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Informations about the package composer-symlinks

ComposerSymlinks

Its provide a simple Composer script to symlink paths. Compatible with Composer v2.

Installation

To install the latest stable version of this component, open a console and execute the following command:

Usage

1. Define symlinks

Create the symlinks definition adding a somework/composer-symlinks section inside the extra section of the composer.json file.

The behaviour of the plugin can be tuned via the following configuration keys:

Key Default Description
skip-missing-target false Do not fail when the target does not exist.
absolute-path false Create symlinks using the real path to the target.
throw-exception true Throw an exception on errors instead of just printing the message.
force-create false Remove any existing file or directory at the link path before creating the symlink.
cleanup false Remove symlinks that were created previously but are no longer present in the configuration.
windows-mode junction Windows-only strategy: symlink (require Developer Mode/administrator), junction (fallback to junction/hardlink/copy), or copy (mirror the target without links).

You can set personal configs for any symlink. For personal configs link must be defined

When cleanup is enabled the plugin keeps a registry of every symlink it created in the file vendor/composer-symlinks-state.json. On the next run the registry is compared with the current configuration: entries missing from the configuration are deleted from both the registry and the filesystem. The file is recreated automatically and can safely be ignored by VCS.

Placeholder syntax

Symlink paths support the following placeholders which are expanded before validation:

Placeholder Description
%project-dir% Absolute path to the project root (current working directory during Composer execution).
%vendor-dir% Absolute path to the Composer vendor directory.
%env(NAME)% Value of the environment variable NAME. Missing variables expand to an empty string.

Placeholders allow the resulting paths to be absolute while the original configuration remains portable. Direct absolute paths without placeholders are still rejected by default to avoid accidental misuse.

2. Refresh symlinks

Symlinks are created automatically on composer install/update, but you can trigger the process manually with the built-in command:

Add the --dry-run flag to preview the operations without touching the filesystem:

The legacy environment variable SYMLINKS_DRY_RUN=1 is still honoured during Composer hooks for backwards compatibility.

3. Inspect symlink status

Audit the current state of the configured links without modifying the filesystem:

The command compares the configuration with the registry file and the actual filesystem. The report highlights missing links, mismatched targets, and stale entries that are present in the registry but no longer configured. Use the --strict option to make the command exit with a non-zero code when problems are detected (ideal for CI pipelines), and --json to obtain a machine-readable summary:

4. Execute composer

DO NOT use --no-plugins for composer install or update

Dry run

Set environment variable SYMLINKS_DRY_RUN=1 to preview created links without modifying the filesystem.

Example output:

Uninstalling

Running composer remove somework/composer-symlinks will trigger the plugin's uninstall() hook. The hook reads the registry file and removes every stored symlink from the filesystem before deleting the registry itself. This ensures that no links created by the plugin are left behind when the package is removed.

Typical error messages

Message Meaning
No link passed in config The link option was missing for a symlink definition.
No target passed in config The key of the symlinks map was empty.
Invalid symlink target path The target path was absolute but should be relative.
Invalid symlink link path The link path was absolute but should be relative.
The target path ... does not exists The target file or directory was not found.
Link ... already exists A file/directory already occupies the link path.
Cant unlink ... The plugin failed to remove a file when using force-create.
Failed to create symlink ... Enable Windows Developer Mode ... Windows denied symlink creation. Enable Developer Mode or set windows-mode to junction/copy.

Run composer symlinks:status after encountering an error to obtain a detailed report of which links are missing or pointing to unexpected targets.

Windows compatibility

On Windows, creating symlinks requires either Administrator privileges or that the system is running in Developer Mode. When native symlinks are not available, the plugin falls back automatically (default windows-mode value) to NTFS junctions for directories and hardlinks/copies for files. You can opt into different behaviours by setting extra.somework/composer-symlinks.windows-mode to one of:

Regardless of the chosen mode, relative symlinks use Unix-style / separators internally which Windows resolves correctly.

License

This component is under the MIT license. See the complete license in the LICENSE file.

Reporting an issue or a feature request

Issues and feature requests are tracked in the Github issue tracker.

Maintained by

Igor Pinchuk — I work on legacy PHP and Symfony systems: audits, rescue and refactoring, performance. My open-source packages have been installed over 70,000 times on Packagist.

Inherited a codebase nobody wants to touch? Written questions get written answers — no discovery call required. [email protected] · LinkedIn

All versions of composer-symlinks with dependencies

PHP Build Version
Package Version
Requires php Version >=7.4
composer-plugin-api Version ^2.0
Composer command for our command line client (download client) This client runs in each environment. You don't need a specific PHP version etc. The first 20 API calls are free. Standard composer command

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