Laravel not installing require-dev packages of Laravel distro package - php

Question

I have created a Laravel distro package with all Laravel packages that all of my websites use.
I've also created a custom Laravel-website that uses this distro package.
Unfortunately when I run composer install --dev on the 2nd composer file, it won't install the require-dev packages from the laravel-distro composer package, e.g. phpunit/phpunit
Laravel-distro composer configuration:
$ cat laravel-distro/composer.json
{
"name": "dennis00/laravel-distro",
"type": "project",
"description": "The Laravel Framework.",
"keywords": [
"framework",
"laravel"
],
"license": "MIT",
"require": {
"php": "^7.1.3",
"fideloper/proxy": "^4.0",
"laravel/framework": "5.8.*",
"laravel/tinker": "^1.0",
"laravel/installer": "^2.0.1"
},
"require-dev": {
"beyondcode/laravel-dump-server": "^1.0",
"filp/whoops": "^2.0",
"fzaninotto/faker": "^1.4",
"mockery/mockery": "^1.0",
"nunomaduro/collision": "^2.0",
"phpunit/phpunit": "^7.5"
},
"config": {
"optimize-autoloader": true,
"preferred-install": "dist",
"vendor-dir": "vendor",
"sort-packages": true
},
"extra": {
"laravel": {
"dont-discover": []
}
},
"scripts": {
"post-autoload-dump": [
"Illuminate\\Foundation\\ComposerScripts::postAutoloadDump",
"#php artisan package:discover --ansi"
],
"post-root-package-install": [
"#php -r \"file_exists('.env') || copy('.env.example', '.env');\""
],
"post-create-project-cmd": [
"#php artisan key:generate --ansi"
]
},
"autoload": {
"psr-4": {
"App\\": "app/"
}
},
"autoload-dev": {
"psr-4": {
"Tests\\": "tests/"
}
},
"minimum-stability": "dev",
"prefer-stable": true
}
Laravel-example composer configuration:
$ cat laravel-example/composer.json
{
"name": "dennis00/laravel-example",
"description": "Example of Laravel Distro",
"type": "project",
"license": "GPL-2.0+",
"minimum-stability": "dev",
"repositories": [
{
"type": "composer",
"url": "https://packages.drupal.org/8"
}
],
"autoload": {
"classmap": [
"scripts/composer/ScriptHandler.php"
]
},
"scripts": {
"post-root-package-install": [
"#php -r \"file_exists('.env') || copy('.env.example', '.env');\""
],
"post-create-project-cmd": [
"#php artisan key:generate --ansi"
]
},
"require": {
"dennis00/laravel-distro": "dev-master#dev",
"laravel/horizon": "^4.0#dev"
}
}
You can see the require-dev packages are missing here.
root#f506ece6f4ea:/var/www/html# ls vendor
autoload.php cakephp dennis00 doctrine egulias fideloper jakub-onderka laravel monolog nette ocramius paragonie phpstan psy ramsey symfony vlucas
bin composer dnoegel dragonmantank erusev guzzlehttp jean85 league nesbot nikic opis phpoption psr ralouphie swiftmailer tijsverkoyen
root#f506ece6f4ea:/var/www/html# ls vendor_backup/
autoload.php bin dnoegel dragonmantank erusev filp hamcrest laravel mockery myclabs nikic opis phar-io phpoption phpunit psy sebastian symfony tijsverkoyen webmozart
beyondcode composer doctrine egulias fideloper fzaninotto jakub-onderka league monolog nesbot nunomaduro paragonie phpdocumentor phpspec psr ramsey swiftmailer theseer vlucas
root#f506ece6f4ea:/var/www/html#

Answer 1

It won't, this is intentional.
As the packages are in the require-dev section of the first base package.json file, this will only be installed if you are running composer install on that package.
As you are pulling that package into another project, composer will only install those dependencies from the package that are not within require-dev.
This is because require-dev is only for the development of that package and should not be required to use the package in something else. If you need these packages to be installed when you are using your base package, then you must put them in require and not require-dev.