composer without get to root.. I am using 2 Flarum on different client's site.

luceos

composer, root, hell

In the tunes of life, this composer runs true,
where notes are a grade of soundless hue.
Picture a cause, the root of all that is well,
where naught is lost yet all is hell.

sudogetconfused

Everyone,
First of all, I’m not overwhelmed at all. I really really appreciate everyone’s willingness to assist me, especially me being new here. I am currently at work right now and my boss would kill me if I dug into my personal project, but once I get home I will try everything out and respond to each of you accordingly. Just at a quick glance I can say positively it was an empty folder because I created it under a “test folder”. I also temporarily enabled urlopen in my php.ini file. I will try every single one of your suggestions tonight. Giving you all air hugs right now.