Step 4 - Install Composer and Laravel

September 26, 2020

Tutorial: How to Install Laravel 7 on VirtualBox VM Running Linux Mint 19

Our next step is installing Composer and, finally, Laravel.

Let’s get started.

Install Composer

Composer is a dependency management software. It will allow us to easily install Laravel and everything it needs.

1. Run installation code

Following the instructions at getcomposer.org/download/
Copy their code
Paste it in terminal

Your code might look slightly different since you’ll be installing a newer version of Composer. This should not cause any problems. Make sure you copy the code from Composer’s download page to get the latest version.

php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === 'e5325b19b381bfd88ce90a5ddb7823406b2a38cff6bb704b0acc289a09c8128d4a8ce2bbafcd1fcbdc38666422fe2806') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
php composer-setup.php
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"

Terminal window with the Composer installer code

It will stop running on the last line, so press the Enter/Return key to finish it

2. Move composer.phar

To move the Composer file, run: sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Terminal window with instructions to move composer.phar

3. Verify Composer version

To verify Composer is installed and running properly, run: composer -v
You should see something like this

Terminal window displaying the Composer version and options

Install Laravel using Composer

Now that Composer is installed, we can finally install Laravel.

4. Install Laravel

In terminal, run: composer global require laravel/installer

Terminal window showing the `composer global require laravel/installer` command

Depending on when you run this command, you might get a newer version of Laravel. At the time of this tutorial, 19.3 was the most recent version

You should now see it installing Laravel, which can take some time

Terminal window showing Laravel being installed

Add Composer to $PATH

One last thing before we can use the laravel command - adding Composer’s vendor bin directory to $PATH. This will tell the terminal where to find the info for the laravel command.

To do this, we’ll be using a text editor called vi, which can be kind of tricky.

If you mess up or get lost anytime before Step 9, do the following:

Press the Esc key
Type :q! to discard your changes and quit vi
Try again from Step 5

If you’re still having issues, you could try nano instead (e.g. sudo nano .bashrc)

5. Edit .bashrc

To make sure you’re in the home directory, run: cd ~
To open .bashrc with vi, run: sudo vi .bashrc
Enter your password if prompted

Terminal window with `sudo vi .bashrc`

6. Move to end of file

With the .bashrc file open, type G (make sure you hit the shift button first to make it a capital G)
- This will take you to the end of the file

Terminal window showing the contents of .bashrc at the end of the file

7. Insert 2 new lines

Type o (lower case o) and press the Enter/Return key
This will give you 2 new lines. You are now in Insert Mode. Any characters you type will be entered into the file.

Terminal window showing 2 new lines at the end of .bashrc