Downloading a Symfony2 Distribution

Symfony2 packages "distributions", which are fully-functional applications that include the Symfony2 core libraries, a selection of useful bundles, a sensible directory structure and some default configuration. When you download a Symfony2 distribution, you're downloading a functional application skeleton that can be used immediately to begin developing your application.

Start by visiting the Symfony2 download page at http://symfony.com/download. On this page, you'll see the Symfony Standard Edition, which is the main Symfony2 distribution. Here, you'll need to make two choices:

• Download either a .tgz or .zip archive - both are equivalent, download whatever you're more comfortable using;
• Download the distribution with or without vendors. If you have Git installed on your computer, you should download Symfony2 "without vendors", as it adds a bit more flexibility when including third-party/vendor libraries.

Download one of the archives somewhere under your local web server's root directory and unpack it. From a UNIX command line, this can be done with one of the following commands (replacing ### with your actual filename):

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# for .tgz file
$ tar zxvf Symfony_Standard_Vendors_2.0.###.tgz

# for a .zip file
$ unzip Symfony_Standard_Vendors_2.0.###.zip

When you're finished, you should have a Symfony/ directory that looks something like this:

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www/ 

All public files and the front controller that handles incoming requests in a Symfony2 application live in the Symfony/web/ directory. So, assuming you unpacked the archive into your web server's or virtual host's document root, your application's URLs will start with http://localhost/Symfony/web/. To get nice and short URLs you should point the document root of your web server or virtual host to the Symfony/web/ directory. Though this is not required for development it is recommended when your application goes into production as all system and configuration files become inaccessible to clients. For information on configuring your specific web server document root, see the following documentation: Apache | Nginx .

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$ php bin/vendors install

Configuration and Setup

At this point, all of the needed third-party libraries now live in the vendor/ directory. You also have a default application setup in app/ and some sample code inside the src/ directory.

Symfony2 comes with a visual server configuration tester to help make sure your Web server and PHP are configured to use Symfony. Use the following URL to check your configuration:

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http://localhost/Symfony/web/config.php

If there are any issues, correct them now before moving on.

Setting up Permissions

One common issue is that the app/cache and app/logs directories must be writable both by the web server and the command line user. On a UNIX system, if your web server user is different from your command line user, you can run the following commands just once in your project to ensure that permissions will be setup properly.

Note that not all web servers run as the user www-data as in the examples below. Instead, check which user your web server is being run as and use it in place of www-data.

On a UNIX system, this can be done with one of the following commands:

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$ ps aux | grep httpd

or

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$ ps aux | grep apache

1. Using ACL on a system that supports chmod +a

Many systems allow you to use the chmod +a command. Try this first, and if you get an error - try the next method. Be sure to replace www-data with your web server user on the first chmod command:

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$ rm -rf app/cache/*
$ rm -rf app/logs/*

$ sudo chmod +a "www-data allow delete,write,append,file_inherit,directory_inherit" app/cache app/logs
$ sudo chmod +a "`whoami` allow delete,write,append,file_inherit,directory_inherit" app/cache app/logs

2. Using Acl on a system that does not support chmod +a

Some systems don't support chmod +a, but do support another utility called setfacl. You may need to enable ACL support on your partition and install setfacl before using it (as is the case with Ubuntu), like so:

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$ sudo setfacl -R -m u:www-data:rwX -m u:`whoami`:rwX app/cache app/logs
$ sudo setfacl -dR -m u:www-data:rwx -m u:`whoami`:rwx app/cache app/logs

3. Without using ACL

If you don't have access to changing the ACL of the directories, you will need to change the umask so that the cache and log directories will be group-writable or world-writable (depending if the web server user and the command line user are in the same group or not). To achieve this, put the following line at the beginning of the app/console, web/app.php and web/app_dev.php files:

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umask(0002); // This will let the permissions be 0775

// or

umask(0000); // This will let the permissions be 0777

Note that using the ACL is recommended when you have access to them on your server because changing the umask is not thread-safe.

When everything is fine, click on "Go to the Welcome page" to request your first "real" Symfony2 webpage:

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http://localhost/Symfony/web/app_dev.php/

Symfony2 should welcome and congratulate you for your hard work so far!

Tip

To get nice and short urls you should point the document root of your
webserver or virtual host to the Symfony/web/ directory. Though
this is not required for development it is recommended at the time your
application goes into production as all system and configuration files become inaccessible to clients then. For information on configuring
your specific web server document root, read Configuring a web server or consult the official documentation of your webserver: Apache | Nginx .

Beginning Development

Now that you have a fully-functional Symfony2 application, you can begin development! Your distribution may contain some sample code - check the README.md file included with the distribution (open it as a text file) to learn about what sample code was included with your distribution.

If you're new to Symfony, check out "Creating Pages in Symfony2", where you'll learn how to create pages, change configuration, and do everything else you'll need in your new application.

Using Source Control

If you're using a version control system like Git or Subversion, you can setup your version control system and begin committing your project to it as normal. The Symfony Standard edition is the starting point for your new project.

For specific instructions on how best to setup your project to be stored in git, see How to Create and store a Symfony2 Project in git.

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vendor/