Installing the Symfony Installer

Using the Symfony Installer is the only recommended way to create new Symfony applications. This installer is a PHP application that has to be installed in your system only once and then it can create any number of Symfony applications.

Depending on your operating system, the installer must be installed in different ways.

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$ sudo curl -LsS http://symfony.com/installer -o /usr/local/bin/symfony
$ sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/symfony

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c:\> php -r "readfile('http://symfony.com/installer');" > symfony

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c:\> move symfony c:\projects
c:\projects\> php symfony

Creating the Symfony Application

Once the Symfony Installer is available, create your first Symfony application with the new command:

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# Linux, Mac OS X
$ symfony new my_project_name

# Windows
c:\> cd projects/
c:\projects\> php symfony new my_project_name

This command creates a new directory called my_project_name that contains a fresh new project based on the most recent stable Symfony version available. In addition, the installer checks if your system meets the technical requirements to execute Symfony applications. If not, you'll see the list of changes needed to meet those requirements.

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# use the most recent version in any Symfony branch
$ symfony new my_project_name 2.3
$ symfony new my_project_name 2.5
$ symfony new my_project_name 2.6

# use a specific Symfony version
$ symfony new my_project_name 2.3.26
$ symfony new my_project_name 2.6.5

# use the most recent LTS (Long Term Support) version
$ symfony new my_project_name lts

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# Linux, Mac OS X
$ symfony new my_project_name lts

# Windows
c:\projects\> php symfony new my_project_name lts

Creating Symfony Applications without the Installer

If you still use PHP 5.3, or if you can't execute the installer for any reason, you can create Symfony applications using the alternative installation method based on Composer.

Composer is the dependency manager used by modern PHP applications and it can also be used to create new applications based on the Symfony Framework. If you don't have it installed globally, start by reading the next section.

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$ composer create-project symfony/framework-standard-edition my_project_name

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$ composer create-project symfony/framework-standard-edition my_project_name "2.3.*"

Running the Symfony Application

Symfony leverages the internal web server provided by PHP to run applications while developing them. Therefore, running a Symfony application is a matter of browsing the project directory and executing this command:

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$ cd my_project_name/
$ php app/console server:run

Then, open your browser and access the http://localhost:8000/app/example URL to see the Welcome page of Symfony:

Instead of the Welcome Page, you may see a blank page or an error page. This is caused by a directory permission misconfiguration. There are several possible solutions depending on your operating system. All of them are explained in the Setting up Permissions section.

The server:run command is only suitable while developing the application. In order to run Symfony applications on production servers, you'll have to configure your Apache or Nginx web server as explained in Configuring a Web Server.

When you are finished working on your Symfony application, you can stop the server with the server:stop command:

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$ php app/console server:stop

Checking Symfony Application Configuration and Setup

Symfony applications come with a visual server configuration tester to show if your environment is ready to use Symfony. Access the following URL to check your configuration:

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http://localhost:8000/config.php

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

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

$ HTTPDUSER=`ps aux | grep -E '[a]pache|[h]ttpd|[_]www|[w]ww-data|[n]ginx' | grep -v root | head -1 | cut -d\  -f1`
$ sudo chmod +a "$HTTPDUSER 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

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$ HTTPDUSER=`ps aux | grep -E '[a]pache|[h]ttpd|[_]www|[w]ww-data|[n]ginx' | grep -v root | head -1 | cut -d\  -f1`
$ sudo setfacl -R -m u:"$HTTPDUSER":rwX -m u:`whoami`:rwX app/cache app/logs
$ sudo setfacl -dR -m u:"$HTTPDUSER":rwX -m u:`whoami`:rwX app/cache app/logs

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

// or

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

Updating Symfony Applications

At this point, you've created a fully-functional Symfony application in which you'll start to develop your own project. A Symfony application depends on a number of external libraries. These are downloaded into the vendor/ directory and they are managed exclusively by Composer.

Updating those third-party libraries frequently is a good practice to prevent bugs and security vulnerabilities. Execute the update Composer command to update them all at once:

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$ cd my_project_name/
$ composer update

Depending on the complexity of your project, this update process can take up to several minutes to complete.

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$ php app/console security:check

Installing the Symfony Demo Application

The Symfony Demo application is a fully-functional application that shows the recommended way to develop Symfony applications. The application has been conceived as a learning tool for Symfony newcomers and its source code contains tons of comments and helpful notes.

In order to download the Symfony Demo application, execute the demo command of the Symfony Installer anywhere in your system:

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# Linux, Mac OS X
$ symfony demo

# Windows
c:\projects\> php symfony demo

Once downloaded, enter into the symfony_demo/ directory and run the PHP's built-in web server executing the php app/console server:run command. Access to the http://localhost:8000 URL in your browser to start using the Symfony Demo application.

Installing a Symfony Distribution

Symfony project packages "distributions", which are fully-functional applications that include the Symfony core libraries, a selection of useful bundles, a sensible directory structure and some default configuration. In fact, when you created a Symfony application in the previous sections, you actually downloaded the default distribution provided by Symfony, which is called Symfony Standard Edition.

The Symfony Standard Edition is by far the most popular distribution and it's also the best choice for developers starting with Symfony. However, the Symfony Community has published other popular distributions that you may use in your applications:

• The Symfony CMF Standard Edition is the best distribution to get started with the Symfony CMF project, which is a project that makes it easier for developers to add CMS functionality to applications built with the Symfony Framework.
• The Symfony REST Edition shows how to build an application that provides a RESTful API using the FOSRestBundle and several other related bundles.

Using Source Control

If you're using a version control system like Git, you can safely commit all your project's code. The reason is that Symfony applications already contain a .gitignore file specially prepared for Symfony.

For specific instructions on how best to set up your project to be stored in Git, see How to Create and Store a Symfony Project in Git.

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$ cd my_project_name/
$ composer install

Beginning Development

Now that you have a fully-functional Symfony 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 "Create your First Page in Symfony", where you'll learn how to create pages, change configuration, and do everything else you'll need in your new application.

Be sure to also check out the Cookbook, which contains a wide variety of articles about solving specific problems with Symfony.