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Commit vendor directory

Composer is great tool, but sometimes you will need avoid all external dependencies. Sometimes you will need have all source codes in your git repository. Should I commit the dependencies in my vendor directory, and still have all benefits of using Composer? Here are my requirements: - Everything need to be automatically.

  • I will work on application and my packages together.
  • I need a simple way how to commit and publish new version of packages.
  • Workflow need to be simple (mimimum of commands)

How to commit vendor dir?

Remove vendor dir from your .gitignore and add follow lines to root of composer.json

{
  "scripts": {
    "post-update-cmd": [
      "echo [WARNING] Delete all .git dirs",
      "rm -rf vendor/**/**/.git"
    ],
    "post-install-cmd": [
      "echo [WARNING] Delete all .git dirs",
      "rm -rf vendor/**/**/.git"
    ]
  }
}

That’s automatically remove the .git directory of every dependency after the installation or update. You can safely commit everything to your git repo and avoid mistakes with fake git “submodules”. Run: composer update and commit everything to your repo. ### How make changes in packages?

When you are using tagged releases (no dev versions) of package then run:

Terminal window
rm -rf vendor/some/package
composer update some/package --prefer-source --no-scripts

For dev versions (dev-master) it’s simpler:

Terminal window
rm -rf vendor/some/package
composer update some/package --no-scripts

Now, when you go to vendor/some/package dir it’s common git repository - you can make changes, commit and publish new versions of package. But don’t forgot run composer update before commit main repo, becouse there is still .git dir in package! ### Disadvantages

  • Large VCS repository size and diffs when you update code.
  • Duplication of the history of all your dependencies in your own VCS.
  • There can be conflicts in commits especially when you work in larger team.
  • Still not avoid commit .git directory after running composer with --no-scripts param.