How to run composer with different PHP versions in Cpanel?

Question:

When we try to run a composer command, like update, we usually do the following:

composer update

Cpanel has multiple PHP binaries, but in this case, we are unable to select a specific PHP binary to use, instead we have to run it with the default one, how to run composer update with a different php binary in cpanel?

Solution

composer binary file, is a phar file. PHAR is necessarily a PHP Archive and usually automatically detect the running php. But as it is essentially written in php, you may explicitly run it with a different php binary, if you want. To run composer with different php binary, first, you need to find the location of composer. You may do so, using the following:

root@mirage [~]# which composer
/opt/cpanel/composer/bin/composer

Cpanel different php binaries are available under the following kind of directory:

/opt/cpanel/ea-phpXX/usr/bin/php

XX is the version number of PHP. So for example if you need to use PHP 7.4, you would need to run using the following:

/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/usr/bin/php

Now, to run composer update along with PHP 7.4 binary, you may do something like the following:

/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/usr/bin/php /opt/cpanel/composer/bin/composer update

First, make sure you are in the directory where you want to install laravel, for example, something like the following:

cd /home/username/public_html

Then, you may run the above command:

/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/usr/bin/php /opt/cpanel/composer/bin/composer update
or in case, you want to to install
/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/usr/bin/php /opt/cpanel/composer/bin/composer install
or may be, you wan to run update with no-scripts
/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/usr/bin/php /opt/cpanel/composer/bin/composer update --no-scripts

Uncaught ErrorException: require(/home/username/public_html/vendor/composer/../../app/Helpers/helper.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/username/public_html/vendor/composer/autoload_real.php:71

Error Details

While trying to run any of the following with Laravel composer installer, you see an error similar to the following:

Uncaught ErrorException: require(/home/username/public_html/vendor/composer/../../app/Helpers/helper.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/username/public_html/vendor/composer/autoload_real.php:71

How to fix this?

Solution

The error is appearing, most likely you forgot to add the ‘app’ directory of laravel in your root directory. Make sure, you have the ‘app’ directory in your root directory, then run any of the following:

If this is the first time, you need all laravel packages, run:

composer install

If this is not the first time, you may run the following:

composer update

Good luck.

How to Install Laravel in Plesk using SSH

In plesk, to install laravel, we need to do two prerequisites first.

  1. Enable SSH for the Plesk User:

2. Add default PHP binary to Plesk Shell to allow using Composer:

Once the above steps are done, now, you may install the laravel installer with the following:

[elastic-keldysh@pl1 ~]$ composer global require laravel/installer
Changed current directory to /var/www/vhosts/elastic-keldysh.139-99-24-82.plesk.page/.composer
Using version ^4.0 for laravel/installer
./composer.json has been created
Loading composer repositories with package information
Updating dependencies (including require-dev)
Package operations: 12 installs, 0 updates, 0 removals
  - Installing symfony/polyfill-php80 (v1.18.1): Downloading (100%)
  - Installing symfony/process (v5.1.6): Downloading (100%)
  - Installing symfony/polyfill-mbstring (v1.18.1): Downloading (100%)
  - Installing symfony/polyfill-intl-normalizer (v1.18.1): Downloading (100%)
  - Installing symfony/polyfill-intl-grapheme (v1.18.1): Downloading (100%)
  - Installing symfony/polyfill-ctype (v1.18.1): Downloading (100%)
  - Installing symfony/string (v5.1.6): Downloading (100%)
  - Installing psr/container (1.0.0): Downloading (100%)
  - Installing symfony/service-contracts (v2.2.0): Downloading (100%)
  - Installing symfony/polyfill-php73 (v1.18.1): Downloading (100%)
  - Installing symfony/console (v5.1.6): Downloading (100%)
  - Installing laravel/installer (v4.0.5): Downloading (100%)
symfony/service-contracts suggests installing symfony/service-implementation
symfony/console suggests installing symfony/event-dispatcher
symfony/console suggests installing symfony/lock
symfony/console suggests installing psr/log (For using the console logger)
Writing lock file
Generating autoload files
10 packages you are using are looking for funding.
Use the `composer fund` command to find out more!
[elastic-keldysh@pl1 ~]$

Once this is done, you may try to install laravel using the laravel command:

[elastic-keldysh@pl1 ~]$ laravel new blog
-bash: laravel: command not found

But, as you can see it is failed. It’s because the laravel binary is installed in the following path:

/var/www/vhosts/elastic-keldysh.139-99-24-82.plesk.page/.composer/vendor/bin

which doesn’t exist in our $PATH variable. Now you may add the above command to your PATH variable using the following tutorial:

I believe, you have already figured it out, it is as simple as the following command:

PATH=$PATH:/var/www/vhosts/elastic-keldysh.139-99-24-82.plesk.page/.composer/vendor/bin

Now, you may run the following to install laravel:

[elastic-keldysh@pl1 ~]$ laravel new blog

 _                               _
| |                             | |
| |     __ _ _ __ __ ___   _____| |
| |    / _` | '__/ _` \ \ / / _ \ |
| |___| (_| | | | (_| |\ V /  __/ |
|______\__,_|_|  \__,_| \_/ \___|_|

Creating a "laravel/laravel" project at "./blog"
Installing laravel/laravel (v8.0.3)
  - Installing laravel/laravel (v8.0.3): Downloading (100%)

So, yeah, as laravel says, Application ready! Build something amazing.

How to run Composer in Plesk User Shell / Plesk PHP

There are couple of ways you can run composer with Plesk Shell. My favorite one is to add php to your PATH variable, and it will automatically add the composer as well. You may follow through the following to modify your shell path variable to use Plesk PHP:

Once done, now you may run composer command and it shall work:

[elastic-keldysh@pl1 ~]$ composer -V
Composer version 1.10.5 2020-04-10 11:44:22
[elastic-keldysh@pl1 ~]$

The other way, is to directly use the composer.phar given from Plesk 9.0 library. This file is available under the following location:

/usr/lib64/plesk-9.0/composer.phar

So, you may run this using the following:

[elastic-keldysh@pl1 ~]$ /opt/plesk/php/7.4/bin/php /usr/lib64/plesk-9.0/composer.phar -V
Composer version 1.10.13 2020-09-09 11:46:34

This should work too. You may choose any, and it shall work for you. Good luck.