.. index:: single: Installing and Setting up Symfony
.. seealso:: Do you prefer video tutorials? Check out the `Joyful Development with Symfony`_ screencast series from KnpUniversity.
To create your new Symfony application, first make sure you're using PHP 7.1 or higher and have Composer installed. If you don't, start by :doc:`installing Composer globally </setup/composer>` on your system. If you want to use a virtual machine (VM), check out :doc:`Homestead </setup/homestead>`.
Create your new project by running:
$ composer create-project symfony/skeleton my-project
This will create a new my-project
directory, download some dependencies into
it and even generate the basic directories and files you'll need to get started.
In other words, your new app is ready!
Tip
You can also download a specific version of Symfony:
# use the most recent version in any Symfony branch
$ composer create-project symfony/skeleton my-project "3.3.*"
# use a beta or RC version (useful for testing new Symfony versions)
$ composer create-project symfony/skeleton my-project 3.3.0-BETA1
Some version are long-term support (LTS) versions. Read the :doc:`Symfony Release process </contributing/community/releases>` to learn more.
On production, you should use a web server like Nginx or Apache (see :doc:`configuring a web server to run Symfony </setup/web_server_configuration>`). But for development, it's even easier to use the :doc:`Symfony PHP web server <setup/built_in_web_server>`.
First, move into your new project and install the server:
cd my-project
composer require server
To start the server, run:
$ php bin/console server:run
Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:8000/
. If everything is working,
you'll see a welcome page. Later, when you are finished working, stop the server
by pressing Ctrl+C
from your terminal.
Tip
If you're using a VM, you may need to tell the server to bind to all IP addresses:
$ php bin/console server:start 0.0.0.0:8000
You should NEVER listen to all interfaces on a computer that is directly accessible from the Internet.
Storing your project in git is easy! Just initialize you repository, add everything and commit:
$ git init
$ git add .
$ git commit -m "Initial commit"
Your project already has a sensible .gitignore
file. And as you install more
packages, a system called :ref:`Flex <flex-quick-intro>` will add more lines to that
file when needed.
If you're having any problems running Symfony, your system may be missing some technical requirements. Symfony has a "Requirements Checker" tool that you can use to easily make sure your system is set up. First, move into your project directory and install it:
$ composer require req-checker
The req-checker
utility adds two PHP scripts to your application:
vendor/bin/requirements-checker
and public/check.php
. Run the first one
from your terminal:
php vendor/bin/requirements-checker
This will check your CLI environment. Run the second one from a browser (e.g.
http://localhost:8000/check.php
) to check your web server environment.
Once you've fixed any issues, uninstall the requirements checker:
$ composer remove req-checker
If you're working on an existing Symfony application, you'll just need to do a few things to get your project setup. Assuming your team uses Git, you can setup your project with the following commands:
# clone the project to download its contents
$ cd projects/
$ git clone ...
# make Composer install the project's dependencies into vendor/
$ cd my-project/
$ composer install
You'll probably also need to customize your :ref:`.env <config-dot-env>` and do a few other project-specific tasks (e.g. creating database schema).
Symfony provides a utility called the "Security Checker" (or sec-checker
) to
check whether your project's dependencies contain any known security
vulnerability. Run this command to install it in your application:
$ cd my-project/
$ composer require sec-checker
From now on, this utility will be run automatically whenever you install or update any dependency in the application. If a dependency contains a vulnerability, you'll see a clear message.
The Symfony Demo Application is a fully-functional application that shows the recommended way to develop Symfony applications. It's a great learning tool for Symfony newcomers and its code contains tons of comments and helpful notes.
To check out its code and install it locally, see symfony/symfony-demo.
With setup behind you, it's time to :doc:`Create your first page in Symfony </page_creation>`.
.. toctree:: :hidden: page_creation
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 :glob: setup/homestead setup/built_in_web_server setup/web_server_configuration setup/composer setup/*