Composer update says nothing to install or update - php

Question

Laravel Version: 5.6.35
PHP Version: 7.1.20
Database Driver & Version: MySQL v5.5.61-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
Description:
At the time of this question, the latest version of Laravel is 5.6.37 - released 2 days ago i.e., 2nd September, 2018.
I already have a project that I am working on. On running composer update, I always get the following:
Loading composer repositories with package information
Updating dependencies (including require-dev)
Nothing to install or update
Generating optimized autoload files
> Illuminate\Foundation\ComposerScripts::postAutoloadDump
> #php artisan package:discover
Discovered Package: fideloper/proxy
Discovered Package: laravel/tinker
Discovered Package: barryvdh/laravel-debugbar
Discovered Package: nunomaduro/collision
Package manifest generated successfully.
This started only after I updated my laravel project to 5.6.35.
This is not the case when I install a new laravel project. On new installation, the latest version of laravel, i.e., 5.6.37 gets downloaded.
Below is my composer.json file
{
"name": "laravel/laravel",
"description": "The Laravel Framework.",
"keywords": ["framework", "laravel"],
"license": "MIT",
"type": "project",
"require": {
"php": "^7.1.3",
"fideloper/proxy": "^4.0",
"laravel/framework": "5.6.*",
"laravel/tinker": "^1.0",
"spinen/laravel-mail-assertions": "^0.3.4"
},
"require-dev": {
"barryvdh/laravel-debugbar": "^3.1",
"codedungeon/phpunit-result-printer": "^0.19.13",
"filp/whoops": "^2.0",
"fzaninotto/faker": "^1.4",
"mockery/mockery": "^1.0",
"nunomaduro/collision": "^2.0",
"phpunit/phpunit": "^7.0"
},
"autoload": {
"classmap": [
"database/seeds",
"database/factories"
],
"psr-4": {
"Larammerce\\": "app/"
}
},
"autoload-dev": {
"psr-4": {
"Tests\\": "tests/"
}
},
"extra": {
"laravel": {
"dont-discover": [
]
}
},
"scripts": {
"post-root-package-install": [
"#php -r \"file_exists('.env') || copy('.env.example', '.env');\""
],
"post-create-project-cmd": [
"#php artisan key:generate"
],
"post-autoload-dump": [
"Illuminate\\Foundation\\ComposerScripts::postAutoloadDump",
"#php artisan package:discover"
]
},
"config": {
"preferred-install": "dist",
"sort-packages": true,
"optimize-autoloader": true
},
"minimum-stability": "dev",
"prefer-stable": true
}
Steps To Reproduce:
Have a Laravel project <= 5.6.35
Run composer update
I don't know where and what should be the mistake that I must have committed.
I have tried the following
Running composer dump-autoload && composer update
Deleting composer.lock file and vendor directory. Then running composer update
But couldn't get my project updated to Laravel version 5.6.37
Update 1
On running composer show -i I got the following:
barryvdh/laravel-debugbar v3.1.5 PHP Debugbar integration for Laravel
codedungeon/php-cli-colors 1.10.7 PHP Package for using color output in CLI commands
codedungeon/phpunit-result-printer 0.19.13 PHPUnit Pretty Result Printer
dnoegel/php-xdg-base-dir 0.1 implementation of xdg base directory specification for php
doctrine/inflector v1.3.0 Common String Manipulations with regard to casing and singular/plural rules.
doctrine/instantiator 1.1.0 A small, lightweight utility to instantiate objects in PHP without invoking their constructors
doctrine/lexer v1.0.1 Base library for a lexer that can be used in Top-Down, Recursive Descent Parsers.
dragonmantank/cron-expression v2.2.0 CRON for PHP: Calculate the next or previous run date and determine if a CRON expression is due
egulias/email-validator 2.1.5 A library for validating emails against several RFCs
erusev/parsedown 1.7.1 Parser for Markdown.
fideloper/proxy 4.0.0 Set trusted proxies for Laravel
filp/whoops 2.2.0 php error handling for cool kids
fzaninotto/faker v1.8.0 Faker is a PHP library that generates fake data for you.
hamcrest/hamcrest-php v2.0.0 This is the PHP port of Hamcrest Matchers
hassankhan/config 1.1.0 Lightweight configuration file loader that supports PHP, INI, XML, JSON, and YAML files
jakub-onderka/php-console-color 0.1
jakub-onderka/php-console-highlighter v0.3.2
laravel/framework v5.6.35 The Laravel Framework.
laravel/tinker v1.0.7 Powerful REPL for the Laravel framework.
league/flysystem 1.0.46 Filesystem abstraction: Many filesystems, one API.
maximebf/debugbar v1.15.0 Debug bar in the browser for php application
mockery/mockery 1.1.0 Mockery is a simple yet flexible PHP mock object framework
monolog/monolog 1.23.0 Sends your logs to files, sockets, inboxes, databases and various web services
myclabs/deep-copy 1.8.1 Create deep copies (clones) of your objects
nesbot/carbon 1.25.0 A simple API extension for DateTime.
nikic/php-parser v4.0.3 A PHP parser written in PHP
nunomaduro/collision v2.0.3 Cli error handling for console/command-line PHP applications.
paragonie/random_compat v9.99.99 PHP 5.x polyfill for random_bytes() and random_int() from PHP 7
phar-io/manifest 1.0.3 Component for reading phar.io manifest information from a PHP Archive (PHAR)
phar-io/version 2.0.1 Library for handling version information and constraints
phpdocumentor/reflection-common 1.0.1 Common reflection classes used by phpdocumentor to reflect the code structure
phpdocumentor/reflection-docblock 4.3.0 With this component, a library can provide support for annotations via DocBlocks or otherwise r...
phpdocumentor/type-resolver 0.4.0
phpspec/prophecy 1.8.0 Highly opinionated mocking framework for PHP 5.3+
phpunit/php-code-coverage 6.0.7 Library that provides collection, processing, and rendering functionality for PHP code coverage...
phpunit/php-file-iterator 2.0.1 FilterIterator implementation that filters files based on a list of suffixes.
phpunit/php-text-template 1.2.1 Simple template engine.
phpunit/php-timer 2.0.0 Utility class for timing
phpunit/php-token-stream 3.0.0 Wrapper around PHP's tokenizer extension.
phpunit/phpunit 7.3.2 The PHP Unit Testing framework.
psr/container 1.0.0 Common Container Interface (PHP FIG PSR-11)
psr/log 1.0.2 Common interface for logging libraries
psr/simple-cache 1.0.1 Common interfaces for simple caching
psy/psysh v0.9.7 An interactive shell for modern PHP.
ramsey/uuid 3.8.0 Formerly rhumsaa/uuid. A PHP 5.4+ library for generating RFC 4122 version 1, 3, 4, and 5 univer...
sebastian/code-unit-reverse-lookup 1.0.1 Looks up which function or method a line of code belongs to
sebastian/comparator 3.0.2 Provides the functionality to compare PHP values for equality
sebastian/diff 3.0.1 Diff implementation
sebastian/environment 3.1.0 Provides functionality to handle HHVM/PHP environments
sebastian/exporter 3.1.0 Provides the functionality to export PHP variables for visualization
sebastian/global-state 2.0.0 Snapshotting of global state
sebastian/object-enumerator 3.0.3 Traverses array structures and object graphs to enumerate all referenced objects
sebastian/object-reflector 1.1.1 Allows reflection of object attributes, including inherited and non-public ones
sebastian/recursion-context 3.0.0 Provides functionality to recursively process PHP variables
sebastian/resource-operations 1.0.0 Provides a list of PHP built-in functions that operate on resources
sebastian/version 2.0.1 Library that helps with managing the version number of Git-hosted PHP projects
spinen/laravel-mail-assertions 0.3.4 PHPUnit mail assertions for testing email in Laravel.
swiftmailer/swiftmailer v6.1.2 Swiftmailer, free feature-rich PHP mailer
symfony/console v4.1.4 Symfony Console Component
symfony/css-selector v4.1.4 Symfony CssSelector Component
symfony/debug v4.1.4 Symfony Debug Component
symfony/event-dispatcher v4.1.4 Symfony EventDispatcher Component
symfony/finder v4.1.4 Symfony Finder Component
symfony/http-foundation v4.1.4 Symfony HttpFoundation Component
symfony/http-kernel v4.1.4 Symfony HttpKernel Component
symfony/polyfill-ctype v1.9.0 Symfony polyfill for ctype functions
symfony/polyfill-mbstring v1.9.0 Symfony polyfill for the Mbstring extension
symfony/polyfill-php72 v1.9.0 Symfony polyfill backporting some PHP 7.2+ features to lower PHP versions
symfony/process v4.1.4 Symfony Process Component
symfony/routing v4.1.4 Symfony Routing Component
symfony/translation v4.1.4 Symfony Translation Component
symfony/var-dumper v4.1.4 Symfony mechanism for exploring and dumping PHP variables
symfony/yaml v4.1.4 Symfony Yaml Component
theseer/tokenizer 1.1.0 A small library for converting tokenized PHP source code into XML and potentially other formats
tijsverkoyen/css-to-inline-styles 2.2.1 CssToInlineStyles is a class that enables you to convert HTML-pages/files into HTML-pages/files...
vlucas/phpdotenv v2.5.1 Loads environment variables from `.env` to `getenv()`, `$_ENV` and `$_SERVER` automagically.
webmozart/assert 1.3.0 Assertions to validate method input/output with nice error messages.

Answer 1

Deleting vendor folder and running composer install did it for me.

Answer 2

If deleting vendor and running composer install doesn't work, it might be a user-related issue. I was running composer install as the wrong user, and I got the same message. Running it as root fixed it.