Composer Install .tar.gz

Question

Trying to install node.js via composer (for automation).

"repositories": [
  "type": "package",
    "package": {
        "name": "nodejs/nodejs",
        "version": "0.12.6",
        "dist": {
        "type": "gzip",
        "url": "https://nodejs.org/dist/v0.12.6/node-v0.12.6-linux-x64.tar.gz"
      }
    }
  }
],
"require": {
  "nodejs/nodejs": "0.12.*"
}

Problem is, I can either use tar or gzip to unpack the archieve.

Available types: git, svn, hg, perforce, zip, rar, tar, gzip, phar, file.

The nodejs package obviously uses both.

How can I unpack .tar.gz packed files using composer?

I know I could use post-update-cmd and post-install-cmd commands and manually execute untar/gunzip, but that's not the way composer is ment to be.

A.B. Carroll · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-06T08:37:21.503

The "tar" option understands both bare .tar, .tar.gz, and even .tar.bz2 so just specify "type": "tar" and there is no need to specify the "gz". It figures out the decompression on it's own.

I ran into this issue, and was also initially confused, trying to auto-deploy a php app that used a proprietary library. However I tried just "tar", it worked! My repositories JSON part looks a little goofy because of the unusual structure of the tar archive, but it does work. It looked something like this:

"repositories": [
  {
    "type": "package",
    "package": {
      "name": "RocketShipIt/RocketShipIt",
      "version": "1.4.9.3",
      "dist": {
        "url": "https://secret-deployment-server/RocketShipIt.tar.gz",
        "type": "tar"
      },
      "autoload": {
        "files": [
          "RocketShipIt/RocketShipIt.php"
        ],
        "psr-0": {
          "RocketShipIt\\": "RocketShipIt/RocketShipIt/RocketShipIt/"
        }
      }
    }
  }
]

You can find, somewhat obscurely in the Composer API documentation (not the end-user manual) that the .tar, .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 are all three officially supported by "type": "tar". Apparently, it is handled internally by composer by the Composer\Downloader\TarDownloader class.

Composer Install .tar.gz

1 Answers1