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Installing Drupal with Composer

Peter Kaye

With a Plesk site I can use SSH to navigate to the web folder where I want Drupal, or a module, to be installed and then use composer.phar with a command line like...

# /opt/plesk/php/8.3/bin/php /usr/lib64/plesk-9.0/composer.phar require 'drupal/[module name]'

How can I tell if composer is installed in my cPanel install?  Please can you point me a some instructions to install composer.  Can you help with the cPanel command string to run from the Drupal root.  Thanks.

Comments

23 comments

Date Votes
  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Hey there!  We have a guide on how to install Composer in modern versions of cPanel here:

    https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us/articles/33990336418583-How-to-install-composer-on-cPanel-version-130-and-higher

    so you'll likely need to do that first in order to get things working.

    There are additional details at https://docs.cpanel.net/knowledge-base/web-services/how-to-set-up-php-composer/ about setting up the tool.  Let me know if that helps!

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  • Peter Kaye

    Thanks.

    From the links you provided I've run the following...

    php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
    php -r "copy('https://composer.github.io/installer.sig', 'composer.sig');"
     
    php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === trim(file_get_contents('composer.sig'))) { echo 'Installer verified'.PHP_EOL; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'.PHP_EOL; unlink('composer-setup.php'); exit(1); }"

    The first two command strings run with no error. As the post says, one of the options to the last command is Installer Corrupt and that's the response I get. 

    I found this post, https://github.com/composer/composer/issues/9659,  which encounters the same error message. The solution offered is to run

    php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/composer-stable.phar', 'composer.phar');"

    and then verify with 

    php composer.phar diagnose

    The first command runs without error or any other message.  The second gives an error "Cannot open composer.phar.

    What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

     

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    In the local directory where you're running the commands, what does "ls -lah composer.phar" show?

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  • Peter Kaye

    Thanks. I'm running from a sub-folder under public_html. When I run your command I see...

    ls: cannot access 'composer.phar': No such file or directory

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Thanks for that - that would indicate the previous "php -r" command never properly copied the file.  Can you try running that one again and see if that gives any errors?

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  • Peter Kaye 
    php -r "copy('https://composer.github.io/installer.sig', 'composer.sig');"

    ... run from a sub-directory off public_html gives no error, simply redisplaying the command prompt. Re-running ls -lah composer.phar unfortunately gives the same error.

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    I'm not sure what would be leading to that, so it might be best to create a ticket so your specific machine can be checked.

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  • Peter Kaye

    How do I do that?  What does that cost?

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Support is always free, but who you would contact depends on where you license was purchased.

    If you go to WHM >> Create a Support Ticket it should tell you right on that screen who you can contact.

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  • Peter Kaye

    Thanks. Will do.

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  • Rubfy

    You’re close — “Installer corrupt” usually means the downloaded composer-setup.php didn’t match the expected hash (often because PHP couldn’t fetch over HTTPS or a proxy/CDN returned HTML instead of the installer).

    Quick fix (works on cPanel shells):

    1. Use curl to fetch the installer and the expected hash

     
    cd /home/USER/public_html/path/to/drupal curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer -o composer-setup.php curl -sS https://composer.github.io/installer.sig -o composer.sig

    1. Verify the installer

     
    php -r "if (hash_file('sha384','composer-setup.php')===trim(file_get_contents('composer.sig'))) { echo 'Installer verified'.PHP_EOL; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'.PHP_EOL; unlink('composer-setup.php'); exit(1); }"

    1. Install Composer locally in the project

     
    php composer-setup.php --install-dir=. --filename=composer.phar php -d detect_unicode=0 composer.phar --version # sanity check

    1. Run your Composer command from the Drupal root

     
    php composer.phar require 'drupal/MODULE_NAME'

    If composer.phar still doesn’t appear:

    • Your CLI PHP may not be allowed to fetch HTTPS. Check:

     
    php -r "echo 'allow_url_fopen='.(int)ini_get('allow_url_fopen').PHP_EOL; echo 'openssl='.(int)extension_loaded('openssl').PHP_EOL;"

    • If allow_url_fopen=0 or openssl=0, the php -r "copy(...)" method won’t work — stick with curl/wget as above.

    • Also ensure the download followed redirects:

     
    curl -L -o composer.phar https://getcomposer.org/composer-stable.phar ls -lah composer.phar php composer.phar diagnose

    Tip (cPanel specifics):

    • Use the same PHP binary your site uses, e.g. /opt/cpanel/ea-php82/root/usr/bin/php:

     
    /opt/cpanel/ea-php82/root/usr/bin/php composer.phar --version

    That should get Composer installed and let you require Drupal modules from the project root. If anything still errors, post the output of:

     
    php -v which php ls -lah composer* head -n1 composer-setup.php

    and we can spot what’s blocking the download.

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  • Rubfy

    You can install easily and in minutes using Softaculous

     
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  • Peter Kaye

    Thanks so much for this.

    I believe I have Composer correctly installed by running composer diagnose  Here is the output

    [root@127518 /]# composer diagnose
    Do not run Composer as root/super user! See https://getcomposer.org/root for details
    Continue as root/super user [yes]? yes
    Checking platform settings: OK
    Checking git settings: OK git version 2.48.2
    Checking http connectivity to packagist: OK
    Checking https connectivity to packagist: OK
    Checking github.com rate limit: OK
    Checking disk free space: OK
    Checking pubkeys:
    Tags Public Key Fingerprint: 57815BA2 7E54DC31 7ECC7CC5 573090D0  87719BA6 8F3BB723 4E5D42D0 84A14642
    Dev Public Key Fingerprint: 4AC45767 E5EC2265 2F0C1167 CBBB8A2B  0C708369 153E328C AD90147D AFE50952
    OK
    Checking Composer version: OK
    Checking Composer and its dependencies for vulnerabilities: OK
    Composer version: 2.8.11
    PHP version: 8.3.21
    PHP binary path: /opt/cpanel/ea-php83/root/usr/bin/php
    OpenSSL version: OpenSSL 3.0.7 1 Nov 2022
    curl version: 7.76.1 libz 1.2.11 brotli 1.0.9 zstd missing ssl OpenSSL/3.2.2
    zip: extension present, unzip present, 7-Zip not available

    However when I run the command you specify in Drupal root (public_html/d112) I get an error

    [root@127518 d112]# php composer.phar require 'drupal/eca:^3.0'
    Could not open input file: composer.phar
    [root@127518 d112]#

    When I run the command you specify to pick up any errors, all seems good...

    [root@127518 d112]# php -v which php ls -lah composer* head -n1 composer-setup.php
    PHP 8.3.21 (cli) (built: May  8 2025 00:00:00) (NTS)
    Copyright (c) The PHP Group
    Zend Engine v4.3.21, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
        with Zend OPcache v8.3.21, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies
    [root@127518 d112]#

    As Composer seems now to be correctly installed and the last command reveals no errors, I suspect I'm doing something silly which is stopping the module install.  Perhaps you can spot what. Thanks again for your continued help on this.

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  • Rubfy
    • Edited

    You’re almost there. The error

     
    Could not open input file: composer.phar

    just means there is no composer.phar in the current directory. You have two valid ways to run Composer:

    Option A — Use the global Composer you already have

    Since composer diagnose worked, you likely have Composer installed globally (e.g. /usr/local/bin/composer). So, from the Drupal project root:

     
    cd /home/USER/public_html/d112 composer --version composer require drupal/eca:^3.0

    Tip: run Composer as the cPanel user, not root, to avoid root-owned files:

     
    su - USER cd ~/public_html/d112 composer require drupal/eca:^3.0

    If you hit memory issues:

     
    COMPOSER_MEMORY_LIMIT=-1 composer require drupal/eca:^3.0

    Option B — Use a local composer.phar in the project

    If you prefer the .phar in that directory:

     
    cd /home/USER/public_html/d112
    curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer -o composer-setup.php
    php composer-setup.php --install-dir=. --filename=composer.phar
    php composer.phar --version
    php composer.phar require drupal/eca:^3.0

    Double-check the basics

    Run each command separately (earlier you pasted multiple commands on one line, so only php -v actually ran).

     
    pwd
    ls -lah composer*     # do you see composer.phar here?
    command -v composer   # path to global composer, if any
    [ -f composer.json ] || echo "Not a Composer project here"

    After installing the module

    Enable it via UI (Extend → Install), or with Drush if present:

    php vendor/bin/drush en eca -y
    php vendor/bin/drush cr

    If anything still misbehaves, paste the output of:

    pwd
    ls -lah composer*
    command -v composer
    whoami
    stat -c '%U:%G' composer.json

    and we’ll pinpoint the last missing step.

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  • Peter Kaye

    Apparently find / -name "composer.phar" 2>/dev/null   should scan the server and find the location of composer.phar.  Running it returns command prompt with no location which I suppose means that it isn't installled. Stranger, since composer diagnose appears to say all is well. I hope this helps to find what I'm doing wrong.

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  • Rubfy

    Hello we have updated the commands, please try again and post output please

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  • Peter Kaye

    Thank you for taking so much trouble over this.   Here is the output for the various commands you have supplied...

    [root@127518 d112]# composer --version composer require drupal/eca:^3.0
    Do not run Composer as root/super user! See https://getcomposer.org/root for details
    Continue as root/super user [yes]? yes
    Composer version 2.8.11 2025-08-21 11:29:39
    PHP version 8.3.21 (/opt/cpanel/ea-php83/root/usr/bin/php)
    Run the "diagnose" command to get more detailed diagnostics output.
    [root@127518 d112]# curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer -o composer-setup.php
    [root@127518 d112]# php composer-setup.php --install-dir=. --filename=composer.phar
    All settings correct for using Composer
    Downloading...

    Composer (version 2.8.11) successfully installed to: /home/moorlandtoday/public_html/d112/composer.phar
    Use it: php ./composer.phar

    [root@127518 d112]# php composer.phar --version
    Do not run Composer as root/super user! See https://getcomposer.org/root for details
    Continue as root/super user [yes]? yes
    Composer version 2.8.11 2025-08-21 11:29:39
    PHP version 8.3.21 (/opt/cpanel/ea-php83/root/usr/bin/php)
    Run the "diagnose" command to get more detailed diagnostics output.
    [root@127518 d112]# php composer.phar require drupal/eca:^3.0
    Do not run Composer as root/super user! See https://getcomposer.org/root for details
    Continue as root/super user [yes]? yes
    The "composer/installers" plugin was not loaded as it is not listed in allow-plugins and is not required by the root package anymore.
    The "drupal/core-composer-scaffold" plugin was not loaded as it is not listed in allow-plugins and is not required by the root package anymore.
    The "drupal/core-project-message" plugin was not loaded as it is not listed in allow-plugins and is not required by the root package anymore.
    The "drupal/core-recipe-unpack" plugin was not loaded as it is not listed in allow-plugins and is not required by the rootpackage anymore.
    The "drupal/core-vendor-hardening" plugin was not loaded as it is not listed in allow-plugins and is not required by the root package anymore.
    ./composer.json has been created
    The "composer/installers" plugin was not loaded as it is not listed in allow-plugins and is not required by the root package anymore.
    The "drupal/core-composer-scaffold" plugin was not loaded as it is not listed in allow-plugins and is not required by the root package anymore.
    The "drupal/core-project-message" plugin was not loaded as it is not listed in allow-plugins and is not required by the root package anymore.
    The "drupal/core-recipe-unpack" plugin was not loaded as it is not listed in allow-plugins and is not required by the rootpackage anymore.
    The "drupal/core-vendor-hardening" plugin was not loaded as it is not listed in allow-plugins and is not required by the root package anymore.
    Running composer update drupal/eca
    Loading composer repositories with package information
    Updating dependencies
    Your requirements could not be resolved to an installable set of packages.

      Problem 1
        - Root composer.json requires drupal/eca, it could not be found in any version, there may be a typo in the package name.

    Potential causes:
     - A typo in the package name
     - The package is not available in a stable-enough version according to your minimum-stability setting
       see <https://getcomposer.org/doc/04-schema.md#minimum-stability> for more details.
     - It's a private package and you forgot to add a custom repository to find it

    Read <https://getcomposer.org/doc/articles/troubleshooting.md> for further common problems.

    Installation failed, deleting ./composer.json.
    [root@127518 d112]# ls -lah composer*
    -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3.0M Aug 30 14:59 composer.phar
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  58K Aug 30 14:59 composer-setup.php
    [root@127518 d112]# command -v composer
    /usr/local/bin/composer
    [root@127518 d112]# [ -f composer.json ] || echo "Not a Composer project here"
    Not a Composer project here
    [root@127518 d112]#

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  • Peter Kaye

    Here is the output for  the commands you requested under "if anything goes wrong". The problem seems to be in the last command - missing composer.json.

    How do I fix that?

    [root@127518 d112]# ls -lah composer*
    -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3.0M Aug 30 14:59 composer.phar
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  58K Aug 30 14:59 composer-setup.php
    [root@127518 d112]# command -v composer
    /usr/local/bin/composer
    [root@127518 d112]# [ -f composer.json ] || echo "Not a Composer project here"
    Not a Composer project here
    [root@127518 d112]# pwd
    /home/moorlandtoday/public_html/d112
    [root@127518 d112]# ls -lah composer*
    -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3.0M Aug 30 14:59 composer.phar
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  58K Aug 30 14:59 composer-setup.php
    [root@127518 d112]# command -v composer
    /usr/local/bin/composer
    [root@127518 d112]# whoami
    root
    [root@127518 d112]# stat -c '%U:%G' composer.json
    stat: cannot statx 'composer.json': No such file or directory
    [root@127518 d112]#
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  • Rubfy

    You did all the right checks — the remaining issue is simply path & project type.

    This line says it all:

    Not a Composer project here


    You’re inside /home/moorlandtoday/public_html/d112, but there is no composer.json there. That means you’re not in a Composer-managed Drupal project, so composer require drupal/eca can’t work (and it also can’t find drupal/eca because the Drupal packages repo isn’t configured unless a proper Drupal composer.json is present).

    You have two clean ways forward — pick ONE:

    Option A — Use a proper Composer-based Drupal (recommended)

    If this is a new site or you can redeploy:

    # As the cPanel user (not root)
    su - moorlandtoday

    # Create a Composer-based Drupal project
    composer create-project drupal/recommended-project:10.x ~/d112

    # The web root becomes: ~/d112/web
    # In cPanel, point the domain/subdomain DocRoot to /home/moorlandtoday/d112/web
    # (or install in a subdir and access that path)
    cd ~/d112
    composer require drupal/eca:^3.0

    # Then install/enable ECA (UI or Drush if you use it)


    Why this works: drupal/recommended-project includes a correct composer.json with the Drupal repository (packages.drupal.org), so composer require drupal/eca resolves immediately.

    Tip: avoid running Composer as root. Stay as the cPanel user to keep file ownership sane.

    Option B — Keep your current install, but manage modules without Composer

    If your current /public_html/d112 was created from a zip/Softaculous (no Composer), install modules the “classic” way (download the module release and place it under sites/default/modules/contrib, then enable it).
    BUT many modern modules (including ECA) expect Composer because they pull PHP library dependencies. If you need those dependencies, Option A is the safer long-term path.

    Quick sanity checks you can run now
    # Where is composer.json?
    find /home/moorlandtoday -maxdepth 3 -name composer.json

    # If you chose Option A, you should see it under /home/moorlandtoday/d112/composer.json
    # and your web root should be /home/moorlandtoday/d112/web


    If you’d like to convert the existing site to Composer instead of redeploying, the safest workflow is:

    Create a new ~/d112 with drupal/recommended-project (as above).

    Copy sites/default/files and settings.php (plus salts/DB creds) into ~/d112/web/sites/default/.

    Import your DB, point the domain to ~/d112/web, and test.

    Post back the output of:

    ls -lah /home/moorlandtoday/public_html/d112
    ls -lah /home/moorlandtoday/d112 | head


    and we can confirm which path is best in your case.

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  • Peter Kaye

    Thank you for your extensive response and explanation which showed me I didn't really understand the ways Composer works with Drupal. I see now your Option A is the way to go in future and I'll create a new Drupal project following this Option. I'll post again, hopefully to confirm success!

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  • Peter Kaye

    I have followed your instructions with a clean domain, tmqp.org 

    su - tmqp

    # Create a Composer-based Drupal project
    composer create-project drupal/recommended-project:11.x ~/d112f

    The job ran without error.

    When in inspect what is created, this is what I see

    [root@127518 ~]# cd /
    [root@127518 /]# dir
    afs     boot       etc   lib64               mnt                     proc              run      srv  usr
    backup  dev        home  license-cpanel.cgi  notify-cpanel-done.cgi  requirements.txt  sbin     sys  var
    bin     error_log  lib   media               opt                     root              scripts  tmp
    [root@127518 /]# cd home
    [root@127518 home]# dir
    0_README_BEFORE_DELETING_VIRTFS  endhills    marionkayecom  moorlandtoday  ransomedhealed  thecornishvicars  virtfs
    cPanelInstall                    lesleykaye  moorlandteam   peterand       tcvd            tmqp
    [root@127518 home]# cd tmqp
    [root@127518 tmqp]# dir
    access-logs  ~d112f  etc  logs  mail  perl5  public_ftp  public_html  ssl  tmp  www
    [root@127518 tmqp]# cd ~d112f
    [root@127518 ~d112f]# dir
    composer.json  composer.lock  recipes  vendor  web
    [root@127518 ~d112f]# cd web
    [root@127518 web]# dir
    autoload.php  example.gitignore  INSTALL.txt  profiles   robots.txt  themes
    core          index.php          modules      README.md  sites       update.php

    So  /home/tmqp/~d112f/web has the sort of files I'd expect e.g. sites, modules. Interesting vendors is up one level. Core has install.php which I need to run to install the site. Things are looking good!

    (But none of these files are under public_html which is where they would be if I installed drupal manually.)

    Where I'm struggling is with the instruction "In cPanel, point the domain/subdomain DocRoot to home/tmqp/~d112f/web."

    In the cPanel UI domain/tools  I see the home directory for timqp as /home/tmqp . I guess this must be changed to home/tmqp/~d112f/web if I'm to install the Drupal files I've created. But where in cPanel do I edit the home directory?

    And does this means that the public url to access the site is tmqp.org/~d112f? And, if I want to install drupal in the domain root, would I run the composer install as  composer create-project drupal/recommended-project:11.x ?

    I sense, with your help, I'm nearly there on this. Apologies if these last questions are a bit simplistic!  Thanks again for continuing to help with this.

     

     

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  • Peter Kaye

    Interestingly in cPanel UI, I see the folder ~d112f above public_html.

    If I copy the folder to below public_html and then run the url tmqp.org/~d112f/web, I get the Drupal install page. And before doing the copy, in the ~d112f folder, if I run composer require drupal/eca:^3.0,  the installed version of Drupal contains the Eca module!   But surely this can't be the right way to do things!

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  • Peter Kaye

    Out of interest, I tried running the module install code inside the folder that I copied under public_html. And it works!  Which means that a site built by a Composer install and then moved to a folder inside public_html, either domain root or a sub-domain, can have additional modules installed with composer - composer require 'drupal/[module name and version]' Just what I wanted.

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